Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The club was excruciatingly loud, and Rin wanted to get out as soon as possible. Crowds made him nervous, and he couldn't focus enough to keep an eye on every gyrating body. An enthusiastic DJ kept turning up the bass to the point where the windows were rattling.

He ran a hand through his hair, bringing at least an hour of hard work by a very dedicated butler to ruin. This was the first time he’d been in the human world by himself since he was an actual resident of Assiah, and excitement was draining out of him faster than he could order drinks. If he was old enough to order drinks, that is.

Truthfully, he probably wasn’t really alone - some overzealous lackey of his father’s was probably masquerading as a drunk teenager, grinding against an unsuspecting human. He scanned the crowd lazily. There really were too many demons here already; he wouldn't be able to find someone if he tried, even if it was someone he recognized. Rin fidgeted on the bar stool and turned his back to the mob of dancers.

According to the extensive briefing he’d reluctantly attended (and fallen asleep during), he was simply supposed to start with spreading minor demonic activity without alerting any exorcists of his presence. Under no circumstances should he be seen and recognized as Rin Okumura. In Rin’s opinion, it was a stupid and ultimately useless plan. Gehenna probably just wanted him out of its hair. Quasi-poltergeist attacks weren't going to be the catalyst that brought down True Cross. However, it gave him free reign in Assiah for extended periods of time, and Rin wasn’t going to protest against that.

The real problem would be finding something to do. Every place he had been already had its fair share of resident curses and minor demons. Rin also had found he made a terrible demon. That afternoon he had shown his tail to a kid in a park in hope of scaring him and maybe starting some rumors, but the boy had ended up being delighted. Rin had eventually forgotten his original purpose in the park and the boy and him had played a game of tag for almost an hour.

In any case, low-level demonic activity seemed too pointless, but even the most mundane mind-level stuff would have exorcists on his trail within a week, depending on how busy/competent the local True Cross chapter was. Considering this was Tokyo, Rin didn't want to risk it. He really didn’t want to be constantly on the run.

Rin glanced at the bar and, with a whispered spell, turned all the beer into barrels of black sludge. It wasn’t toxic, just smelly and disgusting, but Rin almost doubted that anyone here would notice a difference. However, black sludge was pretty much classic demon chic, and if any exorcists were around they’d certainly be alerted to something in the area. Time to leave, then. Even if it wasn't an exorcist suspecting him, local demons may not appreciate him encroaching on their turf and getting them exorcised. Being the son of Satan wouldn’t really earn him any brownie points here in Assiah; demons weren’t really known for being particularly law-abiding.

The outside air was bitterly cold, and Rin almost immediately found himself regretting leaving the relative comfort of the club. In hindsight, he really should have brought a scarf with him, or in the very least, a coat. All he had brought with him to Assiah were the clothes on his back and his sword. His boots left faint tracks as he dragged his feet in the snow that lightly dusted the sidewalk.

One of his brothers had provided him with an apartment somewhere in Shibuya, no doubt as a terrible prank. How he had managed to procure it was beyond Rin, and he didn’t care; there had to be two dozen nightclubs just in the few blocks between his apartment and the nearest convenience store. The noise was unbearable, and the demon to human ratio was less Assiah than Gehenna.

Someone screamed, and Rin started running towards the sound before he had time to think.

The source of the scream turned out to be a girl huddling against a wall in an alleyway between two, whad’ya know, particularly shady nightclubs. A group of three or four burly low-level yakuza types surrounded her.

"Hey!" Rin shouted. It was time to improvise. He waved his arms around wildly. "Over here!"

The thugs turned on him. “Who’s this kid?” one of them asked with a sleazy grin.

Rin took the opportunity to punch him in the jaw. The guy hit the ground with a resounding thud. Rin could hear the poor sucker’s head hit the paving stones.

Rin flexed out his hand experimentally. It had been a long time since he’d used anything but a sword in combat.

Recovering from their shock, the remaining three thugs charged at him, fists swinging. Rin ducked down, missing the majority of their wild hits. Someone grabbed the back of his shirt and hauled him up. Rin was shoved against a wall, bricks scraping roughly into his back.

He swore. Humans shouldn’t get the better of him for even an instant. His sword was in a cloth case swung around his back - not something easily accessible when you’re pinned against a wall. It wasn’t Kurikara, that sword was long gone, probably destroyed, but it was better than nothing.

Rin kicked and twisted out of the thugs' grip and rounded on them, somewhat unsteadily, only to be punched directly in the nose. He fell down, bouncing slightly off the pavement. Someone kicked him and laughed. Four against one had been a bad idea. He pulled the sword case over his head and off his back and lashed out, not bothering to take the sword out.

Apparently none of them had noticed he was carrying a weapon. Their surprise gave Rin the time he needed, and he heaved himself back upright, using his sword as support. He could feel his nose healing already, but blood was still trickling down from a cut in his forehead.

Rin smiled and looked at the group of thugs. “What do you guys think you’re doing, ganging up on a girl like that?” He flexed lazily and wiped the blood away from his eyes. One of the things he had learned over the years is that intimidation is key; if you act like you don’t care, people will assume it’s because you don’t have to.

He slid the sword out of the cloth casing and unsheathed it. Sumimata was no where near as impressive looking as Kurikara, but it was formidable in its own right. The blade itself was as black as spilled ink, but something unworldly and sepulchral seemed to be reflected in it. Rin gripped the hilt with two hands and assumed a fighting stance; feet solid, legs spread, knees bent. His tail had slipped out his pants sometime in the fight, and it whipped wildly around his legs.

The thugs looked confused. Rin didn't blame them.

He growled, and flame erupted from his body, cloaking in him in a haze of blue fire and licking down Sumimata's blade. The thugs leapt away from him, all hesitation gone in the overruling human instinct to get away from fire as fast as possible.

"Holy shit, it’s a demon!"

"Get away, fuck - we’re gonna -"

They scrambled out of the alley, tripping over the unconscious body of the one guy Rin had managed to knock out.

Rin extinguished the flames and fell back against the wall as soon as they were out of his sight. His head was pounding. He was glad they ran away without him actually having to fight. Fists were one thing, but his sword could hack through some thugs in a second, and his flames...well, they’d turn those guys into nothing. Even low-lifes like them deserved better than that. Rin focused on re-tucking his tail into his pants.

Their victim was picking herself up too. She didn’t take her eyes off him as she backed away, tottering awkwardly in broken heels.

Rin tried to smile at her. It probably turned out a little insane looking.

"D-dee-," she stuttered, pointing at him with a shaking finger. "Demon! You’re a demon!" She fumbled with her necklace, holding it out like a shield. Rin squinted at it. Dried blood was caking around his eyes, gluing them shut. It looked suspiciously like a crucifix.

Rin held up hands in surrender. “Hey, I just wanted to get those punks off you, okay?” He backed down the alley, only turning when he was close to the main sidewalk. “Sorry.” The girl’s shaking was turning into uncontrollable tremors that wracked her whole body. Her face was a mess of dried tears and runny mascara.

He began trying to peel the drying blood of his face as he walked, impatiently unsticking his eyelids from the gooey mess before giving up and shoving his hands deep in his pockets. This had turned into an altogether shitty day. Despite his father constantly pounding it into his head, Rin hadn’t ever truly been able to believe how reviled he would be in Assiah. What a joke.

He untucked his tail as he stepped into his apartment’s elevator. Screw those old demon geezers who lectured him about keeping the thing to himself; now that he was in Assiah, he’d do whatever he wanted. He’d read the latest issue of JUMP and then sleep for three days, who cared?

Rin’s nose and cuts had completely healed by the time he’d reached his floor. Maybe he’d take a long shower, though scrubbing off all the dried blood would be difficult and would probably be more pain than he was willing to deal with now. The back of his T-shirt was sticking to him too - evidently he had been pushed around harder than he thought. He searched for his key as he weighed the consequences of just going to sleep with blood all over him versus staying awake for another hour or so.

"How are we supposed to find a ghost if it won’t come out?" someone said, from inside his apartment. Rin froze.

"Shouldn’t we just wait here?"

"All night?"

Rin unsheathed Sumimata and held it, one-handed, by his side. Had the Order caught up with him already? That had to be impossible, he had only just gotten here. He slowly unlocked the door and turned the handle. Inside, a group of five or so kids were milling around, sitting on boxes of his unpacked stuff.

"Sensei wouldn’t send us on an impossible mission. There has to be ways to get ghosts to appear,” a bald kid with overlarge glasses said. “This is probably a test of something we learned in class.”

“I think I would remember something as important as that,” said another boy, this one with a mass of impeccably groomed hair that made him look like a chicken.

None of them had noticed him yet, which made Rin think the ghost they were talking about could be behind one of them and they still wouldn't see it. If they were exorcists, they were terrible ones. He carefully nudged the door shut with one foot.

Rin’s phone rang. All five of the intruders looked in his direction, weapons drawn. Rin stared back at them. His phone continued to ring.

“This isn’t the ghost, is it?” one of them asked.

“Ghosts don’t have phones, you idiot,” chicken-hair replied. He folded his hands together, and Rin could see a rosary entangled in his fingers. Almost definitely exorcists - Japanese Christians weren’t terribly infamous for breaking and entering.

Rin, not taking his eyes of them, rummaged around his pocket for his phone. Upon finding it, he flipped it open with one hand and put it to his ear. “What?” he rasped. There was a very small group of people who had his number, even smaller were the people who would bother to call him.

“Get out of there, Okumura,” the voice on the telephone said. Rin vaguely recognized it as one of the many nameless operators and menservants that went in and out of his life on a daily basis. “I don’t know what the fuck you did to be caught this quickly, but exorcists are on your ass already.”

Rin balanced the cell against his shoulder and gripped his sword with two hands, leveling it at the exorcists. “Yeah, I sorta got that.”

“What?” the demon screamed. Rin winced. The exorcists were staring at him, especially at his sword, but didn’t look like they were about to attack any time soon. Maybe they thought it would be rude to kill someone while they were on the phone.

“They’re standing in my apartment,” Rin clarified. “With me. Right now.”

The demon screeched and hung up. So much for that then. Rin let the phone drop to the floor, turning his attention back to the exorcists.
“Who are you?” he demanded. If they already knew who he was, and Rin couldn't think why they'd be in his apartment if they didn't, then this trip to Assiah had been completely pointless, and he probably could get away with killing them. However, he didn’t really want to. If they were just going to drag him in from of the Grigori, he’d probably let them until he found a better opportunity to escape. If he made a decisive move here, in this cramped apartment, he may end up destroying the city and most definitely end up seriously injuring one of these kids.

“Who are you?” chicken-hair asked, pointing an accusing finger at him.

Rin lowered his sword in shock. “Huh?”

A small, blonde girl pushed chicken-hair gently aside, fumbling with a bag hanging at her side. “My name is Shiemi Moriyama, and we’re ExWires, in training at True Cross Academy.” She pulled a badge out of her bag and held it out towards him. Rin noticed she was still about an arm’s length away from the point of Sumimata, but she smiled at him brightly. He lowered the sword even more and took the badge, pretending to examine it as she talked.

“The True Cross Order received a call a few weeks ago saying that this apartment was being haunted by some kind of ghost,” Moriyama said. “And we were sent out to get rid of it.”

Glasses-kid said, “We were told that no one lived here.” He squinted at Rin. “Or had for awhile. The tenant moved out shortly after he called us.”

Shit, Rin thought. He knew the apartment had been too good to true. He would kill whichever of his brothers had pulled this. That is, if he survived this.

Wait, screw that; if he was killed by exorcists, he’d stay here as a ghost, with his last wish being to enact revenge on the brother that told him to stay at this specific apartment, knowing that it had been reported as haunted and not even bothering to legally obtain it. Perhaps the brother had even set up the haunting; it would be child’s play for one of the Eight Kings to order a subordinate to haunt some apartment for a week.

“I just got here,” Rin muttered. He handed Moriyama’s badge back. It had looked legitimate enough. He cleared his voice and spoke up. “There aren’t any ghosts that I’m aware of.”

Moriyama looked back at the group of her fellow ExWires. “Are you sure?” she asked. “We hate to bother you, but couldn’t we stay here just one night?”

A boy with pink hair and a monk's staff laughed nervously. “Sensei will kill us if we just come back without having done anything. C'mon, please?"

Rin thought about this. He really, really did not want a bunch of young exorcists at his apartment (even if it wasn’t really his, apparently). But they really didn’t appear as if they knew who he was, and if he got rid of them and their teacher came back later, he’d probably have to deal with a much more skillful exorcist, and increase the risk of being recognized. Also, if he kicked them out, he wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on them.

Rin sighed and sheathed his sword. The group of ExWires visibly relaxed. “Just one night,” he warned. He’d just have to stay up all night to watch them, and then he could relocate to somewhere safer in the morning. "And I'm not going to feed you." He bent down to pick up his phone.

The chicken and pink-haired boys were on the second he leaned down, pinning his arms against his back and wrestling him to the ground. Moriyama threw herself over his legs, thoroughly pinning him down and preventing him from kicking out. Rin swore, straining against the ExWires.

Another girl - one he hadn’t noticed before - ran out from behind one of the boxes, carrying a large pail. Rin struggled harder, and managed to get one hand away from pink-hair just before the girl reached him. She dumped the contents of the pail on him.

Rin screamed. He could feel his skin sizzling and bubbling as the liquid washed over him. Holy water. Those dirty, cheating, lying bastards. He was going to get them for this, he-

Rin passed out, his head hitting the floor with a loud thud. The boys got off him hesitantly, then helped Shiemi up while Konekomaru found some rope to tie the teen up with.

Bon scratched the back of his head. “What the hell d’ya think this guy is?”

Chapter Text

Shiemi bit her nails and fidgeted against the box she was sitting on. Every few minutes, she threw a nervous glance towards the corner of the room, where the demon-boy they had captured earlier lay, unconscious.

Bon and Konekomaru were working their way through the Bible, trying to find the thing's Fatal Verse. They had been at it for hours, and nothing had made the slightest impact on the demon. Shiemi was beginning to doubt that anything ever would.

As a precaution, Shima was on guard, standing at attention with his staff pointed at the demon. He looked the worst off out of all of them. Izumo was there too, ready with another bucket of holy water. She looked as amazingly calm as she always did. Shiemi wished she could be that calm and confident too.

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love," Konekomaru said. His voice was getting rough. Shiemi almost went and got him a glass of water before she remembered that she couldn't break his concentration. "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."

It was Izumo who finally interrupted. "Look, this obviously isn't working. Maybe this thing doesn't even have a Fatal Verse."

Bon opened one eye and glared at her. When he came to the end of the Bible passage, he stopped chanting and said, "The majority of ghosts have a Fatal Verse. Why should this one be any different?"

Izumo scowled. "Well, for one, this obviously isn't a ghost! He pointed a sword at us - ghosts can't handle physical objects like that. And if it was a ghost sword, we wouldn't have been able to take it away from him."

"Okumura-sensei wouldn't willfully send us on a mission knowing we were misinformed," Bon said, voice rising.

"Maybe he wants to test us! Or maybe he didn't know!" Izumo threw her hands up. "But we can't stay here for a week while you two read the Bible. He's going to wake up sooner or later, and he's going to be pissed."

Shiemi interceded awkwardly. They were always fighting, and she hated it. Yukio was always telling them to get along too. "Maybe we should get him to wake up," she said. "If he is a ghost, then maybe we could fulfill his last wish. And if he's not, we could still see what he wants, right?"

Shima grimaced. "This guy looks pretty tough. Did you see the way he handled that sword? And he came in here covered in blood. If he wakes up, I don't know if we could kill him." He leaned against his staff pensively. "Let's just give up and call Sensei."

"No!" Izumo and Bon said at the same time. They glared at each other, as if repulsed they had thought the same thing as the other.

Bon spoke first. "What if this is like the ExWire test? If we had given up then, we would have failed!"

"We didn't have a choice back then," Shima protested. "And we only managed to kill one of the ghouls!"

Bon dismissed the protest with a wave of his hand. "That was a mistake on the examiners' part. They only meant to give us one."

"Maybe they meant to give us a ghost now and accidentally gave us a real demon!" Shima said.

Izumo opened her mouth to join the argument, but just then the demon groaned and strained unconsciously against his bonds.

"Oh, crap," Konekomaru said, finally stopping his chant. The demon's tail had begun to twitch erratically.

Shiemi licked her already chapped lips. "If it is a demon," she whispered, "why wasn't it released from its vessel when Izumo poured holy water on it?"

No one answered her. The demon groaned again. Shiemi could see its eyes moving under its eyelids.

"Call Sensei," Shima said. No one reacted. All eyes were trained on the demon.
It slowly opened its eyes.

"CALL SENSEI," Shima shouted, putting his foot on the demon's chest and shoving it roughly to the ground. He pointed his staff at its face and nodded at the phone sitting on the kitchen counter.

Shiemi scrambled for the phone, falling off her perch on the box and dropping the phone twice in her desperation to reach Yukio. She started scrolling frantically down Shima's extensive list of contacts.

The demon looked up, its eyes crossing as it focused on the monk's staff. "Huh?" it asked.

The ExWires froze simultaneously. The demon flexed its arms against the ropes and groaned, this time in frustration. Its tail thumped against the floor.

"What are you going to do with me?" it asked. It seemed almost resigned to whatever fate had in store for it. Shiemi felt a pang of sympathy for him.

Izumo grabbed the bucket of holy water. She held it threateningly above the demon's head. A few drops rolled off the sides of the bucket and splattered onto the demon's forehead. Shiemi could hear the sizzle as the water burned into its skin. "What are you?" Izumo demanded. She was shaking, and a few more drops spilled out of the bucket.

The demon's tail stopped thumping. "You don't know?" it asked. Shiemi saw its muscles relax, slack slightly returning to the ropes that bound it. She wrenched her gaze away and returned to Shima's phone. Why did he have to have so many contacts? What name would Yukio even be under?

"Are you a ghost?" Izumo demanded. Konekomaru resumed chanting.

The demon laughed delightedly. "No, I'm not a ghost. I'm human."

"Liar!"

"Izumo, calm down!" Bon shouted, wrenching the bucket away from her. Izumo stumbled back.

"Yukio?" Shiemi whispered into the phone receiver. "I think we need help."

The demon scooted away from Shima and managed to wriggle into a semi-upright position, propped against a wall. "Why did you ambush me?" it asked.

Bon stared at the demon incredulously. "You snuck into an unoccupied apartment full of exorcists, covered in blood and waving a sword around, with a tail, and you're asking us why we poured holy water on you? If you're human, it shouldn't have affected you!"

The demon considered this. "Maybe I have an allergy?" it ventured.

Shima laughed. "What?" he asked, glancing around at all the dirty looks he was receiving. "It was funny."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Yukio replied. Shiemi smiled.

"What can I say to make you release me?" the demon asked.

Shima prodded it with his staff. "Just tell the lady what you are, she'll stop dumping water on you, we'll send you back to Gehenna, and everyone will be happy."

The demon shrugged. "I doubt any of you know how to get me back to Gehenna. I don't know myself."

Konekomaru stopped chanting. "But you're no longer denying you're a demon?"

The demon frowned. "Oops. I guess not."

"Could you at least tell us what category you are? What king you serve?"

The demon considered this for some time. "I don't know," he said. "Which one would be the least likely to get me killed?"

"I really don't think he knows," Shiemi said, standing up. She handed the phone back to Shima. "Did you lose your memory?" She wasn't sure if anything like that had ever happened to a demon before, but it probably wasn't usual for a group of ExWires to be interrogating a demon on how to kill it, either.

Izumo straightened up and marched to a corner of the room. "I'm going to call Uke and Mike," she announced. "This is ridiculous."

The demon was still grinning. "Just untie me and I'll get out of your hair. I swear I'll never bother another exorcist again."

Shima's phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at it. "Yo, Shiemi," he said. "Sensei says the doors locked, so can you go open it up?"

"Sensei?" the demon asked. Its ears perked up, and it started thumping its tail again.

"You called him?" Suguro asked. "We have this under control!"

"Bon!" Konekomaru reprimanded.

Shiemi unbolted the door. "Yukio!"

"Yukio?" the demon repeated, and leapt up. The ropes that had been binding it fell around its feet. It grabbed Shima by the collar of his shirt and shoved him roughly against the wall. "Tell me where my sword is, right now!" Its tail was thrashing wildly.

Shiemi pulled open the door. Yukio stepped in, twin pistols already out and pointed towards the demon. "Get out of here," he said to the ExWires.

The demon dropped Shima and dashed towards the window. Yukio shot him through the shoulder. The demon halted suddenly, and turned to face Yukio. His ears began to elongate, his teeth growing sharper and sharper as he turned. "Brother," he said.

Yukio shot him again, and the room erupted into blue flame.

☆彡☆彡

Rin's day was getting worse and worse. "Don't let anyone find out who are" had been the entire focus of his trip to Gehenna. And now he was letting out Satan's flame for the second time in less than twenty-four hours, in front of someone who wouldn't even have to connect the dots to realize.

When he woke up, bound and under surveillance, he thought the pooch had been thoroughly screwed. He almost just gave up and burned down the whole apartment complex, until he realized those kids didn't know who he was. If these were True Crosses' assassins, than they were woefully under prepared, but didn't deserve to die for their organization's negligence. He had just been figuring out a way to escape without alerting anybody (somehow faking his own death had been high on the list until he remembered he couldn't just roll his eyes up and stick his tongue out) when Yukio, of all people, burst in.

Yukio. His younger twin brother, born and raises to kill him. Rin tried to push away his feelings and focus on the fight he had in front of him. Sumimata was no where in sight, so he grabbed the pink-haired boy's staff instead. It would have to do.

The gun went off a third time. Rin stumbled as the bullet went through his thigh. His knuckles went white around the staff. If he fell now, he would be doomed. His flames were beginning to flicker out - not a good sign. So far this grand-reunion fight had been totally uncool.

Rin managed to straighten up, being careful not to put weight on his bad leg. His shoulder burned, like a bomb had gone off inside him. “Hey, Yukio,” he rasped out, twirling the staff around with his good arm. “How’s the old man been?”

On later reflection, Rin decided he really should not have provoked his brother. If he had been smarter, he’d have just jumped out the window, bullet holes and all. Rin couldn’t fight practically unarmed against a guy with two guns and a mean vengeance streak.

Especially since the monk’s staff wasn’t really up to the strain of Satan’s fire; despite Rin’s best efforts to keep in intact, it was quickly disintegrating. Maybe if he had been at full strength he could of preserved it (though if Rin was being truthful with himself he may of admitted that the staff would just dissapear as soon as he touched it if he wasn't injured. He had never really gotten as good at controlling his flames as his tutors wanted him to be.)

“Yukio?” one of the ExWires whispered. Evidently they hadn’t followed their teacher’s instructions to evacuate. Yukio seemed to realize this at the same time Rin did, and in that second of surprise, Rin was on him, ignoring the excruciating pain coursing through him and bringing the monk’s staff around in a wide arc. He focused his remaining power down the staff, till it shone a white, blinding color from the concentrated heat.

“Take an Arashine into your hands and cleanse it, take a Nigoshine into your hands and purify it, to make eight servings of Sacred Wine, at the peaceful, gentle sound of Yahirade, HEAR ME GOD!” the girl who dumped holy water on him earlier screamed, clapping her hands together. Rin’s fire was immediately extinguished as he was doused in sacred wine. He ended up barrelling into Yukio and collapsing on top of him. Yukio rolled him over and sat on his chest. He pressed the barrel of one of his guns against Rin’s forehead.

Rin groaned. “Not again,” he said. “I surrender!"

“Good work, Izumo,” Yukio said. “Suguro, take that rope over there and bind his feet for me. Shima, call Mephisto immediately.”

“Those were blue flames,” Konekomaru said, hesitantly. “Satan’s flames.”

Shiemi stared at the captive demon. “What is he?”

“What do you want me to tell the headmaster?” Shima asked, wiggling the phone questioningly. He prodded the remains of his staff with one foot. It turned into a small pile of metal and ash.

“Tell him…” Yukio said. Rin opened one eye and grinned at him. His tail twisted around Yukio’s ankle. “Tell him my brother has arrived.”

Chapter Text

Rin was getting tired of waking up bound, beaten and slightly singed. He lay on the ground, struggling to breath through the dust, and wondered if it was worth it to open his eyes. Based on prior experience, the answer was a resounding no. There was nothing sight could tell him that his other senses couldn’t, and he was being bombarded with those. His hair was sticky, matted and smelled like sacred wine. His hands were bound, the floor was hard and cold. Definitely a prison, definitely not what he had hoped for in his vacation to Assiah.

He opened his eyes. Laying here wasn’t going to help him escape. The situation didn’t look any brighter. Rin’s wrists were encased far thicker cuffs then he imagined and layered in so many protective spells Rin got a headache just from looking at them. The walls were smeared with so thickly with a thankfully unidentifiable residue that he couldn’t tell what color they had been originally. In a sudden burst of scientific spirit, he rubbed the wall with the side of the cuffs. They immediately glued themselves to the stuff Rin was beginning to think was pretty suspicious for some prison mold. Rin pressed his hands to the wall and let loose.

Flame engulfed the room, scorching the concrete floor and licking around the edges of the doorframe. The mold compressed into itself and slithered into the corners and between the cracks in the wall.

Rin whistled. Creepy. Demons up in Assiah took on the weirdest forms. Back in Gehenna, demons were just themselves, and if that was a multi-eyed goat with wings that burned like comments and fifteen slathering tongues that permanently hung from a cherub’s mouth, that was fine. But nobody would try to pass themselves off as sentient moss. At least now he knew he could use Satan’s flames.

Rin surveyed the room. Besides breaking down the wall and possibly bringing an entire building down on top of him, the only possibly exist was the thick iron door, placed as unobtrusively in the corner of the cell as an indomitable, thousand pound barrier to freedom can be placed. The single window, placed at what Rin judged to be about eye level, was too small for a plate of food, let alone a human - no matter how determined said human was. Or demon, whatever. And if Rin knew anything about exorcists (though he did not know much), he knew that there was probably a million more supernatural traps and stop gates he was missing. Rin glanced down at his handcuffs. Maybe they exploded as soon as he stepped out of the room, or could read his mind and would cut off his hands if he thought of a viable escape plan. In fact, he was surprised nothing had happened when he set the room on fire. If Rin had a prisoner like himself, he would put himself in a fire station or something. Maybe he was in a fire station.

Maybe he was submerged deep in the sea, and as soon as he opened the door, he’d drown. He leaned his head against the wall, now cleared to mold. He really had to learn that thinking almost never did him any good.

His first week in Assiah had been pretty goddamn awful. The sheer amount of awfulness was almost unbelievable. At least on his top three worst weeks. Maybe if he just waited here long enough, some minor demon would break him out and scold him for being too careless and too weak ("If only you paid attention in your training, Lord Okumura! We taught you exactly how to escape from a concrete box thrown into the deepest part of the ocean!"). But it was probably far more likely Satan would just decide he was useless after all and abandon him to execution by exorcist hands.

It was fine anyway. Rin wouldn't appreciate a rescue and he didn't crave Satan's respect the way he had done with his Old M-...he didn’t crave anyone’s respect. On the bright side, this cell looked a lot more comfortable than some of the places he's stayed in the last couple years. Gehenna, in its ineffable nothingness, had never came around to theories of comfort and basic human rights.

Whatever. Rin’s policy was to always put off the hard stuff for another day. There was really only one thing he should be thinking about now. If he could just open the door, he could figure out how to deal with shit like drowning, exploding handcuffs, or fireman as they came.

Rin scooted over to the door and pressed his hands on the rough metal. It would be difficult with the handcuffs, but Satan's flame was pretty much all Rin had got going for him in Sumimata's absence. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on concentrating the heat over the door’s surface. Think of spreading warm butter over toast, or even better, a rather large iron door exploding. Rin's control over the flames had improved a lot since the beginning, but it was still terribly sub-par. The incident with Yukio yesterday had been an exception, sparked by adrenaline and fueled by terrified desperation.

Rin cautiously opened one eye. Iron certainly was melting under his fingertips, pouring down his hands and between his fingernails, but the bulk of the door was staying infuriatingly solid. Nothing like yesterday.

Yukio. Rin shook his head and tried to concentrate on melting the door. Thinking about Yukio, or Father Fujimoto, or any of his old life on Assiah, wouldn't help him now. Hard thoughts for another day, right?

Fire flared across the door in a sudden burst liquid heat. Rin struggled to bring it under his control. Focus, focus; fingertips, fingertips.

Rin's ears pricked up. Somewhere outside the door, he could hear the distinctive click-clack of footsteps on stone floor. His flames flickered down until they were just licking the ends of his hands, like some runway model’s nail polish. Had Rin been less frantic, he may have noticed how abashed they looked. He braced his feet against the door and pushed himself away, namely with a killer combo of skooching across the floor and desperate wiggling butt motions. Not having usable hands was hard.

He wedged himself into a corner of the cell just as the footsteps stopped, right outside the door. If he had been thinking properly, Rin should have put himself in some strategic position that allowed him to knock out whoever entered, but Rin never claimed to be good at forward thinking. He could hear the faint sound of a chain lock sliding off, and then another lock unclicking.

All it took was a glimpse of a blindingly clean white suit and a top hat that brushed the ceiling of the cell for Rin to recall several particularly agonizing nights spent in the company of some of the few demons intelligent enough form original sentences. It had turned out to be a training exercise, and Rin had eventually been forced to kill them all, but the more gossip inclined ones (ie: any demon who lived past a hundred and had at least a tablespoon of brain matter left) had been infatuated with the story of a certain other son of Satan and hell king who had run off to the human world.

"Samael?" Rin asked.

The King of Time raised a finger to his lips and winked. "Please, it's Mephisto here. Or Faust, if you prefer." He looked at the cell door, still hot with the melted imprints of Rin's fingers burned through the metal, and then to the floor, which was scorched with the distinctive imprints Satan’s flames left, and then finally to the wall, where one could faintly hear the demon mold gibbering. “Have you been busy? I’d hate to interrupt at a bad time.”

Rin gaped at him. In a very technical sense, this man was his older brother. He almost felt embarrassed.

"But no matter the inconvenience, you have absolutely no time to waste," Mephisto continued. "The best of True Cross could be gathering at any moment to decide your punishment." He steepled his fingers together and smiled. "Though I have delayed that slightly, if you had a plan upon coming here, I suggest you act on it very soon."

Plan. Plans. Rin jingled his handcuffs. A plan sounded good. In Gehenna, his Assiah-plan been to a) get away, b) try to be a good demon, and c) not get caught. That particular plan was probably bust.

"Got any ideas?" Rin ventured.

Mephisto’s smiled dropped faster than demon shot with a bullet full of purified salt. "Well to start, you can't burn away the door. These things are expensive." He reached behind him and with a dramatic gesture and accompanying swoosh, conjured a chair. He sat on it. "This is all terribly disappointing. I can only hope this isn't Father's grand attack against humanity." He didn't wait for an answer. "A game isn't any fun at all if the opponent loses on the first move. It would barely even deserve the title ‘game,’ at that point, don’t you agree?" Mephisto's forehead wrinkled. "What a shame."

Rin managed to bend his leg up enough to put his foot on the chain connecting the handcuffs. He pressed down on it, hoping it was more fragile than it looked. "What do you want?" he asked, trying to focus on anything but the demon in front of him. If he could figure out how to heat up the bottom of his foot, or even just his wrists, without setting himself on fire, he would be home free, for a somewhat loose definition of ‘free’ and an even looser one for ‘home.’

"Entertainment," Mephisto said grandly, sweeping his cloak around him. The handcuffs disappeared. Rin's foot went through the empty air and hit the ground with a thud. "I believe you have more potential than what you're showing me, little brother." He leaned towards Rin. "What do you think?"

Rin bit his lip. "Yeah?" he said. His tail scratched circles into the dust on the floor. Mephisto was too hard to pay attention to after taking a shower in sacred wine, though Rin could admit he may have had trouble listening even if he hadn't just been personally acquainted with the demonic equivalent of hot acid. He wished his headache had been from hell; heavenly ones were so much more vehement.

Mephisto lept up and clapped his hands together. "Marvelous." The chair disappeared. "I'll be watching your future." He waltzed over to the door, taking long strides with uncomfortably sashaying hips.

"Wait!" Rin said, and pulled himself to his feet. "You're going to leave me here?"
Mephisto raised a perfectly manicured brow. "Why should I do anything else?" He scratched his chin. "Or perhaps I should say, you have yet to convince me that you're worth doing more."

Rin stepped forward, fire in his eyes. "Are you kidding me? I don't have to prove myself to you, I'm not your toy, I'm a person, and you can't treat people like that!" He shouldn’t be so surprised Mephisto wasn’t on his side, he really shouldn’t. It made far more sense that he was working with Yukio and the rest, but Rin had still thought...they were brothers.

"You're wrong there," Mephisto laughed. "On both counts." He pointed his cane at Rin's chest. Rin stared down at it in surprise, then followed the length back to its owner. Mephisto's grin reminded Rin of a cat who had finally got the mouse, and was anticipating long hours of playing with it. Or a teacher who heard him read aloud to Yukio and had convinced themselves they could reform him into their next honor student.

"What?" Rin asked, knocking the cane away with his cuffs.

"You can treat people like objects," Mephisto explained, skillfully twirling the cane back into his grip and learning on it.. "And you should ask yourself if you really should consider yourself a person. Humanity is shockingly easy to lose. Tuck in your tail, it's ungentlemanly to show."

He opened the cell door and took a step forward. Rin expected the door to slam and key to lock, but apparently that wasn’t a good enough parting remark. “Remember,” Mephisto said, turning back. “Who your real enemies are.” With an cinematic wink, he disappeared in a loud pop and shower of confetti, all of which melted into the stone floor without a trace, except for one piece of lined paper. Rin stared at the sudden absence of Mephisto, then at the door, which was hanging wide open.

“What do you want from me?” he asked the empty air. It failed to give Rin an answer. In a way, it was a perfect Mephisto substitute.

He picked up what was left of the confetti. On it was written: giving you a sword would be unfair (○｀ε´○).

Rin growled at and shoved it into his back pocket. He worked on stuffing his tail into his pants as he inched along the cement wall, trying his best not to stumble over his own feet. Demons never gave straight answers, or asked straight questions, or did anything in any sort of comprehensible, easy to understand way. But if there was an escape opportunity, no matter how floridly offered, Rin was going to take it and run.

☆彡☆彡

Yukio put his head in his hands. Teaching class this last week had been a fight every step of the way. The questions had ended on day one, after a sharp word from him and a glare. The questioning, almost scared looks from the students were much, much worse and they weren't diminishing with time.

He had only told Mephisto the whole truth about the incident, and left it up to him to inform the other teachers and, no doubt, the Knights of True Cross. The principal had acted strangely flippant about the whole ordeal, but Yukio simply didn’t have the mental energy to waste. Dragging himself out of his room was hard enough. He couldn’t stop thinking about Rin.

His brother had disappeared from Yukio’s life two years ago, along with their father. It had felt like a normal day; he had seen Rin running away from school during fourth period and figured he had either gotten sick of it and punched out another student, or was about to get sick of it and was running off to find a gangster to punch. When he had gotten home, the entire temple was in uproar. The Gehenna Gate left behind in Father Fujimoto’s and Rin’s absences had released enough demons to infect the whole city. People had flooded into True Cross offices. Yukio was taken in, interrogated, and left to help deal with the infestation when they realized he was as confused as them. He had been reluctant to tell anyone the truth about his brother, not without Father’s guidance. Yukio’s personal pain was left behind in the chaos.

They had found Father Fujimoto six months later, his scorched bones unrecognizable had those on the scene not found slightly-melted earrings and a neatly folded pile with a scorched lenten chasuble and sandals. Yukio had disclosed all information about Rin to the Order; he did not know what Father would of wanted, but he believed he knew what was right. There was only one reason a Gehenna Gate would be opened in that city, only one reason for his entire family’s disappearance.

The resignation of his family to Satan was the hardest thing he had done in his life. It took him a day to come to the conclusion. Father was dead. Rin...was hopefully facing worse, because it would mean he resisted Satan. If Yukio silenced his heart and thought through it logically, it was more likely Father had died at Rin’s hands, no matter how unwilling Rin was about the matter.

Without a reasonable plan to get into Gehenna and defeat the strongest demon in the world, Yukio contented himself with waiting. The night of his father’s funeral, he had vowed to clean up his family’s messes, and clean he would. He would scour every demon from this wretched Earth if that's what it took.

Only now Rin was back, and Satan had clearly wrapped his claws around him, and Yukio could not bring himself to kill him. He had every opportunity. Rin had been unconscious for almost a week. partly in thanks to Izumo’s quick action and partly the doing of the many magical barriers woven around the jail. Yukio could have walked down to the holding cells any time, pressed a gun against Rin’s forehead, and shoot his brother’s brains out without the demon inside of him ever noticing, and no one would chastise Yukio for it. He would even probably be congratulated, unless the Knights wanted to interrogate Rin first.

Yukio stood up from his desk and dragged himself to his bed. He couldn’t get any work done in this condition. The students would just have to wait another day to get their 2nd Samuel quiz grades back.

He lay in his bed like a board, muscles refusing to relax and mind refusing to stop thinking for even a minute. If True Cross did decide to interrogate Rin, and now that he thought about it, it was more logical that they would, he would almost definitely have to take some part in it. If this Rin was anything like the brother he had grown up with, he wouldn’t give up any information he felt was important because of some pesky things like torture. Especially if he had been living under Satan’s heel for all these years. But if there was any humanity left in him, the Knights might think he would give something up for Yukio - to protect him, to hurt him, or even to try and convert him to Rin’s (Satan's, Yukio corrected himself) side. Yukio might be be under just as much scrutiny as Rin at this point.

If Yukio repeated that enough, it might just pass for a good reason not to kill his brother.

Someone knocked on the door. Yukio dragged his head up from his pillow. It was mostly likely a student, which he really should answer, or someone from True Cross, which he definitely needed to answer. He rolled out of bed, threw on a robe, and put his glasses on as he walked to the door. A pistol had been fastened into his robe pocket with the fastidious care he did everything. It was a well-known secret that Yukio had some sort of holster sewn into every item of clothing he owned. It never hurt to be prepared.

He looked through the peephole. Shiemi stood in the hallway, fidgeting. Her hand was poised to knock again. Yukio threw open the door.

He managed to summon a smile from God knows where for her. “Evening, Shiemi.”

She smiled back and pulled a package from her messenger bag. “My mother wanted me to deliver these to you.”

Yukio took it. “Thank you.” He inspected the label. It wasn’t anything special; nothing that would have forced Shiemi to come out to his home at this time of night. “I’ve been waiting for this. Would you like to come in?” He stepped away from the door.

Shiemi’s smile, if possible, grew brighter. “Of course!” She skipped into his room, eyes wide and searching. “This the first time I’ve been in a boy’s room! You never let me come over to your house.” If it had been anyone else, Yukio would have taken this as a subtle reprimand or possibly innuendo. “Though I get it now that you had a reason for it.” But Shiemi didn’t have a trace of deception in her. It was part of why Yukio liked her so much. "You know, everyone's worried about you."

Yukio forced himself to laugh. “I appreciate everyone’s concern, but you can tell them for me that there’s nothing to be worried about.”

Shiemi plopped down on his bed and stared at him with concerned green eyes. Her hair was almost long enough now to touch her shoulders. He wondered was her mother was thinking, sending her to a man’s house at this hour.

She was frowning at him now. “I…I don’t really know what’s going on, Yukio, but...but no one cares if your,” she stumbled over the words, “brother is a demon.” She took a deep breath. “Even if you’re one too, everyone thinks you’re a really good teacher and wants you to get back to your normal self.” She rushed the words out like they had been inside her for a long time. She added helpfully, “We all talked about it.”

Yukio sat down. His fingers gripped the edge of the desk chair. Even if you’re one too, huh? Far from the relief that Sheimi undoubtedly expected him to feel, a cold spike of dread stabbed down his spine. They shouldn’t accept him, that he should teach them not to ever trust demons, that it was his job to do so.

Shiemi got up and wrapped her arms around him. Yukio had to admit that, even if he had not been hugged in any recent memory, it was pretty awkward as far as hugs went. She was almost doubled over in her attempt to reach him, and her breasts were way too close his face. It was the first close human contact he had had in years. He closed his eyes and leaned against her shoulder. His glasses pushed into his nose. The bag of herbs she had brought him pressed against his stomach.

Shiemi rubbed small circles on his back. Yukio definitely did not cry. If the shoulder of Shiemi’s uniform shirt was slightly damp when she waved goodbye to him, it was a moot point.

Fifteen minutes later, Yukio’s phone vibrated from its place on the desk. He wiped his eyes with his arm and picked it up.

Mephisto Pheles: It turns out the school holding cell doors don't lock well (･_･;
Mephisto Pheles: Have you seen ur brother at all?? lol

Yukio's grip tightened on the phone. His fingers went white. A key popped out from the pressure. Rin. Shiemi.

☆彡☆彡

Delivering herbs had become one of Shiemi's favorite jobs, right behind actually growing them. For one, a school uniform was so much easier to walk in than a kimono, and even the church shoes were more comfortable than her geta sandals, even if they pinched her toes a little.

Even without the comforts of her new uniform, Shiemi just enjoyed the feeling of being able to move her legs. She might never have the easy athleticism of Shima or Izumo's confident stride, but the freedom go where ever she wished and to feel the muscles in her legs strengthening and healing after years of atrophying was all she needed.

The fact that she could walk to Yukio's apartment was just another perk. Shiemi smiled and skipped a little. It was good that Yukio finally let out some of his feelings. He was always keeping everything so bottled up, which was a great way to have a heart attack or worse. The teachers always said you had to be honest with yourself as an exorcist, because demons could see into your heart and you may have to face your worst fears, faults, and memories everyday. Even Yukio had told her that, many times, and it always surprised her, because Yukio lied to himself more than any person she had ever met. Half of the herbs he ordered were for stress, and then he lectured everyone on the importance of calm during a battle!

He was still keeping way too much inside. Shiemi hadn't asked him about the life he must have led with his demon brother, a life he had managed to keep completely secret from Shiemi. She hadn't asked what had come between them, or why they had tried to kill each other on sight. She hadn't, and this is what worried her most of all, talked about the demon's initial insistence that he was human, or how he looked so resigned when they had captured him, how tired.

Her classmates had noticed it too, but no one was talking about it. Shiemi glanced to her left. The holding cells should be around here, hidden from the uninitiated. Shiemi could only see a faint glimmer out of the corner of her eye. She wouldn't be allowed in. She would have to get her answers from Yukio.

Shiemi shook her head. It didn't do to think too hard about these things. There was no way she could talk to Yukio’s demon brother, and it would be cruel to go behind his back like that. She tried to distract herself by looking at the people around her. It was a hobby she often got called out for, but she couldn’t help it. She loved being in her grandmother’s garden, but the actions of people were incomprehensible to her compared to plants. She needed the practice! The crowd that usually bustled in True Cross were long gone by this late hour, students sequestered in their dorms studying and the adults in their homes, both avoiding the paranormal activity that the area was known for. The only one on the road was a tall, thinnish figure lurking in the shadows.

Shiemi focused on him. He provided a good distractraction from her problems. The man stuck to the wall like he was afraid of the light flickering down from the lamp posts. He shuffled awkwardly, looking around every few seconds. Maybe he was lost, or maybe he was merely nervous about something.

Shiemi slowed her pace. What would be have to be nervous about? Maybe he was trying to find somebody, a stranger to the town and its avoidance of the dark. A girlfriend, perhaps? Or a long lost family member, reunited after years. That would certainly make Shiemi nervous.

He glanced at her, and Shiemi blushed and looked down, ashamed to have been caught staring.

"Excuse me," she muttered. "You seem lost. Can I help?"

The man stepped away from the wall. The effect was eerily similar to a shadow stepping away from its caster. Shiemi stared at her feet, fidgeting. This wouldn't be the first time a stranger reprimanded her for staring at them. But they just looked so interesting!

The man grabbed her wrist. His fingertips burned. Shiemi looked up in shock, and saw his face clearly for the first time. The demon. Yukio's brother.

His face mirrored own fear. The demon's hair was unbrushed and it looked sticky and matted. His clothes were rumbled and dirty, and the ends of his sleeves were hardened and ash-black. Shiemi felt a rush of pity flow through her.

When she was younger, her mother had set out traps for the chipmunks that ate the garden's berries every summer. Shiemi had began sneaking out every night and releasing them. When she shone her flashlight down on the cages, the trapped animals looked a lot like the demon did now. Her grandmother had sat her down and told a story after her mother bemoaned the uselessness of the cages and Shiemi had stopped rolling up her sleeves, hiding the scratches and bite marks that the chipmunks she had picked up inflicted on her.

"Come with me," the demon said, eyes shifting erratically. His grip around her wrist tightened slightly and he pulled her forward. Shiemi stumbled over the sidewalk.

Grandmother had said that a trapped animal can make no distinction between those who save and those who slaughter, and that no matter your intentions, they will always attack. Shiemi steeled her heart and allowed herself to be led into the shadows of the town.

Chapter Text

Shiemi had gone missing. Her mother had called Yukio an hour after she had left, asking him if she had arrived (yes), if she was still there (no), and that there was no need to lie dear you're both young I just need to know (please, Ms. Moriyama, I'm on the job).

Yukio had only wasted a minute swearing about Mephisto's incompetence and gathering extra ammunition before running out of the dorms and into the clear night air. The cold hit him like a prize boxer, and he stumbled back. The temperature difference from the warm hallways fogged up his glasses and rendered him completely useless for an extra minute while he tried to wipe them with the end of his robe. Each second he was wasting here was another second Shiemi's life was in danger. He stood outside the door for another second, toes curling into his fuzzy slippers, fingers growing stiff around the grip of his pistol, took a deep breath, and went back inside.

He texted Mephisto back and explained the situation with Shiemi. Mephisto could gather back up if needed, and even if it wasn't, it was always bad form to go off on a mission without notifying anyone. Yukio had warned his students on the dangers of it many, many times. He shucked off his slippers in lieu of boots, pulled on a pair of more serviceable pants and a warm coat (a coat which came with several more holsters, ammunition carriers, and back-up glasses, amenities that a robe simply couldn't provide) and a thick knitted scarf Shiemi had given him on his birthday/Christmas last year.

Heart rate down to a more manageable level, he went back outside and started running through the streets, attempting to trace the route Shiemi would have taken. Rin couldn't have gone very far yet, and if Mephisto was being even remotely serious about this, he would have shut down the campus with enough wards that even the heir to Satan's flames should have some trouble getting out. If he was being really serious (or if his prankster's gambit/inane desire to challenge his students was higher than Yukio could ethically approve of) he would have called the Paladin. In those circumstances, Shiemi had to be safe. If Ri- the demon wanted her as a hostage, he couldn't have harmed her yet. And if he just killed her for the sake of killing, then Yukio would make sure that the abomination that used to call himself Yukio's brother would be purged so thoroughly from Assiah that Satan himself would feel the pain of his passage unto death.

Yukio's knuckles were turning white under the pressure of his grip around his gun. Slowly, agonizingly, he straightened out his fingers. If he wanted to defeat anyone, he would have to calm down. There was even a small chance that the incidents were unrelated, that Shiemi had merely gotten distracted or lost during her wall home and Rin had no need for a prisoner or their paths hadn't even crossed. Yukio slowed his run to a jog, then to a quick walk, and took the time to look at his surroundings. He was too personally invested in this; he was making mistakes. The storefronts around him looked completely unfamiliar, and the few lampposts lining the streets were weak and sputtering. He must have made it to the outskirts of the main campus already. Hesitantly, Yukio turned around. How much time had he wasted?

Yukio looked up to scan the rooftops just in time to see the sky burst into bright blue flames.

☆彡☆彡

This is what Shiemi saw: scars. Scars crisscrossed on the back of the demon's hands, great white lines that shone stark against the tan, muscled arms of the demon. Shiemi wondered how he had gotten wounds serious enough to cause scars like these. The scars were something simple to focus on, instead of the sword case strapped across the demon's back or the growing unfamiliarity of the streets around her. The hand that had grabbed her wrist was more calloused than even her grandmother's had been; his palms felt like unvarnished wood.

The demon pulled her into a back alley, peeking his head around the corner to check for- what, she didn't know, but she could make a fair guess that it wasn't anything she'd have reason to be afraid of. Apparently content with what he saw, or didn't see, Yukio's brother turned to look at her.

His eyes widened. "Holy shit." He covered his eyes with one hand, hit the back of his head against the alley wall, and peered between his fingers.

Shiemi could feel her cheeks burning, but before she had a chance to gather her wits and respond, the demon pointed at her with a shaking finger and said, "You're that exorcist!"

It was Shiemi's turn to gape at him. "You...you didn't realise that?" She took a step towards him. He took a step back. She could be afraid for herself as an exorcist, but she would absolutely fight for the virtue of civilians. "Then why did you kidnap me! Do you just grab random girls off the streets?"

The demon looked absolutely terrified. "I just wanted directions."

Shiemi deflated. "Directions?" She didn't mention that it was insane to think you should drag a girl all around town and only ask for directions after you had kidnapped her, but maybe things were different in Hell.

The demon nodded, and sat down on a rotted crate that had been discarded in the doorway of some barely-legal business. He put his head in his hands. Shiemi considered running away.

The demons ears perked up. "Do you hear that?" he asked.

"No," Shiemi whispered, pressing herself against the wall. She could feel Nii-chan's weight in her coat pocket. An impression of an idea began to form.

The demon stood up and inched towards the alley's entrance. Then, so quickly that Shiemi didn't have time to process what was happening, let alone scream, he wrapped one arm around her waist, jumped on the crate and used the extra momentum to propel himself up the wall. He grabbed at the edge of the store roof with his free hand, and swung Shiemi up with the other.

Shiemi scrambled at the shingles. Her heart threatened to beat right out of her chest.

Cautiously, she turned over so she could look around. Her sweaty palms were making it hard to get a good grip of anything, and her shaking was going to make her fall if she couldn't get a grip on herself. Shiemi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she took a few more.

The demon was still on the ground, tail lashing as he looked up at her. The crate he had used to propel her up there was a pile of broken wood and future splinters for passersby. He took a couple steps back, then sprinted at the wall. Just a few feet short of cracking his head open, he stabbed his sword case at the ground and launched himself into the air. He flipped gracefully up and landed in a crouch on the edge of the roof, arms and tail stuck out for balance. Shiemi fought the urge to applaud.

The demon stood up and held out his hand. Shiemi took it, and he pulled her to her feet. "If you just told me how to get out of this city..." he trailed off. His eyes were darting around, taking in every detail of the cityscape except the girl in front of him.

Shiemi frowned and crossed her arms. "I am not going to help you terrorize the world." And she didn't know where she was.

He held up his hands. "I just want to not get killed." He rubbed his eyes. "What was your name again?"

"Shiemi Moriyama," she said automatically. "What's yours?"

"Rin Okumura," he said. "Look, Miss Moriyama, you don't even have to give me directions, just make an oath that you won't tell anyone where I am."

Shiemi scoffed. "I don't care what you say, I'm not going to help you!"

The demon grinned. "You absolutely suck at acting threatening. Are you sure you're an exorcist?" His grin faded. "I really don't want to kidnap you."

Shiemi took a deep breath, and plopped herself down on the roof, arms still folded across her chest. "Good, you won't have to. I'm not going to go anywhere with you." In burst of inspiration, she continued, "Not until you answer my questions."

The demon raised an eyebrow.

"And maybe I'll let you escape afterwards," she conceded. Shiemi felt a little guilty, getting information like this when she should just wait until Yukio was ready to talk about it, but she could justify it to herself if she could keep the demon distracted until someone either came looking for her or noticed he had escaped. Or she could wait for a chance to carry out her own plan.

The demon's hand curled around the hilt of his sword. "Or I could knock you out, and you couldn't tell anyone I escaped until I'm already gone."

Shiemi stiffened. Her hand moved closer to the pocket Nii-chan was in. Osha and rue, even together, probably couldn't hold back a high level demon like him.

The demon scratched his back with the sheathed tip of his sword and ran his tongue across his teeth. His canines were inhumanly sharp. "Can we talk somewhere besides a rooftop?"

There was nothing Shiemi wanted more than to be not clinging to the slippery shingles of a dilapidated building. "No," she said firmly. "You're the one who forced me up here in the first place."

The demon sat down, his feet dangling of the edge of the building. He looked like a normal teenager like that, no different than Bon or Shima. "That was for scouting purposes," he said sullenly. "Now scouting is over, we should hide." He corrected himself, "I should hide."

"Are you really Yukio's brother?" Shiemi asked, fingers curling around Nii-chan. She stroked his back; she could feel him stretching, waking up. Rosemary was good for protection, but would it be strong enough to hold him?

The demon yawned. "I'm his twin." He glanced back at her. "His older twin. You wouldn't expect that, would you?"

"That's awful!" Shiemi said, despite herself. "Why are you trying to kill him?"

The demon's features twisted; his ears grew ever so slightly longer, his teeth sharper. Shiemi drew back, her hand clutched around Nii-chan who resting safely in her pocket. Oak, it had to be oak. "Because I'm evil," the demon said. He refused to meet her eyes, but focused on a place three feet above her left shoulder.

Shiemi pulled Nii-chan out of her pocket and held out her hands, stretching as far as she could towards Yukio's brother without falling. The demon's hand went to his blade again, but he stopped and blinked at the little familiar, then looked back up towards Shiemi.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Oak, please!" Shiemi shouted, and spread her palms flat.

Branches shot from Nii-chan's back, curving around and flying towards the demon at unnatural speeds. The demon lept up, took one step back, and tumbled off the roof. Shiemi gasped and slid to edge to look down, transferring Nii-chan to her left hand and using her right to grasp the roof.

One of Nii-chan's branches had looped around the demon's waist and caught him in midair. The demon was twisting in its grasp, attempting to unsheath his sword at first but quickly resorting to clawing at the wood with his bare hands.

Nii-chan squeaked, and a new batch of oak erupted from his stomach. They formed a circular cage around the struggling demon, blocking Shiemi's view.

Shiemi allowed herself to smile. And then the whole world burst into blue flames.

☆彡☆彡

Mephisto laid back in his chair, resting his feet on his desk. He gazed at the ceiling, the absolute picture of a much put-upon martyr. His students were growing too curious, his brothers' too violent (and in Mephisto's humble opinion, too alive), and his staff too insolent. Even the school board was beginning to question his policies.

He pulled off his top hat and sat it on the desk. Maybe he should consider retirement in the next millennia or so.

But what he was really worried about right now was Rin's power. The wards placed on his cell were a joint effort by the collective staff of True Cross, enough generated power to take down some high level stuff on the offensive, and should have warded against a decent sized army on the defensive. And the sigils on the handcuffs were placed there by Mephisto himself, and Mephisto was a direct, pure demon descendent of Satan, and he had been practicing for many thousands of years longer than Rin had. Yet Rin had managed to use Satan's fire, powerfully if not with any finesse. He had used the flames with such a raw aptitude for the craft as to expel the guard demon the Summoning teacher had called to watch over him without a thought to what he was doing, and had begun to melt the thick iron walls of the cell. Iron was usually resistant to magical interference, even if it didn't poison high-level demons like it did to weaker ones.

In the corner of the room, a mossy green hamster ran out of a mousehole. It made a decidedly un-hamster like beeline to the carpet in front of Mephisto's desk, where it disappeared in a poof of smoke and the faint smell of tree-rot and sap.

A young man who looked like the closest possible anthropomorphic personification of a hamster appeared as the smoke cleared. He was chewing the ends of his fingers with rose thorn teeth. "You wanted me, brother?" he muttered around his hands. His eyes were ringed with fading yellow bruises.

Mephisto swung his legs of the desk and leaned forward. "Have you been in Gehenna recently? Don't lie." He already knew the answer, but formalities were important.

Mephisto had called Amaimon some time ago, when he had first heard rumor of what would become Rin's ill-fated trip to Assiah, but it had taken him months to show up. Mephisto wouldn't have tolerated it had Amaimon not been the most reliable source of information he had, and a potential ally in the upcoming war.

Besides, Mephisto thought, the human world was infectious. If he stayed here another century, he may start believing he truly loved his weaker brother.

Amaimon looked as nervous as anyone can while remaining completely expressionless. "In and out, the last few millennia..." He rubbed the rug with a bare toe. "Mostly in." His yellow claw of a nail snagged in a loose carpet thread.

"What do you know about Rin Okumura?" Mephisto made a show about examining his own manicured nails.

If possible, Amaimon looked even more stoically nervous.He glanced at the ground. "He's been with father a lot…I wanted to challenge him but I couldn't get close enough." He chewed at his lip. Sap beaded up on the cut, and Amaimon licked it up with a long, prehensile tongue. "Who is the girl on the teapot?"

Mephisto glanced at the pot sitting on his desk. "This?" He picked up. "This, dear brother, is a limited edition item from the AnimagiC convention. And she's not just a girl, she-" Mephisto glared at his brother. "Don't think you can get away from this by distracting me."

"Not for long," Amaimon said. "I'm hungry."

"I'll treat you, if you just answer me," Mephisto said. "What is Rin's relationship with our father?"

Amaimon started to nod, then tilted his head. "Father definitely likes him more than any of us," he said.

Mephisto nodded. Satan had been very fond of Rin's mother after all, and it wouldn't be hard to be more liked than either he or Amaimon.

"But he's always been capricious," Amaimon continued, "and Okumura is subjected to it. He could be invited to burn the denizens of the seventh circle one day and abandoned in the ghettos of the fourth circle the next." He scratched his chin. "The popular rumor was that Father hated the human in him and wanted to burn it out. I know he - Rin - was feared in the outer circles for his cruelty, and pitied in inner circles for the trials Father put him through."

In Gehenna, pity may be worse than fear. Mephisto frowned. "Burn the human out?"

"Maybe literally, I don't know." Amaimon shuffled away. "Or he wanted to make little brother," he licked his lips, "stronger."

Mephisto leaned back. "Thank you."

Amaimon shuffled farther away. "You've spent too much time up here," Amaimon said. "Come back home."

Mephistio raised an eyebrow.

"You thanked me," Amaimon said. "And you promised me food."

Mephisto grinned. "I find business can be conducted in a mutually beneficial matter if you minimize the number of duels. Nothing to do with Assiah or Gehenna, just efficiency."

Amaimon shook his head, but didn't make to retaliate.

Mephisto snapped his fingers, and the King of Earth disappeared in a cloud of asbestos.

"I'll make you some ramen later," Mephisto promised nobody. He coughed and grabbed a novelty fan. Relations with family were so hard to maintain. .

☆彡☆彡

The fire had crawled up the oak vines and leapt up onto the roof.

Shiemi tried to back away, but her feet seemed rooted to the spot. The flames engulfed her, crawling up her legs and licking across her skin. Shiemi screamed, more in fear than pain. As she began to break through her shock, she realized the flames felt oddly cool against her skin.

Shiemi opened her eyes, slowly at first but snapped them open when she saw the first hints of the liquid blue surrounded her. It was like she was underwater, but the flames felt alive and almost comforting, like her mother's embrace. Nii-chan burrowed his face into her hand, little stubs of blackened oak protruding from his belly. She could feel Nii-chan's pain in some distant part of herself, but even that didn't seem to matter while surrounded by this overwhelming beauty.

A figure stepped towards her, silhouette blackened and clothes whipping around furiously, like they were in a strong wind. Noticing that, Shiemi felt her own skirt flipping around and her hair blowing back.

Hair was blowing into her eyes, but she saw the figure reached out its hand, and Shiemi stepped forward to take it, trusting completely in this world of silence and blue and wind.

A flash of light brighter than the fire and the sound of gunfire stopped Shiemi in her tracks, momentarily robbing her of her senses. The comforting figure crumpled to the ground. The blue fire flared while the figure fell, and as he hit the roof Shiemi screamed again, in real pain this time, as the fire stopped its caress and dug into her skin, no longer a hug but nails piercing through her. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her away, but Shiemi was already blacking out.

"Yukio?" she wanted to ask, but it was so much easier to lay her head back in the broad arms that had to be his and close her eyes, ignoring the distant voice shouting her name.

Chapter Text

Yukio knelt down and laid Shiemi gently down on the street. There was no time to do more than a cursory check up on her. Shiemi's skin was red and blistering. Somewhere in his mind he noted that it was not nearly enough damage to account for all the time she had spent in Satan's flame, but Yukio had no time to focus on that now.

Rin was still on the roof, his flames slowly sputtering back to life around him. Yukio watched Rin raise himself back up as Yukio reloaded his gun and took careful aim. His hands were shaking, but Rin was well within his sights, and the only problem was if Yukio should take him alive.

Yukio stiffened as Rin straightened up and turned to look down at Yukio. Rin's eyes were bright blue, glittering in a reflection of flame, but in the second they made eye contact, the fire in his eyes died down. Yukio whipped his gun up to aim at Rin's head, but Rin was already gone, leaping off the destroyed rooftop and drawing his sword. Yukio fired again, one-two-three shots in quick succession, Rin was running straight towards him, how could he be missing?

Rin swung his sword around in a perfect arc. Yukio dropped to the ground and rolled clear, feet back on the ground and gun drawn before Rin had even recovered from the excess momentum of a failed swing. This time Yukio didn't miss; a silver bullet pierced Rin's shoulder and hit bone. Yukio could see his brother's shoulder blade collapse and his arm clench for a split second before falling, useless, to his side. Rin's sword clattered to the ground. Yukio had experienced similar injuries in his career, and he knew the pain it had caused him, but could such measures be applied when your opponent was a demon?

Rin automatically grabbed his shoulder, then winced and gritted his teeth. Yukio took careful aim. No more bullets would be wasted failing to shoot his brother, they were expensive enough and Yukio took pride in the fact that his aim was good enough that he could be economical. Rin raised his good arm straight out, hand flat, like he was ten again and telling Yukio to wait here and he would go steal cookies from the pantry for them to share in their room. It was too bad he always got caught, and then Rin would get gently chastised for bad behavior and then their Father would look at Yukio, and say, "Why don't you take better care of your brother?"

A jet of flame shot from Rin's hand and up the barrel of Yukio's gun before Yukio had time to understand what was happening. At the same time, Rin dropped to the ground and grabbed his sword. The handle of Yukio's gun heated, and flame traveled over the sides of the barrel and flickered at Yukio's skin, teasing. Yukio fumbled and dropped the gun. As it hit the ground, the outer layer of metal collapsed in on itself, turning molten and forming a small pool liquid metal around the gun's remains.

With no choice left, he looked at his brother. Rin looked like he had been ripped straight from Revelation. Flames burned brightly around him, and his sword was out. Rin's tail was whipping around his legs, his ears were long and pressed against the side of his head. Blood stained his clothes and was beginning to drip down on the sidewalk, staining the ground with small dark puddles. Rin was a feral animal in a corner, trying to make himself look bigger.

Yukio felt a smile creep across his face. This was not the same brother that broke ribs with his hugs, the brother who could so easily outmatch Yukio despite years of intensive exorcist training. This demon was a creature like any other, and Yukio's fear was the only thing getting in the way of its defeat.

Yukio pulled another gun from the inside of his coat. Rin tightened his grip on his sword. Yukio fired at the same time Rin began running forward. A bullet seemed to graze Rin's thigh, but Rin ignored it and easily dodged the rest. Yukio kept firing and began to circle around, hoping to slow Rin down. Rin easily kept up with him, and lunged forward. His sword bit into Yukio's side. Yukio clutched at the wound and tried to think.

Ordinarily, a sword would be no match for a gun, no matter how excellent the swordsman. But ordinarily, a single shot from a gun would cripple an opponent. Yukio had the superior weapon, but Rin had the superior "person," not to mention Satan's flame, which if Rin used effectively, could mean the end to the whole city, the whole world even. Yukio was already getting dizzy from blood loss, his shots were missing, and Rin seemed as healthy and vibrant as ever, easily wielding his blade despite his shoulder wound. Yukio scanned the area, hoping for inspiration. Shiemi was still unconscious, lain out on the side of the road. She was too close. If Rin did use his flame, she was doomed, much more so than Yukio himself.

Yukio dodged left, avoiding another feint from Rin, and shot again. The bullet, this one salt-laced, went through Rin's thigh. From this close, Yukio fancied he could hear the bone shatter. Despite all demonic enhancements, Rin was forced down to his good knee. Rin wrapped his hands around the wound, and keened quietly, too quietly for Yukio to understand what he was hearing at first. Yukio forced himself to straighten up, and placed his boot squarely on Rin's chest, forcing him down. He kicked the sword away.

Rin smiled. His teeth and lips were bloody, and the road stained a dark red where his shoulder touched it. "Yukio," he said, and the word was hell itself, syllables forced from the darkest pit. "I missed this."

Yukio snarled, and leaned on Rin's chest. The demon coughed, blood trickling down cheek. "How dare you?" Yukio screamed, pressing down harder. Their faces were so close Yukio could smell the blood on Rin's breath.

Rin coughed harshly, and blood splattered on Yukio's glasses. "I'll tell you," Rin said, each word raspy and slow as he gasped for air, "later." He had the nerve to smile, and Yukio almost killed the monster then.

Then Rin's hands wrapped around Yukio's boot, and Yukio could feel claws tearing through the leather. Yukio kicked, placing a hard hit on Rin's chin, a hit that would have killed a human. Rin's claws seemed to lengthen and sharpen, and he ripped the boot completely off. Yukio's foot was going to turn into a bloody stump if he didn't retaliate soon.

"You won't get that chance," Yukio said. He shot down, so close to his own foot he could feel the heat from the bullet graze his toe, and hit Rin squarely in the chest. Rin went still for a moment, his eyes widening in shock and pain. Then Yukio saw his muscles relax, and Rin closed his eyes. Flame poured from the bullet wound like blood, pooling around Rin and covering his body in a soft blue haze. His eyes snapped open, and Yukio looked into his brother's face, terrified, and saw Rin's eyes were bursting with blue flame, not a reflection of the fire surrounding them but true flame, just like the anecdotal accounts of Blue Night. If he focused, he could even see two wavering stumps of fire growing out of the top of Rin's head, makeshift fiery horns.

Yukio scrambled away from his brother, who was slowly pushing himself up. Yukio looked towards Shiemi, then again at Rin. He reloaded his gun, each bullet infused with Holy Water straight from the Vatican, and fired three bullets off successively. Two went through Rin's already injured leg, one went through the chest. Rin paused for a moment, bending down to pick up his sword. Then he launched himself at Yukio, a whirlwind of fire and blades. Yukio jumped back, the tip of Rin's sword slicing a thin line across his belly.

Rin jabbed forward again, no hesitation. He seemed like a completely different fighter than last time. Where Rin before had a certain jovialness in a deadly serious fight, smiling at his brother and dancing around dodges, this Rin's eyes were as cold as two flames could be, and his jousts were in earnest. Yukio turned around and ran up the street, jumping onto a dumpster and hoisting himself onto a roof from there. By the time he turned to face Rin again, the height advantage was almost lost. Yukio managed to fire off four more bullets as Rin launched himself up the side of the wall. Blood was dripping down Yukio's legs, his vision was fading in and out of focus, and he wasn't entirely sure what he was fighting for. He couldn't keep this up for much longer.

Blue fire bathed the night sky, dancing over the rooftops and over the horizon. From here, it looked almost beautiful. Yukio took a deep breath.

Rin perched on the edge of the roof, his sword balanced excellently in one hand. Yukio could recognize years of practice and repetition in that grip. He smiled at his brother, the demon, and raised his gun one last time.

☆彡☆彡

Mephisto gazed at the two brothers from his safe perch on the clocktower. Rin, he noted, was truly a force to be reckoned with and had he lived a few hundred years earlier, would have inspired several notable and frightening legends. He held his sword like an extension of himself, and even if he wasn't wielding his flame properly, a halo of Satan's fire was truly a sight to behold. Not to mention how he seemed to have lost all pretense of civilization as soon as he lit up.

He pressed a cigar to his painted lips and considered intervening. If Yukio died, he'd have to find a new teacher who would be willing to take on as many duties as him for as little compensation. And he was beginning to grow rather fond of the boy, with his sincere wish to eliminate all demons from the world. If higher-ups still had that kind of devotion, Mephisto himself would either still be polishing his father's snake leather boots or a quickly disintegrating piece of ex-possessed flesh realizing that rebellion was foolish. Not to mention how much trouble Mephisto would get in with said higher ups if he let Rin destroy anything too precious, most of all himself.

Mephisto twirled his cane and leaned back in his chair, watching idly as Yukio backed farther and farther away from his brother, his gun held in front of him like it was a cross, while Rin slowly rose to his feet and began advancing on Yukio.

Mephisto squinted at Rin. It appeared the demon had suffered some serious wounds too, probably more debilitating than Yukio's were. It was almost like Rin was being powered by Satan's flame alone.

In his rush to rise, Mephisto knocked his chair over the edge of the clock tower. Rin was not in control of those flames, and that meant his father was close. Not in a physical sense, per se, but that his mind was close to taking over Rin's. Mephisto snapped his fingers, disappearing from the clock tower with absolutely no theatrics and appearing a split second later next to Rin, whom he promptly slapped on the back of the head. Yukio sank to his knees. "Professor," he tried to say. He couldn't really produce sound, but Mephisto got the message.

Rin looked up at Mephisto, steadfastly unharmed, and growled. That was definitely not Rin inside there. Mephisto snapped his hands again, and a humorously large baseball bat, decorated with the smiling faces of the latest moe anime characters, appeared. He used this to give Rin a more definitive smack to the back of the head, and Rin promptly kneeled over. For good measure, Mephisto wandered over to Yukio and pilfered a few bottles of Holy Water. He poured it on Rin, and the last flames sizzled out into a low glow across Rin's skin, like he was in a blue spotlight.

His job well done, Mephisto wandered over to Shiemi and checked on her while calling the resident medical staff on hand for the exorcists of True Cross. There was nothing in his conduct tonight the Vatican could lock him up for. He hoisted Shiemi up in his arms and slung her over his shoulder while he spoke into the phone.

"I have a burn victim, a man bleeding out, and someone whose thigh bone, shoulder and ribs are probably shattered. Please bring some of the teachers with you, one of them's a criminal." He hung up. They could figure out the location and other details themselves.

Mephisto leapt up to the roof and looked down at Rin. He poked the body with his toe. He fished a camera out of his pocket and snapped a quick picture. Head wounds were serious business, and could cause serious brain damage if not treated immediately. For good measure, he gave Rin a complementary kick on the crown of his head. Shiemi groaned quietly.

The medics, to their credit, managed to arrive almost immediately, no small thanks due to the burning wreckage around them signaling their position. Someone took Shiemi out of Mephisto's hands, and a group of teachers surrounded Rin's body. Rope had even been procured and used to tie his hands together, and several powerful demons (or as powerful as could be summoned on such short notice) sat obediently by their masters sides, though Mephisto could see that those demons who were in animals guises could not mask their fear, and their hair was bristling and small snarls and whimpers escaped bared teeth. Even the more humanoid ones weren't looking exactly excited about their task.

Before Mephisto could get away, a teacher approached him. A short, dumpy woman with hair piled on like spaghetti. Mephisto remembered being very impressed when he hired her, but for the life of him could not remember her name.

"Monsieur Pheles," she said, and her French accent was overwhelmingly thick, "there are rumors going around the Academy that this boy is Satan's son."

They weren't rumors, and he and Yukio confirmed them some time ago. Mephisto supposed he couldn't help the naturally wheedling nature of humans. "Very true!" he replied, and in preemptive strike added, "as well as the human Mr. Okumura's brother."

The teacher pursed her lips. "And he escaped the holding cells with ease, and went on to kidnap a student?"

"Please use your eyes, ma'am, instead of asking me senseless questions."

"I'm afraid I have to report this to the Vatican, especially if you have not already."

This truly was not the outcome he had desired from tonight. He had given Rin his chance to escape and work out a better plan on raiding Assiah, and Rin had run out and immediately kidnapped the one person who would have this much true emotional importance to Yukio. Either the boy was sabotaging his plans on purpose or he was too much of an idiot to pose any threat. All the same, Mephisto still didn't want the immediate execution the Vatican would no doubt sentence.

He shrugged, his shoulder pads bunching up under his tailored vest. "I cannot stop you from abiding the law." Seizing his chance, he took a step off the roof and poofed out of existence, leaving the teacher looking annoyed. The paramedics managed to stop Yukio's bleeding for the most part and load him into an ambulance, convince the teachers that Mephisto wanted Rin to survive too, and load him into a separate ambulance with a few teachers to supervise. The problem of how he would be treated, especially with no hospital or doctrine of medicine aimed specifically towards demons or specialized towards Satan yet existed anywhere, let alone on an Exorcist academy, and how Yukio, Shiemi and Rin could not possibly share a building, let alone a room, and were in fact having trouble coexisting in a dimension, had yet to be answered.

Mephisto, returned to his office, yawned and rested his feet on the desk, tilting back dangerously in his chair as he did so. He had to look up the prices of train tickets, edit a picture, and procure some uniforms.

Family was not getting any easier.

Chapter Text

The youngest class of exorcists enrolled in True Cross Academy gathered in the hospital room, whose staff was well used to such visits and avoided any confrontation. The nursing staff of both True Cross's Exorcist Academy and Scholastic Academy were all trained exorcists of the highest caliber, and whether students were victims of the common cold or a third class possession they could be treated competently and humanely.

The staff apparently took this tagline very seriously, and refused to treat Rin any differently because of his various crimes or his species, and, lacking the funds to build more single rooms, had simple partitioned of a corner of the room Yukio and Shiemi were laying in with a flimsy bed cloth, perhaps as a subtle protest to Mephisto that the hospital either needed more money to provide separate rooms, or that he should stop making them treat unexpected patients. This effort was in vain, because Mephisto did not make an appearance.

The students alternated between looking sympathetically at the still unconscious Yukio and Shiemi and looking nervously at the curtained off corner where Rin lay. Nurses bustled in and out in a display of productivity, each looking grimmer than the last and carrying larger and more specialized equipment.

Bon spoke up, his voice grating as he tried to remain appropriately quiet but unable to contain his anger. "I don't get why that," he gestured at the curtain, "thing is getting treated at all."

A nurse stopped walking long enough to send a pointed glare at Bon, then walked on.
Izumo crossed her arms. "I heard Mephisto ordered it."

Bon scoffed. "I promise the Vatican wouldn't approve of this disaster. I doubt that crazy bastard has even bothered to alert anyone outside the school. If it wasn't for Sensei, I doubt anyone would have heard about it."

"About that," Konekomaru piped up, glancing nervously at Yukio, "what is Sensei?"

Bon and Izumo rounded on him at once. "I thought we talked about this already!" Izumo said.

"Yeah," Konekomaru said, refusing to meet anyone's eyes, "but no one really answered anything. Is this school really safe?" His fingers kneaded the hem of his shirt.

Shima laughed. "It's an exorcist school, whaddya think?" He sat down on the edge of Shiemi's bed. "But that demon bastard broke my shakujou."

Izumo rolled her eyes. "You care about that old piece of tin?"

Konekomaru laced his fingers together. "I know it's dangerous! I just don't understand how Sensei can be human if his brother is not."

"Unrelated mothers?" Shima suggested, waggling his eyebrows.

"But then their father would both be Satan!" Konekomaru shouted, then covered his mouth with his hands. Shiemi groaned in her sleep and shifted slightly. "Besides," he said in a whisper, "you remember what the demon looks like, right? They're so much alike."

"Different fathers, same mothers. One lady who really got around," Shima said, yawning. "Who knows what Satan's genetics are like. What does it matter, Miwa?" He patted Shiemi's leg. "You're not saying you don't trust Sensei anymore, right?"

Konekomaru opened his mouth to respond, then closed it. He looked down at his feet. "I just don't think it's safe. We should know more."

"It hasn't been very long," Bon said. "I'm sure they'll tell us more once things settle down." He slapped Konekomaru on the back. "Don't worry about it, okay?" Bon turned to glare at the other side of the room, where the stream of nurses had trickled down. He marched over and pulled back the curtain.

☆彡

As Rin always did when waking up in an unfamiliar place, which was becoming more often than not, he tried to take a check of his surroundings before opening his eyes and revealing he was conscious. His right shoulder and leg felt sickeningly dull, like running the remaining ash of a cremated corpse through his fingers. His chest too felt tight, and as he woke up, transformed into a searing pain that scorched the inside of his body each time he took a labored breath. Rin tried to relax, and focused on what had happened the night before. He hoped it hadn't been longer than that.

He hoped that girl - Shiemi Moriyama - was alright. She wasn't a civilian, but Rin only needed to glance at her to tell she wasn't an exorcist yet, not really. Though that attack she had pulled out at the end told him she had the potential to be, and maybe he shouldn't be feeling guilty about her at all. Rin doubted that Yukio would ever needlessly endanger too many civilians, no matter how mad he got or how stressful and urgent the situation might be. Rin liked to think that he could qualify as a very stressful and urgent situation.

Outside of his body check, Rin could hear the sound of many people - probably ladies, if the clacking heels could be any indicator - walking noisily around him. Their voices seemed urgent, but not the urgent of a high-level demon invading your home or the urgent of prison guards trying to stop a riot, which was relaxing. Rin could also hear a distinctive, annoying beeping just to his right.

Rin decided to open his eyes. Immediately, someone shouted, "He's awake!" and the voices around him got more urgent and said things like, "Should we call the director?" and "Tying him down would make his condition worse!" A lady lightly touched his hand and leaned over him, so her face was clearly in his line of sight. It was a comforting gesture, to know where the hands and eyes of a stranger were. She said, "Hello, Mr. Okumura. You're in a hospital, because you suffered many terrible injuries the other night." She smiled reassuringly. "We're here to take care of you, and we're not going to let anything else happen to you as long as you are in our care."

Rin did not believe a word of that, though a hospital did seem a very likely explanation for the soft bed and the beeping in his ear, and also why his injuries didn't feel like he was actually dying at this second. Anesthesia, not tranquilizers; it was an incredibly subtle distinction but Rin could tell. He decided to relax. He probably could escape, but then his wounds wouldn't heal correctly or as quickly. Superficially, it would seem that having super-healing demon powers would make hospitals unnecessary, but you never realize how useful medical aid is until a bone breaks and heals before you can set it properly, and you have to rebreak it just so you could still use it. It was a far better option to wait it out and see what would happen.

Besides, he couldn't count on anyone from Gehenna to help him in this situation, and if any of his father's lackeys were going to show up they would have done it long ago. Rin knew they knew he was in the Exorcist's hands, and it had been at least a week. It was much more likely that natural human philanthropy would work to overpower humans' natural revulsion of him than a demon would overpower natural hatred and take pity on his plight. And he had Mephisto, who had proved incredibly useless so far, but might be convinced that Rin could produce some more entertaining results with a second go at it.

Fear struck Rin. He grabbed the nurse's hand. "Yu," he tried to say, but his voice was rasping and painful. He dissolved into wracking coughs, which ignited a new blaze of pain in his chest.

"What are you doing over there?" someone shouted.

"He's trying to talk!" the nurse shouted back.

"Well, don't let it!"

The nurse patted his hand. "You can tell me later, okay? We need you to rest right now." She walked away.

Rin closed his eyes. What if Yukio was dead? Rin couldn't remember anything after Yukio pinning him down, maybe Yukio had knocked him out? That would mean Yukio had won, managed to call a doctor, and perhaps even demanded medical care for Rin. But Rin had a sinking feeling that the fight hadn't ended there. Surely they wouldn’t be treating him so kindly if he had killed anyone, right?

Yukio had looked so pale. During the fight, all Rin could think about was escape, but now that plan had obviously not panned out and Rin had no knowledge of what the future could lead to and no plan of action, he wondered if that had could have gone differently. He always lapsed into these uncontrollable rages, like the fire was consuming his self control as fuel.

Rin hated it.

He heard the sound of cloth being ripped, and medical personnel begin to shout, and Rin opening his eyes. The Chicken student was standing over him, his face red. He looked very pleased with himself.

Eyebrow Girl appeared beside him, panting. "What the hell are you doing," she started to demand, but she caught Rin's eye and her voice tapered off. A pink haired boy appeared behind her and grabbed Chicken Hair's shoulder, trying to pull him back.

A nurse forced her way in front of them, arms spread out. "You're not allowed to be here," she said.

Chicken Hair ignored her. Though Rin's vision was blocked by the nurse, he could hear him say, "So this is the jackass who kidnapped Shiemi, eh?" He looked over the nurse's shoulder and sneered. "Doesn't look like that tough of a guy."

Pinkie said, "C'mon, it's not worth it. Even if he did destroy my shakujou."

"That's really not the issue here!" Eyebrows said.

Ignoring the pain, Rin struggled to sit up. The nurse turned and held him down, pressing on his good shoulder. Several others rushed to help.

Rin settled for hissing at Chicken Hair, who stepped back, much to Rin's satisfaction. Rin could feel his claws growing out, and decided to make a tactical retreat and focus on controlling his anger. Uncontrollable rage would definitely not work as well in Assiah as it did down in Gehenna, and would it not help him to victimize his rather kind nursing staff. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

"Coward!" Rin heard Chicken Hair shout as he was led away by several burly looking nurses. Rin closed his eyes, and he forced his claws to retreat. He was aware the nurses surrounding him, he could feel them touching him and hear them swearing and shouting. He decided to ignore everything, and go back to sleep. In his experience, things never felt better after sleep, but it was much easier to process them if you could stand up and talk, or maybe fight somebody.

☆彡☆彡

 

Shiemi was able to stand up and walk around almost as soon as she woke up. Her burns were fairly light, and were focused mainly on her forearms and hands. The doctor's main concern was shock, but after Shiemi insisted, they released her with strict instructions to return if she felt any discomfort at all. Her mother was equally worried, and almost refused to let her go to school. Even after Shiemi convinced her that it would be better for her to be out, her mother walked her to school and made her promise to call if she needed to come home early.

When she walked into her class, ten minutes late due to her mother's needless insistence to come with her, Bon and Shima practically carried her to her seat, and even Izumo looked concerned.

Though she had insisted on coming, Shiemi could barely focus on the lesson, and she felt many of her classmates couldn't either. The teacher must have sensed his student's inattention, and ended the lesson with twenty minutes to spare.

They congregated around her. Bon was the first, as always, to butt in. "What did that ass do to you?"

Izumo said, "What did he want?"

Shiemi bit her lip. She had been thinking about her and Rin's conversation for awhile, but she could not make heads nor tails of it. Rin had looked so honest, and yet that went against what she had always been taught. And though she trusted her classmates, she wasn't sure it was her place to tell them that Rin and Yukio were actually twins.

"He wanted to ask directions," Shiemi told Izumo. At their disbelieving stares, she added, "He said he didn't recognize me, and just wanted to escape campus." She glanced down at her bandaged hands. "He said, 'I just want not to get killed.' Ri- He didn't even really want to kidnap anyone, I think. It was all sort of an accident." She stared at her fingers. It was unbelievable, it was ridiculous, but it was true.

"What do you mean, an accident?" Izumo said. She slammed her hand down on the table. "You can't accidentally kidnap someone!"

"Well, I was walking home when I saw him, and he looked lost," Shiemi tried to explain, "so I asked if he needed directions, and he sort of pulled me away." She bit her lip and tried to remember everything clearly. "I don't even think he even recognized me until I talked. He looked really, really scared."

Nii-chan shifted in her pocket. She had been forced to re-summon him this morning. It was a miracle he hadn't been too badly hurt by the fire.

Izumo rolled her eyes. "I would too, if I was an escaped criminal."

"But when did he burn you?" Konekomaru asked. Shame spread across his face, and he looked down. "Sorry, I don't mean to..." Shiemi tried to smile at him.

"I tried to capture him using Nii-chan, but he set the oak on fire," she said. She frowned thinking back. Really, she should have thought ahead. She was scared, but how could she think plants could go up against such a high-caliber fire demon? "But I don't think thats it...It didn't feel painful or anything, just...' It felt comforting, warm but not painfully so, but she didn't think she was ready to say that yet. "Yukio must have come sometime then, and pulled me out."

Yukio was still at the hospital, a sleeping a few feet away from his twin. The doctors hadn't told her much about what condition he was in, but Shiemi was a doctor at heart and could tell that he wouldn't be back soon. Well, he shouldn't be, but Shiemi knew he would insist on coming back the moment he could stay awake for more than a few minutes.

Rin's sword had not injured him nearly as badly as it could have, the one slice across his belly being fairly shallow, but Yukio had suffered from severe blood loss and the cut across his side might require surgery if it didn't begin to heal itself soon. And Shiemi feared for mental damage; while she was at the hospital, Yukio had been constantly having nightmares. The staff had ended up having to hold him down during the worst parts so he wouldn't tear open his stitches.

She hadn't seen him, but Rin had apparently woken up before her, though his injuries were far more severe.

Shiemi was broken out of her thoughts when Shima yawned and stretched his arms out. "Well, whatever happens, that bastard burnt up my staff. I liked that thing." He glanced hopefully at Izumo. "Want to come help me pick out a replacement after school?" He arched an eyebrow.

Izumo punched him in the shoulder. "This isn't the time for jokes!"

Shima looked wounded, and rubbed his shoulder. "My love for you has never been a joke." He winked at Shiemi. "Kidding, kidding."

Bon grumbled, "Maybe now that you don't that, you'll finally focus on your studies to become an Aria."

Shiemi felt herself smile. She would just have to wait for Yukio to come back and make sense of it all.

Mephisto stopped her on her way out of the classroom. "I wouldn't let such an injured student walk home by themselves," he said smoothly, but Shiemi could see a calculating glint in his eye. "There are dangerous sorts around."

"Thank you," she said politely.

As soon as they left school grounds, Mephisto glanced down at her and asked, "Did you and that demon speak at all the other night?"

She nodded.

Mephisto hummed quietly to himself. "Anything interesting?"

Shiemi considered this. "He said his name was Rin, and that he and Yukio were twins." Mephisto no doubt knew this already, it was obvious just from looking at them; Yukio would be in no danger from this. "Nothing else about himself."

"I do not think that I have to tell you that this is all very confidential information, Miss Moriyama," Mephisto said. His solemn tone did not quite cover his good cheer, and he was almost skipping along beside her.

"I would never betray Yukio," Shiemi promised. "But I think you should tell everyone what's going on soon! We're all scared."

"I will leave it up to the Vatican to make that decision," Mephisto said, "but I'm sure everything will come to light soon regardless of what the higher-ups say." He waved his hand dismissively. "More pertinent is the question of your injuries."

"Huh?" Shiemi gingerly touched the bandage on her neck. "It's not much, really."

Mephisto beamed at her. "Exactly! Satan's flame is meant to destroy both body and soul. Everything. That's what makes them so unique, so coveted, and so feared. But you, Miss Moriyama, are walking around as normal, alive! And if we look back to Blue Night, we could see that even short exposure to the flames - no matter how strong your will - should have destroyed you. Not ordinary reactions to fire: red skin, blisters, but complete destruction."

They had both stopped walking. Mephisto leaned close enough that Shiemi could smell chocolate on his breath. "Now I wonder why that is?"

Before Shiemi could come up with a response, he disappeared, leaving Shiemi to walk home alone.

She sighed. Everything was happening too fast for her to keep up with. Just a week ago, there had been nothing strange about Yukio, and she hadn't questioned anything her teachers had said about demons. Her conversation with Rin had been short and unenlightening, but from what she had seen of his actions he had seemed more frightened than her. He had acted so sad too, when he said he didn't want to kill anyone and when he told her he was evil.

Nii-chan climbed out of her pocket and up her arms, settling on her shoulder. A few violets wove their way into her hair. Not all demons are evil, she thought. The familiars she had met were varying levels of kind and helpful, but all of them seemed to care what happened to their masters. And there were such things like river spirits that protected nature, and ghosts who were really just humans.

But she had never heard of a demon who was so powerful and yet so regretful about it.

Chapter Text

Mephisto looked down at Rin. He looked even more underwhelming than usual, covered from head to toe in bandages and hooked up to so much equipment it was a wonder there was room for it all. He obviously didn't need to poor any more money into their medical system, that was for sure.

"You look pathetic," Mephisto said, as kindly as he could, "and indecent. How many times do I have to tell you that gentlemen do not leave their tails hanging out?"

Rin scowled and flicked his tail in Mephisto's direction. "Thanks so much for all your help."

"Help is what you make of it." Mephisto held up a finger, stopping Rin's retaliation. "And fear not! Big Brother Mephisto isn't going to give up on you yet. I am going to grant you one last chance. I can't let you go, but I can do my best to make sure you aren't going to be killed off immediately by the Vatican."

Rin sat up. "You think a vague promise of 'maybe' survival is going to make me happy?" He struggled to reach out and grab Mephisto's coat. Mephisto helped him by stepping two inches to the left, just out of reach. Rin fell backwards with a thunk. The medical staff was not going to be happy with him.

"Vague promises are better than no promises at all," Mephisto said. "Hope is the driving force of humanity, after all."

"Not human," Rin said. "And what would you know?" He curled his fingers around the blankets. "And why do you always speak in such cliches?"

Mephisto decided to ignore that. "So you don't want to know what your last chance is?" He made to leave. "You can keep your dignity over your life, if you so please. Who am I to stop you?"

Rin crossed his arms and stared at Mephisto. "Fine!" he said eventually. "What is it?"

"I," Mephisto said proudly, "am going to send you to school."

Rin gaped at him. "What?"

"School," Mephisto repeated. "Specifically, the True Cross Academy Exorcist Cram School."

Rin continued to stare. Mephisto was getting far more enjoyment out of this than he expected he would. "Are you worried about meeting so many new people? You realize I am principal there, and your brother teaches, so you already have extensive family connections. And you are personally acquainted with our own dear Shiemi Moriyama, I hear."

Rin was as pale as his sheets. Mephisto was grinning. "Of course, I won't force you to go before you are completely healed, but all the teachers have been informed and I have your student ID all ready to go." He handed it to Rin, who took it with shaking hands.

Mephisto was particularly proud of the picture, which he had taken while Rin lay unconscious after his fight was Yukio. The blood had been cleverly edited out by pasting cartoon bandages over the cuts, and the remnants of Satan's flame had been replaced by a colorful flower background. It looked awful, and Mephisto loved it.

"If you can behave yourself around the students until the Vatican arrives, perhaps they will consider your case more fairly," Mephisto explained. "Show your human side. And it's just a perk if you actually form connections with the students and can have them stick up for you when it comes to it."

Rin tore himself away from the student ID and looked up at Mephisto. There was nothing more satisfying than seeing such abject horror in his brother's eyes. "Won't...won't you get in trouble for endangering students?"

Mephisto waved his hand dismissively. "They are used to a certain amount of eccentricities from me by now, I should hope. Besides, we have proven definitively that the prison system here is ineffective, and so the only choice I have is to place you under the constant and tyrannical supervision of the best Exorcists True Cross has to offer, which of course would be the teachers."

Rin held his head in his hands. "What's your real reason?"

Mephisto laughed. "I just told you."

"No," Rin said. "That was somewhat selfless, if incredibly dumb. That's not how demons work. It's not how you work. What's entertaining about sending me to school?"

"This will be entertaining, incredibly so," he said absently. Mephisto looked down at Rin with pity. "Do you think all your actions are selfish, Rin?" The boy was right of course. No one, not even Mephisto would send Rin to Cram School just out of an ill-conceived notion that it would look good to the jury. But it was sad to see him stereotype himself so negatively.

Rin shrugged with one shoulder. "Probably. In Gehenna, it's hard to be anything other than selfish."

Mephisto decided it was his familial duty to cheer the boy up. He leaned in and planted a big smooch on Rin's forehead, patted his knee it what he hoped could be taken for reassuring, and sauntered out with a, "Get well soon!"

In his bed, Rin wiped his forehead with the flimsy sleeve of the hospital gown. What in the world was Mephisto thinking? Rin couldn't even comprehend the mindset that would make this seem like a good idea. Rin's world and the world of the cram school were so far removed from each other, Rin couldn't even worry about not getting along with the students, he should worry about not getting killed.

Even ignoring the fact that he had kidnapped one of them and had frequently fought their teacher, it was like sticking a balloon in a needle factory, where all the needles were specifically engineered to pop balloons. An exile to the Academy would just be a more prolonged and embarrassing death than one at the hands of the Vatican. And if Rin tried to defend himself, Mephisto had made it clear that it would mean a report to the Grigori that he was an uncontrollable monster.

On the positive side, it should be much easier to escape a cram school than to escape the Vatican. Even if the teachers were highly trained, none of them would beat the Paladin. Which left Rin to figure out why Mephisto had insisted on a plan that was so skewed in Rin's favor. Maybe this was another of Mephisto's tests. Or maybe Rin was, as usual, missing something important.

Rin shut his eyes. Again, with all this thinking! Critical analysis wasn't what he had been trained for. He had been trained to fight, thought that had honestly not been working out for him either.

Everything was too confusing right now. If there was one thing he could be reasonably sure about, it's that he shouldn't be lying around all day sleeping. It was hard to keep that in mind as he lay in the most comfortable bed he had been in for years.

If he was understanding the nurses correctly, he was healing much faster than a normal human would be, which was understandable. Yukio was probably still in the hospital too, if Rin had put up any fight at all. It was this damn flimsy curtain keeping them apart. Not that he really wanted to see his brother right now, Rin thought. That was another thing he had to consider.

Rin gave up and decided to sleep again. It was all he had done for who knows how many days, cooped up in this hospital. Technically nothing was stopping him from leaving, but he had a feeling he would get knocked down by some burly nurse if he so much as stood up, and Mephisto would no doubt be hot in his trail as soon as he put a toe out of line.

As he fell asleep, Rin found his mind wandering towards his first days in Gehenna, which he had tried not to think about for a very long time. He had been alone and terrified, forced from ignorance of all things supernatural into the beginning of a horror movie in less than an hour. Resistance would be terribly, terribly difficult in Assiah, but not an insurmountable task. In Gehenna, the mere thought of resisting was expelled from the mind, so powerful was Satan's presence. It overwhelmed Rin, narrowing his vision and making him weak, evil so overpowering that Rin was left clawing at his face in an attempt to distract himself from the pain.

That was, until his father had arrived.

☆彡

Despite all attempts to delay the process, Rin was out of the hospital and into Cram School in two days, placing him leagues ahead of Yukio in the healing olympics. This, Rin thought sullenly as Mephisto dragged him to the secret entrance of the school, would probably mean that when Yukio did heal, he would walk into his classroom expecting his normal students and instead would see Rin, front and center. Rin had decided that it would probably be the day he would die, considering he wasn't allowed to bring his sword with him. He had only known Mephisto for a few days, tops, and Rin could tell that Mephisto would much prefer to surprise Yukio than warn him his evil twin had enrolled in high school.

Mephisto transformed into a small, annoying looking dog right before they entered the classroom. It did not help Rin's introduction when he was still looking in shock at the floor. Somewhat to Rin's surprise, Mephisto had actually told the teachers what was happening, and though Rin was glared at, he was admitted into the class.

He took a seat in the back, far away from the shell-shocked cram students. The dog-Mephisto jumped on his lap and curled up. No one had said a word since his entrance. It felt just like middle school, after Rin wandered in to Geography twenty minutes late with ripped pants and bloody knuckles.

Unlike middle school, the teacher seemed to recover himself. It was obvious that though he had been told, he had not prepared himself at all for this eventuality.

"Okumura," he said falteringly. "Please introduce yourself to the class."

Rin stood up, forcing the dog-Mephisto off his lap, and strode to the front of the classroom. He could feel the burning stares of everyone in the class. He hated it. He had been through so much in the last years, he should be far past this sort of school drama.

He wrote his name on the board, making sure to emphasis the "Okumura" part of "Rin Okumura" which he achieved by double underlining it. "I'm Yukio's twin brother, the demon," he said by way of introduction.

Chicken Head stood up. "What the hell?" He looked at the teacher. "The hell?" he repeated.

Rin shrugged at the same time the teacher said, "The Director made a special request, Suguro."

Chicken Head - Suguro, Rin decided not to remember - sat back down, disgust written all over his face.

Shiemi, Rin noted, had an odd expression of mixed fear and concern.

Rin decided he was done with introductions and made his way to his empty seat in the back of the classroom, but the teacher stopped him, his hand stopping just short of actually touching Rin. "No, sit here," the teacher said, and pointed Rin to a seat in the very front, in full view of the teacher and everyone in the class.

Rin sighed and sat down. This class had to be history or something, Mephisto hadn't actually given him a schedule, but the teacher droned on and on about Satan's fall from heaven, and how Satan didn't even really rule over Gehenna either, because Hell and its domains was a punishment made specifically for Satan. The teacher even threw in a half-hearted line about how, in a way, Satan and his kin were to pitied for their eternal torment in Gehenna, clearly eyeing Rin as he said it. He concluded with, "And that's why demons try so hard to inhabit Assiah, out of greed and jealousy."

Rin had fallen asleep halfway through it. So far, this whole "go to Cram School" gig didn't seem nearly as bad as Rin had expected it to be. It was just like normal school, and if he could figure out a way to skip out on classes, he might actually survive a few months of this while he figured out how to get back to Gehenna, or a better option, like somewhere safe in Assiah.

In the hallway between classes, the students - his classmates, Rin supposed - hadn't seemed to work up the nerve to confront him yet. They did seem to have formed a shield around Shiemi, walking with her in the middle, though from their iron expressions Rin couldn't tell if they had done it on purpose or not. Rin ignored it. It's not like he was actually targeting Shiemi anyway, so let them do as they will.

In the second class, the teacher marched to her closet, grabbed a large cardboard box, marched all the way to the back of the room, and placed the box right next to Rin. The students silently watched her progress, eyes wide. Rin stared at the box.

As soon as she set it down, she marched back to the front of the room, and started a passive-aggressive lesson on how high-level demons without a holy verse could be expelled from Assiah through various other means.

When it looked to Rin like she wasn't looking at him, though all the cram students clearly weren't paying attention (minus Chicken Head, which was surprising), Rin scooted closer to the box. Dog-Mephisto whimpered and jumped onto the desk. Rin made to pry the box open, but when his fingers got within a foot of it, the tips started to burn.

"That," the teacher said with a smug smile, "is a box of examples." Rin jumped away from the box, feeling somewhat guilty for even looking at it. "Would you please bring it to the front of the class to demonstrate, Mr. Okumura?"

Rin looked back down at the box, than to the teacher, who was waiting in faux impatience with her arms crossed. This was the kind of petty treatment Rin could deal with, as long as they weren't outright going to give him showers of holy water and silver utensils.

"Nah," Rin said, and slouched in his chair.

The teacher turned back to her class, pleased in a lesson well-orchestrated. "See? Even being close to weapons of silver makes him uncomfortable. Especially potent to those without a corporal form, the folk demon repellants of iron, silver, and holy water, along with some herbs like oak and roe, can be extremely effective in banishing weaker demons and repelling stronger ones."

When the class ended, Rin had to jump over the desktop table to avoid the box.

It took until the third class for the silence to really grate on him. The dog-Mephisto was still with him, curled up on his lap, and his quiet growls as he dreamed were the only sounds in the classroom other than the uniformly passive-aggressive groaning of whatever teacher was up in the front. Outright violence had to be better than this; at least than Rin could be doing something. Should he be taking notes on this? Would his grades here matter at all? He hadn't thought his grades in middle school had mattered, and if he had turned out to be human they actually might have made an impact on his future (so, good thing that deal didn't pan out?). Did Rin actually need to take notes that amounted to, "Demons are evil, especially Satan, kill them all!"

Rin laid his head down on his desk. Sleeping was all he had done at the hospital, and sleeping was clearly all he was going to do here too. Maybe everything that had happened was a Vatican conspiracy to make him apathetic and weak. If so, it was working.

He was closing his eyes when Chicken Hair interrupted the teacher and stood up. Rin focused one eye on him.

"Is anyone going to explain this?" Chicken Hair said, pointing at Rin. Rin sat up. It looked like something was finally going to happen. "Are we just going to sit here and say shit? Like it's normal to have a fucking demon in our class?" Chicken Hair pressed his hands to his temples. "I can't take this anymore."

Rin stood up too. He strode forward until he was standing nose-to-nose with Chicken Hair. The teacher pulled a sword from behind her podium and leveled it at Rin.

"Well, ask then!" Rin said, pointing at the students. "Just get it over with already, this is so boring I'd rather be executed. What do you want?"

The teacher kept her weapon up, but nodded at the students.

Chicken Hair opened his mouth to speak first, no surprise there, but Eyebrows cut him off. "Are you truly the son of Satan?"

Chicken Hair glared at her and said, "How can we trust anything you say?"

Rin shrugged. "I don't know, I just figured this was better than not saying anything at all. And yeah, I'm a true son of Satan." He gave her a thumbs-up and grinned.

"Wouldn't that make you one of the Kings of Hell?" Eyebrows pressed. The bald boy looked like he was about to cry.

"My mom was human, though I never knew her," Rin said. "Which is also why Yukio doesn't have any demon in him - all of Satan's power was passed down to me, and all of mom's humanity was passed down to him." He scratched the back of his neck. "I don't think they allow 16 year old half-humans to become Kings of Hell."

"Why are you here?" Bald Boy asked.

Rin shrugged. "That damn Mephisto made me. Trust me, I don't want to be here anymore than you want me to be."

"Why," Shiemi asked, "do you want to kill Yukio?"

Ah, there was the silence again. While they had been asking questions, the students had been starting to whisper among themselves, but the dead silence was back again.

Rin considered this. He looked at Mephisto, who looked as calm as a dog can look. "I told you this the other night," he tried, with a grin that felt lame."It's because I'm evil." It sounded hollow even in Rin's own ears. He cleared his throat.

Shiemi didn't look very convinced by this, even if the other students did. Rin scratched the back of his head. "I guess because he's trying to kill me." He offered no further explanation for this, and the students must have realized from his tone that they should question no more.

"Anyway," Rin said, "would you stop pansy-ing around, walking on your tiptoes around me? It makes me feel like I'm going to jumped on my way home." Home. He didn't know exactly where that was. Mephisto never told him where he was supposed to go after this.

Suguro sputtered. "What the fuck kind of show do you think this is? You're a demon, you want us to just ignore that?" He puffed up his chest. "I'm training to kill your father; should I be ignoring you just because someone says I should?"

Rin bristled. His tail thumped against the back of the table. "Kill my father?" His father was already dead.

"You heard me. Satan." Suguo's eyes glinted. "It's revenge. Does make you angry, hellspawn?"

"If anyone should be getting revenge, it's me," Rin muttered, much too quietly for Suguro to hear. Out loud, he said, "Good luck with that." He considered his current position, at the mercy of the Vatican if he couldn't escape soon, seemingly abandoned by Satan (surprise, surprise). "Wouldn't it be better to interrogate me then kill me? I am, after all, the only one who's met the guy in person."

Suguro looked like he was about to explode.

Pink haired guy took a deep breath, and walked up to Rin's table. He slammed his hand on Rin's desk, though he clearly was scared out of his wits. "You broke my staff," he said, his voice squeaking at the end.

"Oops," Rin said, unapologetically.

"You're a Knight!"

The teacher interjected, "As it's not an exorcist, it can not be classified as a Knight, merely a swords user." Rin glared.

"Are Knights the guys with the swords? I guess I am," Rin said with a shrug. He did not see where this conversation was going.

"You," Pink Hair said, with a burst of authoritativeness that blew Rin away, "are going to come help me pick out a sword, and you are going to teach me how to use it. As penance."

The teacher's mouth dropped open. Dog-Mephisto barked, and Rin could not tell if it was approving or warning.

Rin said, "Um."

Suguro said, "What? Shima, what are you thinking?"

Pink Hair - Shima - turned on Suguro. "Well, the principal's going to make us go along with this right? And he broke my staff."

"You're going to make him teach you how to be a Knight?" Eyebrows said. "You're going to give him a weapon?"

Shima crossed his arms. "It's not like they'd let him kill me, right?"

"I'm not gonna kill anyone," Rin muttered. No one seemed to be listening to him anymore. He slid back into his seat.

Shiemi clapped her hands together. "When did you decide to be a Knight? That's wonderful!"

Shima blushed. "I don't think Aria's really my thing. Sorry, Bon."

"That's not the point right now!" Suguro said. "We can talk about that later. But why does this demon have to train you?"

Shima shrugged. "He seems like he's pretty good at it."

"Thanks," Rin muttered.

"And if I'm going to become a Knight," Shima continued, "It's pretty late in the game to change, right? There's no way I'm going to learn enough at school to catch up, and it's not something you can practice by yourself."

The teacher seemed to think this was the correct point to interject with a, "Settle down, class."

The students reluctantly went back to their seats. This class was freakishly well-behaved; if a demon had intruded on Rin's class he'd have beaten it to a pulp, no questions asked. And he certainly wouldn't have stopped and listened to his teacher if they told him to go back to his seat. Crazy. He put his head down on the table.

Dog-Mephisto nuzzled up close to his ear and whispered, "Teach Shima." His fur tickled Rin's ear. Rin scowled. He didn't want to teach some kid how to use a sword. He didn't know how. Satan - and by extension, various other demons - hadn't really taught him per se, so he didn't really have a point of reference, unless you considered throwing a kid into a battle with a sword counted as a lesson. Rin doubted Mephisto would approve, even if he could find some handy battles to throw students in.

He could just pit the kid against himself, but he wasn't sure that he could hold back if it turned out the kid had any sort of talent. Instinct would kick in and he'd skewer him, and the Vatican would descend on him before Rin could burn the evidence and skip town.

Rin slept through the rest of that class, and afterwards Cram School was apparently over. Rin sent up a silent prayer to whoever was listening that no one was going to make him attend regular school too. Standing around while people shoved rosemary and silver in his face was one thing, but having to sit through a lesson in trigonometry was a whole different story.

Mephisto didn't appear to want to change back into a humanoid even after they left the school, so Rin followed the little dog through the winding streets of True Cross City, trying to keep an eye out for possible escape routes. The dog stopped at an old dorm room, abandoned by the looks of it. Ivy grew up its walls, and Rin thought he could see a few boarded up windows.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked the dog. He squatted down and tried to look it in the eye. The creature refused to meet his gaze, but skipped back a few steps into the doorway. He kicked over a rock, revealing a tiny key, which Rin took. He unlocked the door, glared at the dog, and stepped inside.

It was surprisingly clean, no graffiti or trash. It looked lived in. Rin raised an eyebrow at the dog. Other students, or a squatter?

He followed dog-Mephisto down a hallway, and into a small dorm room. There was a desk facing a small window. Not small enough that it would be impossible to crawl out of, Rin noted. A single bed was shoved in the corner. At least he didn't have a roommate, Rin thought.

The dog left him there. As soon as he saw the dog's tail disappear, Rin sidled over to the window and tried to open it. The wards on it were so heavy Rin could smell the air burning around it. He yanked his fingers away and stuck them in his mouth. There was so little trust here.

He curled up in the bed. There were no blankets, and Rin didn't think he could go to sleep anyway, not with all the sleeping he had been doing these past weeks. So he lay in bed, staring at the chipped gray ceiling, and tried not to think about what would happen. Or what had happened.

Chapter Text

Rin made his way to school the next day, followed by the omnipresent terrier. When in the building, he was led to a room full of caged demons.

Rin looked for the rest of the class, but he seemed to be the first one there. "You sure about this?" he asked the dog. It was getting strangely hard to recognize it as Mephisto. The dog barked.

The teacher appeared from a back room Rin hadn't noticed, wearing what looked like a Hazmat suit. "Oh!" he said, and made a beeline toward him. Rin stepped back, ready to be on the defensive, but the teacher beamed at him from underneath his mask.

He stuck out a gloved hand, which Rin shook. "You must be Rin Okumura," he said. "I have been so excited to meet you."

Rin grinned at him, puzzled. The teacher rattled on, oblivious. "You'll have to excuse my dress, it's protection from some more venomous demons. The rest of the class is off putting their suits on too. You won't need anything like this, of course." He patted a cage fondly. The demon inside it hissed. "All we've got here is lower level stuff, nothing that's going to hurt you."

Rin considered insisting on protective gear, remembering the treatment he got yesterday and thinking this might be a plan to get rid of him once and for all, but a quick glance around the room verified the teacher's statement. As he walked by, the demons closest to him cowered in their various cages/bottles/etc.

The kids filed in slowly. Shiemi and Eyebrows first, Shiemi running behind Eyebrows and asking her to help her adjust her mask.

When Shiemi came in, the teacher bounded to her side. "Miss Moriyama," he said. "I must offer my congratulations to you!"

Shiemi gaped at him. "Huh? What for?"

"I have heard all about your experience with Mr. Okumura here. I'm sorry I haven't been able to congratulate you before, but your mastery over taming is very advanced. Genius, I would say."

Eyebrows said, "Her?" She turned on Shiemi. "What is he talking about?"

The boys filed in more slowly, Baldy last of all. The others seemed oddly unaffected by Rin's presence, most just resigned to glaring, but Baldy was visibly shaking as he walked past Rin. He reminded Rin of the demons cowering in their cages, which made him laugh as Baldy walked by. That couldn't have helped his reputation any. Rin ignored it in favor of listening into the teacher's conversation.

"Why, her combat with Mr. Okumura," the teacher said. "Haven't you told everyone?" Without waiting for an answer, he started explaining himself. "You used the weak, young Greenman spirit to combat someone who could be on his way to becoming the Ninth King of Hell."

Rin raised his eyebrows. That was a weird way to put it, but sure. Everyone here seemed pretty intent on labeling him as a King.

"Not only was your use of herbs on the spot like that absolutely genius, but your control of the spirit! I would consider myself a good Tamer, but your bond with the creature, what do you call it again?"

"Nii-chan," Shiemi whispered. Her face was so red, Rin was almost worried for her.

"Nii-chan, yes," the teacher said. "While your bond with it is exceptional, many lowly demons like that would risk potential punishment by their masters and rebel when ordered to face a demon like Mr. Okumura, especially since fire is so overwhelmingly powerful against plants."

Shiemi blushed harder. "Yeah. I..." she choked out, "feel pretty dumb about that." She glanced at Rin quickly and looked away.

The teacher looked shocked. "Don't! I know you didn't plan on become a full-fledged exorcist, but please consider it. You offer talent in a field with a lot of opportunities."

The class turned out to be a scientific study of demons, something like biology at a regular school. Rin assumed that this meant dissecting too, but whether out of a misguided respect towards Rin or just not being on the lesson plan, the teacher decided to make them all sketch a Bariyon. There seemed to be an awful lot of them for such a small class, and the students groaned looking at them.

The teacher smiled. "I assume you all know the most common use for the Bariyon: punishment. Bariyon get heavier and heavier the longer they are held, so in the wild they can be dangerous. Here, however, they are harmless teaching tools. Tell me, which King of Hell do these fall under?"

Suguro's hand shot up. A few of the others followed suit, much more slowly. It sorta surprised Rin. Chicken Hair looked like a delinquent. Rin yawned.

"Yes, Mr. Okumura!" the teacher said, clearly delighted in this show of participation.

Rin blinked in surprise. "Um..."

Suguro rolled his eyes. Rin glared at him. "Um, a rock." It shouldn't be Astaroth, so it had to be..."That's gotta be Amaimon, right?"

The teacher paused. "Perhaps," he said carefully. "Suguro, can you tell us the common name for the King?"

"The King of Earth." Suguro looked exactly like a preening chicken. Rin continued glaring. Baldy looked like he was going to throw up.

Rin sat back, almost falling off his stool. Same thing, it wasn't his fault if these guys didn't know anyone's name. Weren't they supposed to? Like, summoning and things?

Come to think about it, had Mephisto told anyone he was really Samael, the King of Time? He had said he was known as Mephisto on Earth, but that could mean anything, couldn't it? It seemed plausible either way, but surely the Vatican had to know, if not the students. They definitely wouldn't let Rin near the second strongest King of Hell. Unless Mephisto hadn't gotten around to informing them yet.

Maybe he could try to subtly bring it up in conversation. Or he could just ask that damn dog on their way to that dorm.

Rin looked down at the piece of paper the teacher had given him in lieu of a sketchpad. There wasn't much to sketching a rock, really. He drew a circle and added two dots for eyes, then scooted over and began to look at the other demons. They had a lot here, little goblins clinging on the metal bars and even coal tar encased in jars, despite the fact there was a million more in the air around them. Rin could hear them bumping against the green glass jar like flies.

He kneeled down at looked inside one cage. Two beady eyes glared out at him. Rin felt the dog rub against his foot and paw at his leg. Rin ignored it.

"Yo," Rin said. The demon hissed. Rin hissed back.

It was a very childish, so it didn't make sense that all the students were staring at him when he looked up. The teacher looked delighted, as Rin suspected was his permanent expression, perhaps cemented on his face during a nasty accident with a demon.

"Are you communicating with it?" the teacher asked.

"Um?" Rin said. You couldn't really communicate with demons like this, they weren't intelligent or anything. The question was nonsensical. Imagine asking a giraffe to communicate with a horsefly. Or even just a human to communicate with a horsefly. He looked back into the cage. The two eyes burned red for a second, then dimmed. "No," Rin said. He stood up and walked back to his stool. "Just looking at it. What is it?"

The teacher flapped his arm dismissively. "Oh, just a salamander. Tell me, could you communicate with demons?"

Rin glanced around, trying to find something to avoid this sudden questionnaire. If this continued, he'd end up revealing more right now than he had in his impromptu Q&A session yesterday, and it wouldn't be on his own terms. Dog-Mephisto didn't seem like he was keen to do anything either. "If it can talk," he tried. "Things can either talk, or they can't. Most things here can't, so um, communication is not so...not so good?”

Most demons weren't very smart anyway. Cunning, sure. Conniving? Definitely. Smart? Rarely. It took very few brain cells to really trick a human anyway, and it's not like haunting a tree or anything required a great knowledge of linguistics, just the ability to make a branch fall and hit anyone walking by on the head.

Conversations in Gehenna had been limited, and if Rin had been prone to philosophy, he might say there had been no talk at all. The lack of material things in Gehenna had messed a lot of Rin's basic instincts up.

The teacher was nodding. "Students, this semester is going to be particularly interesting!" He smiled at Rin. "I know we're going to learn a lot from you."

Rin very much doubted that. He hoped he had enough freedom to doubt it as much as he did.

The teacher scratched his chin. "Is there anything you could communicate with in here?"

Rin scanned the room. There were rows and rows of cages full of quivering, weak demons. Nothing here had been a blight to any human in at least fifty years, possibly even centuries. Rin almost felt a touch of pity for them. Almost.

A small black cat in the back of the room caught Rin’s eye. He strode towards it and crouched down. The little creature didn’t even raise its head at Rin’s approach, though Rin did notice a disdainful ear flick.

“Oi,” Rin said outloud, more for the benefit of the teacher than any real necessity to verbalize. “What are you?” He stuck his fingers through the bars of the cage and wiggled them.

Leave me alone,the cat said.

Rin withdrew his fingers. “Hm?”

I said, ‘Leave me alone!’ the cat raised its head slightly and let out a pathetic excuse for a hiss. Its two tails thumped against the walls of the cage. Smelly human.

Rin glanced up at the teacher. “It’s rude, that’s what it is.” He jabbed his finger in the cat’s direction. “That’s not any way to be talking to someone outside of a cage! You’re the smelly one!”

>I am not, said the cat. Go away.

The teacher tapped the side of his head. “If I recall correctly, this guy is a fairly recent addition to our collection, maybe had him for a year or two.” He patted the cage. “Used to be one of the guardians of the Academy until he got wind of his master’s death. Sad stuff, sad stuff.”

Rin squinted at the cat and stuck his tongue out. “Pretty pathetic.” He stood up and brushed his pants off. “It’s not like you need a master.”

Rin spent the rest of the class idly sketching that rock thing. He gave it extra thick eyebrows and a twirly mustache. The teacher, whose fawning had been entertaining at first, was hanging over him, breathing down Rin's neck.

The students filtered away to the next classroom, talking loudly among themselves in a little cluster. Rin trudged behind them, hands stuck in his pockets. His tail dragged behind him, leaving sad little trails in the dust.

The class had already sat down by the time Rin got there. They really had adjusted quickly to his presence; they weren't friendly or anything, but they only threw the occasional glance at him. Rin settled back in his seat. The constant death threats he had been imagining hadn't happened yet. This school stint was going to be a breeze.

No teacher had shown up yet. He heard Eyebrows say, "Should we just go home?"

Shiemi said, "I think we should visit him again."

They all threw a collective glance at him. It was eerie, the synchronization. Rin looked away. This had to be Yukio's class then. Mephisto was cheap, not to even provide a substitute. What did Yukio teach, anyway? When they were kids, Yukio had this whole life Rin hadn't known about. It was better that way, for Rin, that he hadn't known growing up his brother was training to kill him. But now, it made him wonder what Yukio was actually good at. The brother he knew would never be able to fire a gun, let alone wield two of them so expertly. Rin rested his head on the table. The students could go where ever, they didn't need to keep side eying him like that.

Rin had always thought Yukio wanted to be a doctor. Maybe that hadn't been a lie; there were doctor exorcists, Rin was pretty sure. Probably called something unnecessarily Latin sounding. Rin had always been so proud of his (younger) twin going on to be something as great as a doctor. How would have little kid Rin felt about Yukio growing up to be a really good exorcist?

Rin grinned. That was an easy one to answer. That would have been following in Fujimoto's footsteps, and Rin would have thought Yukio was way too good for that. He had thought his own father was a sham right until the very end.

Rin glanced up. "Hey," he said.

The gaggle of classmates stopped their conversation, which had looked as if it was growing heated, and stared at him.

"Is this Yukio's classroom?" he asked.

Shiemi nodded.

"What does he teach?"

"Anti-Demon Pharmacology," Shiemi said.

Rin laughed. "Good for him," he said, and laid back down. So Yukio had become an exorcist-doctor-thing after all.

Suguro stood up. "What's that supposed to mean?" he shouted across the room. "You can't keep saying these vague things and going to sleep! Pisses me off."

Eyebrows scoffed. "Shut up about it already. We get that can't get over this great injustice perpetrated by the Vatican, yadda yadda."

Rin yawned. "S'just that Yukio always wanted to be a doctor. Didn't talk about being a teacher or anything, but it was always 'Doctor this' and 'Medicine that'. When I got into fights and stuff-" Baldy stiffened "-he was always running at me with a pack of Band-Aids." Maybe, if Rin failed at plans A) escaping, and B) taking Yukio down, he could work on the more insidious plan of C) embarrassing Yukio.

He really was unreasonably tired. He couldn't remember if he had ever gotten to sleep the other night, but Mephisto had appeared in his room at 6 AM and woken him up by jumping on his bed.

"So you had a normal childhood," Eyebrows said. "Shout it from the rooftops."

"I guess," Rin said. It was normal, in comparison to his teen years. He wasn't sure how it compared to anyone else's. Most people weren't raised in churches, for instance. Many people didn't break their father's ribs in a rage while they were in kindergarten.

"Did you not always know you were a demon?" Baldy asked. It was the first time Rin ever heard him really speak. Rin sat up and looked at him.

"No," he said. "I didn't. I found out when I was about to go into high school and Astaroth, the King of Rot, attacked me." Rin looked at their faces and continued. "He had possessed the leader of this gang, you see, and they were torturing birds so I skipped school to go and stop them, because I was really against senseless violence back then." He remember the horns growing out of Reiji's skull, his face contorting as the muscles moved in ways that shouldn't be possible. Father Fujimoto had come running, but was mere minutes late.

A Gehenna Gate had opened in that very street, the only way for Rin's material body to pass into the immaterial Gehenna. Satan probably hadn't believed Astaroth's plan would really work, but it was Rin's body that Satan really needed in order to gain control over both realms. As so clearly evidenced during Blue Night, no earthly material was strong enough to hold Satan without being destroyed. Nothing except Rin.

"And Yukio?" Shiemi asked.

Rin shrugged. "I don't know, it's not like I got to see him after that. And you saw our reunion. He was probably at school or something. He was already accepted at True Cross. I guess it was to teach, but I thought he was really going to go to school here. So maybe he was up here."

He smiled at them. "You guys were all probably moving into your dorms and stuff when I found out I was a demon."

The dog-Mephisto whimpered. Rin glared at it. It was ruining his dramatic moment. It had been like, two days and Rin wanted to strangle the thing. If he hadn't run away in two days, he wasn't going to run at all, right?

The class ended soon after that. Rin must have been dozing off longer than he had realized, and the student's argument about whether to visit Yukio must have never come to fruition, because everyone wandered off in different directions afterwards. Maybe to their dorms, or to some individualized study Rin wasn't privy to.

Shiemi approached him, nervously rubbing her hands together. "I'm going to the hospital to visit Yukio."

Rin nodded and kept on walking. She must have lost the argument for a group visit. That stupid dog wasn't even waiting for him. What a lousy guard.

"Do you want to come with me?"

Rin stared at her. "Come with you?

"Well," she said, studying her fingers, "it sounded like you really cared about him when you were talking today, and he's probably still unconscious so you won't lose...anything if you go check on him?" She looked up at him hopefully.

Rin looked after the dog, who was disappearing behind a potted plant. He bit his lip. Strategically speaking, this was a once in a lifetime chance. This girl, who had seen first hand his desire to kill Yukio, was offering to lead him into a place he probably would never otherwise have access to, and show him an unconscious Yukio. Unconscious people, in Rin's experience, were by far the easiest people to stab.

"Okay," Rin said.

Shiemi's whole face lit up. She beamed at him, almost shaking in her pleasure, like she had overcome some great obstacle in getting him to go visit his own brother, and said, "Great! Follow me."

Rin trudged behind her. He had been following too many people recently. Being unused to an environment was really grating on his nerves, and True Cross' architect must have designed the city to be as confusing as possible. It was like a fortress. You couldn't lay siege to this no matter how well drawn out your plans, because there would be forty exits, magical or otherwise, completely disguised from the outside viewer. Maybe it was intentional, then. Was Mephisto planning on having some grand battles, or was this based on a past experience?

Or maybe the architect had just sucked.

He kept an eye focused on the back of the girl. Shiemi was actually pretty cute. He hadn't noticed before, what with all the terror and everything, and he hadn't actually seen a human girl in a year or so (barring succubi, who merely took on the form of human women, so they didn't really count), but Rin was sure that Shiemi was even objectively pretty fine.

Rin blushed. Come to think of it, it was pretty lucky he and Shiemi had even been allowed to be together, no matter how dubious these circumstances were. Weren't there restrictions on these sort of things in normal high schools? He ran a hand through his hair. He really don't know much, he supposed.

It was no surprise that everyone had been so protective after he kidnapped her. Rin turned beat red, blushing up to his ears. Everyone must have thought...He shook his head. No way.

Shiemi turned to look at him. "Are you alright, Rin?" She blushed too, and covered her mouth. "Oops, can I call you that? I'm just not used to saying Okumura, because of Yukio, and-"

Rin shrugged. "Go ahead." He had been calling her by her first name since he met her. Naming conventions weren't really a thing in Gehenna, no surprises there. Shiemi also looked inordinately pleased by this. Rin could appreciate a girl who got happy over getting to call someone by their first name just days after the same dude accidentally kidnapped her.

The nursing staff gave him some strange looks when he entered the hospital, but Shiemi's presence seemed to stave them off. Yukio was sleeping, much to Rin's relief. He hadn't realized how worried he'd been that there'd be another shootout, this time in the middle of a hospital.

Shiemi pulled a chair up next to his bed. Rin stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed and stared at his brother's sleeping face. He looked very peaceful. It was cliche, but he really didn't seem to have a care in the world. He was the same super-smart middle schooler Rin remembered from his childhood when he looked liked this, the kid who fell asleep at his desk studying and forced Rin to take off his glasses and hoist him into bed when Rin found him, invariably late at night after Rin had snuck in through the window.

Rin leaned against the wall. Even if it was Yukio, Rin couldn't kill him like this. It had to be a fair fight. Rin had to regain his dignity after that last fight. And the fight before that. Besides, there was nothing in this place to stab him with, unless he wanted to fight with a hypodermic needle. Shiemi was too sweet of a girl to stab someone in front of, he didn't have a formed escape plan for after the stabbing, etcetera.

While Shiemi was straightening out the flowers on Yukio's bedside and getting her little greenman to freshen them up, Rin slipped out of the room. Mephisto was sitting in the waiting room, reading a JUMP magazine someone had left on the counter.

"I'm very proud of you," Mephisto said, faux-serious. "You have made leaps and strides into humanity when you selflessly did not murder your brother in his sleep today."

"Thanks," Rin muttered.

Mephisto led Rin back to his dorm, pattering about stuff Rin could not manage to give a damn about.

That night, he lay again in his bed and stared at the cracks in the ceiling that were beginning to become familiar. He had tried to open the door out of his room when Mephisto left, but it was hexed as firmly shut as the window had been. His tail thumped against the mattress.

The next class was a strange exorcist perversion of Rin's old favorite class: gym. Rin couldn't discern a real point to it beyond a teacher, who had introduced himself as Kaoru Tsubaki and immediately gotten on the phone to talk to a "kitty", watching his students be chased by demons. Or not watching them, as it turned out. Rin almost sat it out, as there didn't seem to be much point if the demons were going to avoid him, but decided that it was probably the only exercise he was allowed to get.

He began running laps around the gym. Shima ran after him, panting. "Okumura!" he shouted. "Wait!"

Rin stopped. Shima almost collapsed against the wall. Rin waited for him to catch his breath.

"Ugh," Shima said after a while. "Slow down, this isn't the Olympics. But Whiskers," he indicated the teacher, who was still on the phone, "isn't going to do jackshit, so let's start those sword lessons, yeah?"

"Here?" Rin asked.

"Yeah." Shima grinned. "I'd rather start them while people are watching."

This was the most sensible reaction anyone had had to him all day, so Rin accepted it with a shrug. "Are there weapons?"

"Of course." Shima climbed out of the demon pit and led him to a decent sized rack, full of every weapon from machine guns ("Most of the guns are just Nerf, totally useless," Shima explained) to longbows to broadswords. Rin grabbed the closest thing he could find to a katana, and Shima grabbed a rapier. Its thin blade must have reminded him of the monk staff Rin destroyed.

"Okay," Rin said, "I mean, it technically would work, but it'd be difficult. Do you know how to use that thing?"

Shima made a slashing motion in the general direction of Rin's throat. Rin shook his head, gently took the rapier away and put it back on the rack. "Rapiers are cut and thrust weapons. You don't go slashing it, they don't have an edge." He handed Shima another katana.

"Come at me?" Rin said. He was struck with the insecurity he had felt yesterday. How in hell was he supposed to teach someone to fight?

Shima charged at him, sword raised above his head. He even let out a battle cry, which was a nice touch. Rin neatly stepped out of the way as Shima swung down. The katana hit the concrete floor with a sharp clang. Rin noted a small chip of metal flying away; this guy lacked talent, but he had some raw strength to back it up. Rin turned as he dodged, bringing the sword around and gently touching Shima's exposed back with the flat edge of his blade. "You're dead," Rin declared.

To his credit, Shima didn't give up there. He dropped to the floor, probably adding a nice dent in his sword to go along with the chip, and rolled out of way of Rin's sword. He hopped back up, just in time to duck down again as Rin whirled his sword around the area Shima's head would have been.

Shima brought his foot around, almost tripping Rin. It gave Shima enough time to really get back to his feet, and he resumed a loose imitation of a starting stance. Rin did the same.

"You're pretty bad," Rin said.

"You're not so bad yourself," Shima replied. "Wait, wha-"

Rin ran at him with the sword, dropping at the last moment to aim a swipe at Shima's thighs. Shima jumped back just in time, and brought his sword narrowly down to block, twisting his wrists awkwardly with the angle.

"You don't block straight with katanas," Rin said, sliding his blade off of Shima's and backing off. "Let it run across."

Shima attempted it the next time, but almost ran his hand right into Rin's blade. Rin retreated just in time to avoid cutting off fingers. Rin wouldn't have even gotten that close to him, but he was so used to the length of the wakizashi that he was less accurate than was really appropriate to the situation. Not to mention to low quality of this blade was slowing him down; even Sumimata's work was better than this shit.

Maybe he should be holding back even more to stop his sword from snapping in two. Or he should have let Shima keep the rapier.

Shima clutched the blade in front of him, breathing heavily. "What about a longsword?"

"What about them?" Rin asked, sidestepping around Shima's thrust. He thrust in turn, lightly poking Shima's side. A spot of blood appeared through Shima's shirt, and Rin cursed. "Let's stop."

"No!" Shima said with a venom that distracted Rin, allowing for Shima's next slash to come dangerously close, forcing Rin to parry for the first time. "But I think a longsword would be easier."

They both dropped their katana's and reached for the longswords, but there was only one on the rack. Rin shrugged and picked up his katana. "Okay."

"Less style involved," Shima said confidently, wrapping his fingers around the handle. He tried to hoist it over his shoulder, but ended up leaning on it awkwardly. "Heavy," he said apologetically.

Rin put his katana back on the rack and grabbed a rapier, tossing another one to Shima. Rin noted that the ends of both were covered in foam.

Shima balanced it in one hand. "Nice." He twirled it around, and struck an exaggerated fighting stance, sword tip pointed directly at Rin's face.

"We're not jousting," Rin sighed. He wiggled the rapier around a little. The blade vibrated. It was not reassuring in the least. "Do you think this thing would actually be useful against demons?"

"I don't know," Shima said. "Let me find out."

Rin grinned. Shima thrust forward, but unlike the katana where Rin moved his whole body to dodge, he just leaned his head to the side. The rapier whistled past his ear. Rin retaliated immediately, thrusting into Shima's torso. Shima winced despite the foam protection, and Rin made a note to thrust with less power.

Shima tried to move from his failed thrust into a swing, which would have been painful but not lethal with real rapiers, but Rin leaned down just in time.

In frustration, Shima raised his sword over his head like it was a katana.

"Wai-" Rin started, but Shima had brought the rapier down hard on Rin's shoulder. The tip of the rapier broke off and launched into the air, hitting the wall and knocking out a chip of concrete. Rin dropped the rapier, grabbed his shoulder, and sat down.

"Oh god," he said.

Shima was grinning. "I knew you would be able to beat a demon with this thing." He examined the broken tip and frowned.

Rin leaned his head against the wall and took deep, shuddering breaths. "Shima," he said. "It's Shima, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Get me to the hospital."

Shima grinned. "Very funny, Okumura. I know I'm not that good." He whistled and patted the handle of his blade. "Don't think you can get out of teaching me that easily. That was the best lesson I've ever had. You didn't even teach me anything, I just-"

"No," Rin said. "You don't," Deep breath, "understand. Yukio," he stopped, clutching harder at his shoulder. He couldn't feel any blood, but he had a dreadful feeling that Shima had hit it right where Yukio had and somehow re-cracked the bone. Rin didn't know, he wasn't a doctor. But if there were doctors around, and his life didn't depend on fighting with a broken shoulder, he was going to take it.

Shima finally seemed to get that something was serious. He knelt down next to Rin. "What about Sensei?"

Rin unclenched his teeth. Pain was shooting through his shoulder, it was hard to breath, why did it seem so much worse this time? "Broke my shoulder." Deep breath. "Few days ago."

Shima's eyes widened. "That shoulder?" Rin nodded. "You don't have super fast demon healing?"

"Not," Rin gasped. "This fast."

Shima pried Rin's hand away from his shoulder and tore open his shirt. Rin saw distinctive black and blue marking spreading across his shoulder, covering the top part of his arm and reaching down towards his chest. Shima recovered his shoulder, swearing under his breath.

"Wait here," Shima said, like he was afraid Rin was going to run away. He started sprinting towards the teacher, who was somehow still on his phone. The other students, who had been an idle eye on their fight, started to pick up on the emergency and congregated around the ladder leading out of the demon pit. Rin ignored them.

This had been a very bad idea from the start. Rin scanned the room for that damn dog. It figured the one time that it could actually be useful it would up and disappear. Rin gritted his teeth and stood up, leaning on the wall for support. By now, Shima was already talking to the teacher, waving his hands frantically and gesturing back towards Rin.

Rin appreciated that. The first of the exorcist students were beginning to climb up the ladder, while a few other defended the climbers against the congregating demons. Run-away-from-demons class really didn't seem like a safe elective, Rin though weakly. It was much more like his training in Gehenna, though there hadn't been a ladder there. Gladiator pits were surprisingly popular among even Japanese demons.

The teacher was running over to him now. This really wasn't a big enough of a deal for everyone to be making a fuss about. If they just gave him a few minutes, he would be up again and break Shima's ribs in retaliation. Wait, no that wasn't right; he was going easy on him. He wasn't killing people here. Rin grabbed his sword. It didn't feel right in his hand. He looked at it, vision blurring in and out. This wasn't his sword. Where was his sword.

"Okumura!" someone shouted. He turned around, swinging the katana with him. "Put down the sword," the same person shouted.

He looked down. His hands were shaking. He looked back up. Everyone was too close, yelling yelling yelling. Rin sank back down to the floor. Pain pulsed through his shoulder. Someone grabbed the sword from his hand. Rin reached after it, a beat to late. Others were holding down his legs. Everyone was shouting, and someone was almost crying, "I didn't mean too! No, he didn't hurt me at all, I just-"

Rin passed out.

Chapter Text

Rin woke back up in the hospital. His shoulder felt pleasantly numb. He curled and uncurled his fingers for a few minutes. Yep, still had motor control. He sat up.

A nurse looked over at him. "Lay back down," she ordered, then turned and walked out of the curtained room Rin was growing all too familiar with, shouting, "He's awake!"

Rin ignored her, and swung his feet out of bed. The IV tugged unpleasantly at his arm. Rin was just reaching to pull it out when the burly nurses Rin had grown well-acquainted with in his last visit charged in and forced him back down. Rin cursed. They knew him too well.

The nurse looked at him. "Do you know why you are back in here, Mr. Okumura?"

"Shoulder," Rin said sullenly, laying back down. The burly nurses backed off and retreated to stand menacingly just out of the corner of Rin's eyes.

"Yes," the nurse said, pulling a clipboard out. "You were play fighting and somehow re-fractured your shoulder. While I can not moderate your actions, I do request that you hold off on strenuous activities until you are completely healed. Your demonic side does give you benefits, but it is not a miracle healer." She crossed her arms. "What Mephisto was thinking you, sending you back there, is beyond me." She walked out, heels clicking on the tile floor.

Rin stuck his tongue out at her as she left. One of the burly nurses frowned.

Maybe if this kept up Yukio would be out of the hospital before him.

Shima actually came and visited Rin. He brought a bag full of candy, explaining that, "I didn't want to bring flowers for another dude. And I don't know what candy you like, so I just-"

"This is great!" Rin said, honestly. He hadn't had candy in forever.

Shima pulled up a chair and sat down. "Shit, man. I am really sorry about your shoulder. I figured you were healed up. I didn't even know demons could feel pain."

Rin shrugged and popped a tootsie roll in his mouth. "No harm done." He flexed his shoulder in demonstration, barely wincing at all.

Shima looked like he had just been kicked. "Lemme make it up to you."

"What are you going to do," Rin asked. "Break me out of here?"

Shima pursed his lips. He looked like he was actually thinking through the potential repercussions of breaking a demon out of a hospital. Rin stared at him and chewed.

"No," Shima finally said. "Not yet."

"Yet?" Rin asked, ears perking up.

Shima ignored him. "I know the perfect thing." He winked at Rin. "See you later. And thanks for teaching me."

"No problem?" Rin said. Shima laughed and stood up. Rin watched him go.

The hospital released him that day, with another stern warning from the nurse not to do any more fighting for a long time, which Rin studiously ignored. Mephisto wasn't waiting for him at the entrance, so Rin made his way back to the dorm the best he could remember. If he ended up taking a wrong turn and wandering off campus, Mephisto had no one but himself to blame.

It took him an extra hour to find his way. Rin lay in the foyer. He couldn't spend another night staring at the ceiling.

With this resolve, he stood up. This place had to have a kitchen somewhere, right? Every building has a kitchen, or a close approximate. He found it tucked in between another empty hallway and a large room that looked like, had it had any furniture, it would have been used as a lounge. It was a pretty nice place, Rin had to admit. It had two whole ovens, and all the drawers he checked were filled with top of the line utensils and things.

It was well stocked for an abandoned building, but not impressive by any other standards. Rin sniffed at the food in the refrigerator suspiciously. It was mostly still fresh, with the exception of the milk. There wasn't any good cooking food in there. Rin opened some of the cupboards: cans of beans and unopened jars of pickled vegetables. Styrofoam takeout boxes filled the trashcan.

Rin really hoped there wasn't a community of homeless people living here. Was violence okay if it was for self-defense?

Rin managed to make a decent meal out of the few ingredients, and settled down to the first good meal he had eaten in a month.

It was hard to admit, but Rin almost wanted a homeless person to wander in and interrupt his meal. He was lonely. It felt so unimportant in the grand scheme of things and the mess his life was, but sitting in this huge building and being fairly certain he was the only one in it, eating his meal made for one, loneliness washed over him. The silence felt oppressive, and Rin hunched down under its weight.

He supposed he should be making some plan of action. An escape plan, or a last resort plan if the Vatican got to him before anyone else, and it was decided he should be executed. Rin stared down at his food. When he first came to Assiah, he thought the world was full of opportunities, but his world was growing narrower and narrower with each day.

Supposing he did manage to escape, where would he go? The Vatican was all over the world, and even places not under their control had their own exorcist sects, though they went by different names. No one in Gehenna was coming for him, that much was clear. Perhaps if he could somehow get beyond the boundaries of True Cross, they would feel it was more worthwhile, but transporting his physical body back to Gehenna would still require a Gehenna Gate.

Once in Gehenna, what would he do? He wasn't longing to get there because it was home to him, he was longing for a place where execution wasn't looming over his head if he couldn't play student to a capricious headmaster's satisfaction. But in Gehenna, he knew all he was being trained for was to be Prince of Hell, destroyer of worlds, and once that was over, he could reign over a kingdom of death and demons in two realms. Not really appealing, especially considering that in all likelihood, Satan would kill him before he had the chance to view life from the top.

What Rin really wanted to do was set up in a cabin somewhere and become so irrelevant no one would ever consider using him as a pawn. Rin stuck a fork in his food. This sucked.

☆彡☆彡

 

If Rin had burst in through the ceiling, wreathed in Satan's flame, and demanded to be taught, everyone would have a much easier time dealing with it, Shiemi thought. She sat cross-legged in her room, staring at a textbook she couldn't concentrate on.

If Rin had forced his way into school, everyone would have felt justified in their anger. They could have fought against him, like they had done in the ExWire exam. Even if they could not fight, there would be a definitive consensus that he should be mistrusted, and treated with all the revulsion a son of Satan deserved.

As it was, it was a little trickier to decide. Mephisto Pheles had insisted that Rin come to school, clearly against Rin's wishes, and told the staff and students that his presences was necessary and should be treated no differently than any of the human students, unless he go berserk. In that case, they were given full license to kill him, if they could. Mephisto hadn't said the last part to the students, but the teachers had made it clear.

Sheimi brushed her hair back from her eyes. Their class had never been close to one another, but this was driving them apart the way nothing else had so far. Shiemi was trying to follow the direction of Mephisto, and she figured that the split between the brothers could be healed somehow. It was probably what had been causing Yukio so much pain all these years. Shima seemed to be learning in that direction too, and he had looked genuinely contrite about injuring Rin during their sword practice. Bon, however, was outraged, and didn't seem sure who to direct it at yet: The Vatican, the school, or Rin. Konekomaru was frightened out of his mind by the idea of Rin's existence, let alone his real, physical presence in the classroom. Izumo had been uncharacteristically silent on the matter; though she had been keeping Bon in check somewhat, her heart didn't seem to be in it.

Shiemi hunched over, then stretched out with a yawn. It wouldn't do her any good to try and study in this condition, and it wasn't like she could call Yukio and ask him to tutor her like she normally did. She wondered when he would be released. His injuries had been very bad, but not nearly as bad as Rin's. Did demon blood vary healing times that much? Of course, Shiemi wouldn't be surprised if they held him a few extra days after he was really ready to go, just knowing he needed bed rest and he wouldn't calm down enough to get it at home.

Outside of her bedroom window, rain began to fall. Shiemi smiled and, setting down her book, walked to her window. She pressed her nose against the glass and stared outside, surveying her and her grandmother's pride and joy. Now that she was in school, she didn't have nearly as much time to tend to it as she used to, but everything still looked beautiful. As her grandmother had said, nature could take care of itself.

She had always said humans were part of nature. Shiemi wondered about demons. They were unnatural, but some guarded forests and protected nature, and others like Nii-chan seemed to be a part of it. If she, or any other exorcist, saw a forest guardian or some other harmless nature spirit, they probably wouldn't exorcise it. They didn't exorcise anything unless it was harming humans. But in class they were taught all demons are by definition evil, and every grown-up exorcist she saw seemed to agree. Even the Demonology teacher, who seemed to worship demons, believed and said frequently that all demons, no matter the level, were both dangerous and evil.

Shiemi just wondered where the line was drawn. They had learned in Theology that some cultures worshipped specific demons, who in return had helped them. The teacher had made comparisons to Faust and other demon deals, but had said that neither the humans nor the demons were wrong or necessarily evil in those situations, as it was merely a variance in culture.

Izumo, ever contrary, had asked, "So how do we know any god isn't a demon then?"

The teacher had said something that Shiemi didn't quite remember, but the rest of the exchange had stuck with her. For all they learned about Hell in school, there was surprisingly little for the opposite side: Heaven.

Thinking that way, wasn't Rin really half an angel, fallen or not?

Shiemi leaned her forehead against the window. She hadn't wanted any philosophical debates with herself when she entered cram school. Why couldn't everything be a clear cut, black and white issue?

In the end, Shiemi supposed the Vatican's stance was that even though weeds were plants too, they were harming the others and had to be culled.

She unrolled her futon and flopped down on it. This was giving her a headache.

Shiemi just prayed that Yukio would get better quickly.

 

☆彡

Yukio lay in the uncomfortable hospital bed and stared at the ceiling. He had been doing this same thing for almost a week now. He had asked doctors to bring him a book, or some papers to grade. Anything, really. He had even spotted a JUMP magazine and in desperation, asked a nurse to bring it to him. They had all refused, citing stress as a major factor in his slow recovery.

They obviously did not think that just waiting and thinking about everything that was happening, and all the papers that were piling up to grade, along with his own schoolwork, was going to cause him any sort of stress. He tried to shift over in bed and stretch his atrophying muscles. Pain scorched through his abdomen as soon as he moved, and his vision blurred in and out of black.

He stayed put. Rin had gotten out days before him, Yukio had watched him leave. He pretended to be asleep and watched a limping Rin refuse a pair of crutches. Mephisto had been waiting for him, and Yukio had to clench his fist under the bedsheets, nails digging into his palm, to prevent from jumping up and screaming, "Why is everyone treating him like this?"

Yukio took a deep breath, and slowly let it out. The doctors were right that he had too much stress, even if they weren't right about what would alleviate it. For that reason, he had been avoiding thinking about Rin too much while he was here, focusing on his steadily piling up paperwork.

But if he was overhearing the doctors correctly, Yukio should be released in a few days, albeit with some hefty prescriptions of pain medicine and strict instructions to check in if anything felt or looked different. Maybe it was time to think about what he was going to do when he got out.

No one had told him anything about what was happening to Rin right now. For all he knew, it was a fairly likely possibility that Rin was going through trial under the Grigori right now. Hell, maybe he had already been executed.

A beeping sound went off, annoyingly close to his right ear. Yukio looked up to see his heart monitor. A nurse ran in, panting. "Okumura-sensei!"

Even after she saw he was okay, she hung around, fiddling with his bandages and pillows and warning him, "Don't think about anything! Just sleep."

Yukio obediently closed his eyes and wished they would just let him go home already.

So Rin may be dead or gone, and Yukio would have nothing to worry about, maybe for the rest of his life. That thought didn't seem to do anything to calm him down; at worst, it made him more worried, though for the life of him Yukio couldn't think why. All this time he had been biding his time at True Cross Academy, with the omnipresent thought of Rin, Rin, Rin! lurking in the back of his mind like a malignant disease.

Perhaps he couldn't feel calm because he couldn't bring himself to really believe Rin was dead, not without seeing it with his own two eyes. He would have liked to believe Rin was dead back when this all started and Rin and Father Fujimoto had both disappeared.

Maybe it was because, knowing the whimsical ways of Mephisto Pheles, Rin was probably still here on campus grounds, while Mephisto debated whether he should turn Rin into the Vatican or not. Yukio doubted that he had even reported Rin's appearance to the Vatican yet.

Yukio took a few more deep, calming breaths and tried to clear his mind. He would just have to make sure it was done when he got released, that was all. Just another thing to add to his mental checklist.

Unless he couldn't leave it to the Vatican. Unless the situation had gotten bad enough, and it called for Yukio to fulfill his duty and kill Rin himself.

(Even if, Yukio tried not to admit to himself, he was beginning to doubt that he was physically capable of besting Rin. Even if it turned out that a lifetime of training for the specific purpose of restraining Rin, under a man who used to be the Paladin, could not defeat the raw, demonic power that was his older twin).

(Another thing Yukio would never admit to himself: he never asked for any of this).

Chapter Text

Everything happened at once, so much so that Shiemi wondered if this had been orchestrated on purpose. Knowing Mephisto, even only from a distance, made it pretty likely that it had.

Rin arrived on time for class for the first time since he'd been here, dragged under the arm of a beaming Mephisto Pheles. Rin had clearly been struggling: his hair was more tousled than usual, his uniform more rumpled, and his tail was bristled in a sign that clearly said agitation, if Rin was anything like that cats Shiemi was acquainted with. He seemed to give up as soon as he was past the threshold though, and Mephisto was dragging him like particularly petulant dead body.

Mephisto dumped Rin in a seat and stood in the front of the classroom. "Good news, everyone!" he crowed.

Before he had a chance to elaborate on what the good news actually was, Yukio walked in. Shiemi stood up, her chair slamming against the desk behind her. "Yukio!"

Yukio smiled, a little weakly, at Shiemi, then froze. Shiemi followed his gaze to Rin, who was just sitting up, rubbing the back of his head and yawning. He looked around the room, taking in each shocked face, and slowly turned around.

When he met Yukio's stunned gaze, Rin also froze. Shiemi lowered herself back into her seat.

Mephisto beamed and ignored the standoff that was slowly unfolding. "I have arranged a field trip for this week, in honor of our dear Okumura-sensei's return."

Yukio's head snapped up. "Mr. Pheles, I demand an explanation for this."

Rin was edging out of his seat, placing his feet firmly on the ground as quietly as possible.

Mephisto looked innocent. "An explanation for what?"

Yukio flung his hand out at Rin, who was by this time almost to his feet. Shiemi saw a hint of pain flit across Yukio's features at the gesture.

Mephisto raised an eyebrow. "Oh, dear me, I must have forgotten to tell you about our newest student, Rin Okumura. Rin, would you come to the front?"

Rin stiffened. His eyes darted back and forth between Mephisto, Yukio, and the back window. Slowly, painfully, he got to his feet. He walked to the front of the room like a man going to his execution.

"Shake hands," Mephisto ordered.

The class took a deep breath. Konekomaru and Shima both looked like they were preparing to duck under the tables to dodge a spray of gunfire.

Rin stuck his hand out mechanically. His eyes looked dead.

Yukio looked like he was about to throw up, or have an aneurysm, or maybe punch Rin and Mephisto both in the face. His trigger finger twitched, and he stared at Rin's outstretched hand like he had never seen one before.

Mephisto looked so proud he could float away.

Yukio lifted his hand and sort of pressed it to Rin's. Had it happened faster, most would have thought it was some sort of high-five, or Yukio was slapping Rin's hand away, but Mephisto seemed to accept it. The class let out a collective breath.

"Good, good," Mephisto said. "Now go back to your seat Rin. Yukio, you take a seat too. Yes, just like that. Now, about this field trip."

Shiemi looked at Yukio. He was holding his head in his hands. He looked defeated. Shiemi looked to Rin. He looked paralyzed, and the hand Yukio had "shook" was twitching slightly. Rin was staring at it like he never noticed he had hands before.

She turned her attention back to Mephisto and prayed for the best.

Mephisto had dropped his voice in a way that was probably supposed to be spooky, but the effect was ruined by how clearly pleased by how everything had turned out. Shiemi had never seen such a wide smile, though that detail in itself did add to the creepiness. "Deep in the woods," Mephisto said, "a certain creature was hibernating, until one night foresters began to work their way through the mountain this creature called home. The foresters never returned." Mephisto eyes scanned the classroom. "And thus, a report was filed and I grabbed the case up. Any guesses on what it is?"

If you had taken an axe to the tension in the room you wouldn't have been able to break it.

Mephisto nodded. "Good guesses everyone. It is a jubokko, or a vampiric tree!"

Yukio raised his head slightly. "That's much too difficult," he said, but everyone could tell his heart wasn't in it.

"Nonsense," Mephisto said. "You'll leave immediately. I've got train tickets and everything." He withdrew them from his pocket and examined them. "It appears you're going to the north part of the Osaka Prefecture, to the old battle site of Ichi-no-Tani." He smiled at them, and didn't seem to notice the blank stares of the class. "Rin, I'm going to excuse you from class today. Family problems." He grabbed Rin's arm and dragged him back out of the classroom. Rin didn't look like he had the strength to protest.

Yukio made his way to the front of the classroom. Every step seemed to hurt him. He stared at his clenched fists, his knuckles whitening to the point of pain.

After a few minutes, he said, "Who knows what a jubokko is?"

 

☆彡☆彡

 

Rin stumbled out of the class under Mephisto's arm. He had known Mephisto wouldn't warn Yukio, hadn't he? And somehow, he hadn't prepared for it. That was the first time he had seen Yukio in years without being attacked, though he had still feared for his life.

Rin was having some trouble remembering to breathe. Mephisto slapped him on the back, and Rin doubled over, coughing.

"We're going to my office," Mephisto said lightly, as if that was an explanation for anything.

Rin couldn't even remember the trip there, whether he was still in shock or Mephisto had worked some magic on him, he couldn't tell. At this point, he didn't even care.

Mephisto sat Rin down in a plush chair in front of a wide, mahogany desk. He sat down on the other side and leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands.

"I realize I have not told you much of your situation," Mephisto said, which was a huge understatement. "I assume you have figured out that your survival does depend on your good behavior. If you do anything that could jeopardize my relationship with the Vatican, I'm not going to give out another chance. I am not," and he said this with the deepest scorn, "a fairy godmother."

Rin rubbed his forehead with a knuckle. Mephisto continued, "As such, I would probably be the one to 'take you down,' and trust me, I am a much more formidable opponent than your twin." Rin trusted him. He had heard the stories. "But I believe in your potential use for my cause, and destroying you would give me deep pain."

Liar, Rin thought, and then, what cause?

"What with this surprise field trip, I've decided I should clarify the rules somewhat." Mephisto rummaged in one of his desk drawers and pulled a long, thin case from a drawer that it could not possibly have fit into. He tossed it at Rin. "Through some luck, I was able to acquire this for you."

Rin opened the case, and withdrew the sword that had been concealed within. "Kurikara," he breathed. "I thought it had-"

"Been destroyed?" Mephisto smirked. "It contains your heart, Rin. If it is destroyed, you are destroyed. As you are alive and well, I figured it had to be laying around somewhere."

"How did you-" Rin started, but Mephisto cut him off.

"Now, now. A magician doesn't reveal his secrets." He winked at Rin. "But it is best that you have it. I really have no use for it."

Rin stroked the sword case with one hand.

Mephisto snapped his fingers, and the sword disappeared from Rin's hands. Rin clutched at the empty air. "There are some conditions to this. One: you must never draw or use it unless given explicit permission by myself, or a teacher in an emergency."

Rin waited. "Is that it?"

"For now," Mephisto. "Conditions may change. Now, for the field trip, I and others will be watching you at all times. Don't even think about running off."

Rin nodded. If he got a chance, he'd ignore it, but for now the best thing was to lie low. The chances of something coming to his rescue was much higher outside of True Cross.

"Don't harm anyone," Mephisto added. "I cannot comprehend the trouble I would get in if you went off and killed someone." He shuddered. "That should be it. Just remember what I've told you, and use common sense if you have any."

Rin stood up. "One thing. Why do you insist that I go to school?"

Mephisto looked very sincerely disappointed in Rin. "All in due time, boy." He made a shooing gesture. "Now, off you go. You have a trip to pack for."

Rin had no possessions to pack, but when he finally found his way to the dorm, a bag labeled "Rin Okumura" was on his bed. Rin ripped it open. Mephisto wasn't a fairy godmother, his ass.

There were a few pairs of outdoors clothes and underclothes, and oversized purple baseball cap that looked like the trailer park cousin to Mephisto's own gaudy top hat (Rin would have set it on fire if he thought he could get away with it) . Underneath the clothes, packed safely away in a black case, lay Kurikara. Rin lifted it out of the bag.

He had been sure somebody, probably Satan, had destroyed it. He had it only for an instant, but his connection with it was strong. It was his heart, after all.

That night, Rin curled up in his bed, and clutched the sword like a teddy bear. It wasn't much, but it was comforting.

☆彡

Yukio knocked on the grand doors that led into Mephisto Pheles's office. "Come in," came a voice. Yukio shuddered. Some time ago, Mephisto had installed an unobtrusive eye into the wood of the door, meant to report who was requesting entrance. He had enjoyed it so much he put in a matching pair of full, red lips, just at the level of most people's ears. Yukio could feel its breath rustle his hair.

The eye blinked at him as he walked in. Mephisto pretended to look surprised to see him.

Yukio didn't fall for it. He sat himself down in the chair, and said, "Why is Rin in my class?"

Mephisto smiled. "You know that it's a common core, Okumura. He can't just opt out of it."

Yukio clutched the arms of the chair. Deep breaths. "You know that's not what I meant. Why is he in school at all? Why isn't he in the Vatican? Did you even report it?"

"I have not reported anything." Mephisto grinned. "You, of course, are free to do whatever you want. I believe Rin should have a chance to prove himself as something other than Satan's pawn, don't you?" He didn't wait for an answer. "I have found that the Grigori can be very biased in some cases, and short-sighted if their lives are not in direct and immediate danger. Would you like some tea?"

That stopped Yukio. "What? No." Lamely, he added, "Thank you."

Mephisto shrugged. "Suit yourself." He poured himself a cup from a pot Yukio was sure hadn't been there a second earlier. It had a picture of Madoka Kaname poorly engraved on it.

Yukio said, "Demons don't deserve another chance. That's how exorcists work, Mr. Pheles. As soon as they cause harm towards humans, they are deserving of execution. If Rin wasn't so important to Satan, this wouldn't be an argument; he wouldn't receive a trial, he would just be executed by the first exorcist powerful enough to beat him."

Mephisto stared at his cup of tea. "You don't think that the human half of Rin, your brother, deserves a trial?"

"He has no human half," Yukio said. "And he's not my brother. He hasn't been since he killed our father."

"You realize," Mephisto said, almost kindly, "that your father is Satan, correct?"

"Genetics mean nothing," Yukio said. "Father Fujimoto was the one who took care of us."

Mephisto scratched his chin. "Well, I don't know enough about human families to judge. But I do believe that Rin can be useful for something other than a grandiose execution, and if we wait a little longer, that will be fully realized by both you and the Vatican. And I especially don't believe that Rin has done enough wrong to be deserving of death. Please rest assured that if that time does come, I will not spare him."

"How can you be the judge of that?"

"How can anyone?" Mephisto took a sip of his tea. "Life is precious, in all its forms. How can we say one life is more precious than another?"

"Good is obviously more precious that evil, Mr. Pheles," Yukio said. "And I refuse to have Rin stay around my students. He is a danger."

"You cannot protect them?"

"I don't want to have to."

Mephisto laughed and pointed at Yukio. "Checkmate! It's your job to protect them." He slammed his hand on the table, rattling the pot of tea. "This is a matter on which I will not be lenient. You will treat Rin like any of your other students." He settled back down in his chair and took another sip of his tea. "As I told your brother, I am not a fairy godmother, and I'm not going to grant all your wishes."

Yukio smiled, somewhat sardonically. "Have you ever read Marlowe's Doctor Faustus, Mr. Pheles? There's a character that always reminds me of you."

Mephisto sniffed. "All of the Faust legends are rubbish, trust me. And wouldn't that teach you no dream comes without a price?" He yawned. "Oh, and before you go: I gave Rin Kurikara."

Yukio jumped to his feet. "You what?"

"Gave him Kurikara. As a regular student, he is allowed to have a weapon, yes?" Mephisto made a placating gesture. "I did order him to never draw it unless I gave him permission, but it seemed to give him some comfort. Just try to keep it out of sight of that Suguro-boy and his gang."

"Why?" Yukio sighed. Talking to Mephisto never helped anything.

"It's not of any great importance." Mephisto yawned. "Your father, as you call him, just stole it from their temple. I don't want to give them any more reason to hate Rin."

 

☆彡☆彡

 

Yukio was obviously surprised to see Rin appear at the train stop the next morning, but other than giving the teacher next to him a resigned look, he didn't say anything.

Rin sat as far back in the compartment as he could get away with, and leaned his sword against the window. Shima plopped down next to him.

"When'dya get that?" he asked.

Rin looked at Kurikara and frowned. Technically, he'd had it since he was a few days old.

"Shima." Both Rin and Shima turned at the sound of Yukio's voice.

Yukio shook his head slightly, staring at Rin. Shima pouted, and climbed out of the seat, sitting next to a very disgruntled looking Izumo. Rin rolled his eyes at Yukio. "You think I'm going to roast him for asking about it?" He put his fingers to his head in a bad imitation of horns, and growled, "How dare ye speak to me: the great and terrible demon...Rin."

Someone giggled, almost inaudibly.

Yukio turned red. "I'm not going to let you hurt my students."

Rin grinned. "OK. I know you're really great at protecting people, so."

"So what?"

Rin shrugged melodramatically. "Just saying, that historically speakin', some of this protection stuff has fallen through."

Yukio almost stood up, but the train chose that moment to shake and he fell back down with a wince, clutching at his belly. Rin whistled. He hadn't thought he had even hit Yukio with that particular swipe, it was sorta satisfying to see that he wasn't as useless as he thought he was.

It was a relief though that Yukio wasn't objecting to the actual presence of Kurikara, just the fact that Rin could talk and may actively do it around other people. Mephisto had finally done something good for him, even if he couldn't actually draw it. He could probably fight without it drawn, Rin thought idly. The case wasn't sharp or anything, but it could back a decent punch, and it'd be really cool to be able to say he got away without even having to draw his sword.

Mephisto's gift did add an extra problem to the escape, Rin realized. Satan hadn't wanted him to have it, and if Rin managed to return to Gehenna he doubted Satan's opinion would have changed much on the subject. Now that Rin had Kurikara again, he wasn't going to give it up that easily.

The 'Run Away and Live as a Hermit in the Woods' plan was becoming more and more appealing. They were going to exorcise some kind of tree, right? If there was one tree, there might be more. Maybe Rin could just sneak off into the forest and hope no one noticed he was gone until it was too late. Or maybe if everyone else was killed off by this tree, he could play dead too. Rin sighed and leaned his head against the cool window. His breath fogged the glass.

Yukio and the other teacher, the guy from gym class, had started an impromptu lesson about the demon tree. Rin listened in.

"Suguro, you said what a jubokko was yesterday. Would you care to repeat it?"

Suguro cleared his throat. "The jubokko, also known as the vampiric tree, appears on battlefields and feasts on the blood of the fallen. After the battle, they prey on people who walk underneath their branches, snatching them up with their branches and draining their blood." Rin grimaced. "They are indistinguishable from a regular tree to the casual observer. The only differences are," here Suguro counted each point off on his fingers, "Their branches are twisted and gruesome, the heaps of human bones hidden in the growths around the tree, and their sap is human blood."

Yukio nodded."You can also tell they are jubokko if they look unnaturally fresh compared to the trees around them, or if their branches are turned towards the pathways instead of the sun. Do you know how are they formed?"

Suguro continued without waiting for Yukio to call on anyone else. "They were just regular trees until they absorbed all the blood from the battlefield, which turns them into yokai."

"Good job, Suguro," Yukio said. He glanced at Rin. Rin looked away. "Now, does anyone know how they can be defeated?"

No one answered. Suguro looked very put out.

"Fire," Rin said.

They all looked at him. Rin shrugged. "It's a tree, right? You can't throw salt or anything at a tree." Maybe you could throw salt at a tree, Rin didn't actually know. But fire seemed like a pretty safe option, and it fit into what Rin was learning of Mephisto's sense of humor.

"Correct," Yukio said. He grit his teeth. "Though you must be sure not to burn just the outside of the tree, but every part of it, down to its roots. There are probably other ways to expel a jubokko, but this is the most tried and true method." Rin grinned. And to think people had said he couldn't be an exorcist, just because he was dumb and a son of Satan. Just goes to show, never listen to your demons.

The train stopped. Yukio stood up, careful of his injuries this time. He locked eyes with Rin. "But you will not be burning anything."

Rin smile fell slightly. The other teacher, the same guy who had run that crazy excuse for a gym class, led him off the train. They stood outside together as the rest of the students filed off into the empty station. Rin noticed the teacher had placed himself between Rin and the ExWires, and his hand rested on his hip, just itching to pull out a weapon.

The battle site of Ichi-no-tani, and therefore the jubokko, was in between the sea and the mountains, and fifteen miles away from the train station. The ExWires groaned as they gathered their packs up, shifting their too-many bags to what they hoped would be the most efficient position. It was not at all the atmosphere Rin was used to, none of the unspoken tension just before a battle or the excitement of an upcoming fight. He almost wanted to stand up and rally on the troops.

Yukio and the other teacher stood together for a moment, whispering and sending glances at Rin. Shima winked at him and gave him a thumbs up, but Suguro immediately slapped his hand down. After a few minutes, Whiskers broke away from Yukio and walked over to Rin. He said, “We’ll be walking ahead.” He stared down at Rin, then nodded to himself. “Come along!”

Rin slung his bag over his shoulders and followed. He could feel Yukio’s gaze boring into the back of his neck the entire walk. Despite that, he enjoyed the chance to stretch his legs, even if their pace was tediously slow. Rin tried to take it all in, every tree, flower, and animal. Whiskers kept snapping at him to walk shoulder-to-shoulder with him, and not slow down or run ahead to stare wide-eyed at a rare squirrel running across the light snow, or a loquat tree blooming.

Rin was the only energetic one. The rest of the exorcists trudged along, their backs bent under the weight of the packs, their eye focused on the ground just in front of them. Rin couldn’t blame them. There was something in the air here, a miasma, that would easily dampen any human spirit. Sometimes Rin could see it out of the corner of his eye, a swirling black mist that disappeared whenever turned to face it. None of the exorcists, even the teachers, seemed to notice it.

They were about seven miles in when Shiemi stumbled. Her foot caught against a tree root hidden by the snow and she fell face first into the ground. Her pack slipped off her back and began to roll down the mountain slope before hitting a tree.

Izumo, who was walking behind her, sneered and knelt down beside Shiemi. “Too much for you, huh?”

Shiemi tried to push herself up, then let out a small gasp of pain. Izumo frowned. “Moriyama?”

Yukio, who had been walking in the back of the line, pushed ahead. He knelt down beside Izumo and helped Shiemi sit up. Shiemi gave Yukio a weak smile. “I’m fine, really.”

Yukio propped Shiemi’s leg up on his knee. Whiskers and Rin watched the scene from a distance. Rin glanced up at Whiskers. It looked like it was killing him to stand back and watch.

Yukio carefully slipped of Shiemi’s boot, ignoring her protests. Rin squinted at her ankle. Even he could see that it was red and beginning to swell.

“Go get her bag,” Whiskers said to Rin, and ran forward to help Yukio find the first aid kit.

Rin watched him go, then jogged down the path to collect Shiemi’s things. He knelt down to pick it up. His fingers froze around the strap. He glanced up; he was completely out of the main group’s sight. Here, in the darkening mountainside, far away from True Cross, there would be nothing to stop him from…

He stared at his fingers, his knuckles whitening as his grip around the bag tightened. Nothing to stop him from what? From returning to Gehenna? From being dragged back through the torture that was passing through a Gehenna Gate? From going back to groveling before Satan, from laughing as he torched human souls and slashed through the bellies of sniveling demons? Did he really want to give up Kurikara, his heart, or look Satan in the eye and know whose fault it was that Father Fujimoto was dead?

Rin pressed his hands to his temples and rocked back on his toes. He could hear someone in the main group yelling. Someone would come down looking for him soon.

He could stay here and languish under Mephisto’s eye, he could watch the ExWires train and think about how different their lives were, he could exchange barbed words with his brother and hope the opportunity to fight wouldn’t arise, he could sit in dusty classrooms and hope the Grigori would never see fit to execute him. He could, he could, he could.

He looked out into the forest. A few snowflakes began to fall, dancing down from the dark clouds and landing delicately on Rin. A bird, a late migrator, cawed as it flew through the trees. Rin stood up.