"Yukio, what the hell?!"

Rin's eyes burned with blue flames, flickering erratically. He gripped his sword tightly as he parred another bullet that came his way. Yukio merely responded with an uncharacteristically cruel and slightly maniacal grin that sent shivers down his spine.

What was wrong with him? Rin knew their brotherly relationship was rocky on some edges, and maybe he liked to piss off his brother more than the norm, but Yukio never went as far as trying to kill him wholeheartedly.

(Well, maybe except for that one time when he trashed his brother's guns in some unknown room of the Academy; the outcome of that particular incident hadn't been pretty, but hey, at least he made it out alive. Also, his brother was a little too serious for his own good.)

Rin winced as another bullet just barely grazed his skin; had he not tilted his head, that bullet would've planted itself into his skull. Dodging Yukio's attacks, he made his way closer to the latter, enveloping himself and Kurikara with azure flames. Rin suppressed the urge to unleash any more of his flames; he didn't want to lose control and unintentionally hurt Yukio.

When the fight started, there was something that nagged him to no end, and he was slowly realizing what it was.

Something about Yukio was out of place: the horns and tail were pretty obvious, along with accentuated demonic features, but it was Yukio's eyes that bothered him the most. Instead of the deep blue that they both shared, his eyes were filled with blood red, as if they were bleeding.

A terrible, terrible nostalgia filled his mind as snippets of his death flashed before his eyes.

Rin narrowed his eyes; he concluded that the redness of Yukio's eyes came from the blood that was trickling down his forehead. His brother was bleeding everywhere on his body, soaking his uniform with red. It was barely noticeable on the dark cloth, unlike his face, which looked like someone had dumped a bucket of red paint on him.

Inside the sea of blood, a faint spark of blue flame flickered, dancing, as if taunting him. Rin widened his eyes, his stomach dropping. One by one, his suspicions were being confirmed. Those cursed, violent blue flames could only mean one thing: Satan, his father. Their father.

Rin's face twisted in fury, the flames in his irises flaring aggressively. He growled angrily, pointing his sword at the figure before him.

"Satan, you damn bastard, I won't forgive you!" He threatened, eyes flashing dangerously.

"How sweet of you, ignorant son of mine," Satan cooed, curling his - Yukio's - lip, forming a sickeningly sweet smile. Rin grit his teeth, not even bothering to hide his seeping hatred for the King of Hell.

"Shut up!" Rin raced forward, thrusting his sword towards Yukio's figure. For a split second, he faltered, eyes tracing over his brother's features. Before he could blink, his arm exploded in a fiery pain. Gasping from shock, he stumbled before his knees gave way. He fell to the ground, clutching his arm.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Satan cackled, dropping one of Yukio's guns onto the grass. He marveled his hands, soaked in blood. "I infused my flames with Yukio's bullets so they would burn right through your flesh!"

Rin groaned in agony, feebly raising his head to throw Satan a defiant glare.

"I won't let you kill Yukio!" He spat weakly, fingers shaking as they reached for his sword. Satan stepped over to where Rin had fallen, kicking Kurikara out of his reach.

"Foolish boy, you think you can stop me?" Satan threw his head back in laughter, his body shaking. "You are merely a weakling who acts like a pathetic human!"

Pointing Yukio's other gun lazily at Rin's figure, Satan tightened his finger around the trigger. He smiled wickedly as he watched the bullet bury itself into Rin's abdomen, his body convulsing in pain as it did.

"Goodbye, useless son of mine," Satan drawled, before disappearing with Yukio's body in large burst of blue flames, illuminating the night.

And then the rain fell, first a little drizzle, before steadily becoming heavier.

Even so, it could not wash away Rin's shame and frustration. He was stubborn; Rin knew it himself, and he lived up to it. But, he couldn't help but succumb to the comforting darkness that slowly wrapped him up.

Later that night, Shiemi let out a terrified squeak when she found Rin lying in a pool of blood during her late night walk, after the rain had stopped. She quickly rushed him to the infirmary, struggling along the way as she carried him in her arms. After he had been safely delivered to the hands of the nurses, Shiemi let out a sigh of relief before collapsing onto the ground in fatigue.

A few days later, she began to realize that Yukio's absence was not simply a short "vacation".

A few days later, the nurses told her that Rin had been crying in his sleep.