Disclaimer: Blue Exorcist (青の祓魔師（エクソシスト)) belongs to Kazue Kato. This is created for entertainment purposes only, no profit was made. Please support the author by purchasing her books!

天使の火—Angel Fire

Part 1: Prologue—プロローグ

"...War arose in heaven, Michael and his angels were fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him."

— Revelation 12:7-9

"Whoa! That's so awesome!" A young boy shouted in excitement and awe. He continued to listen to the priest sitting on an old wooden chair by his bed side. The boy continuously shuffled through his covers, he could no longer sleep anymore due to a rush of excitement. His big, sapphire eyes laid glued to the priest's hand. A big, meaty book entitled the Bible was held delicately in the father's long, slightly wrinkled fingers. The priest paused a moment to smile at the boy, pleased by his interest.

"What do you think, Rin?" The priest asked the young lad named Rin. The boy stopped to look up into the priest's tired eyes, a flicker of candle light reflected off the priest's eyes and shone a small area of his round, red-tinted glasses. The moonlight passing through the window beside the father casted a soft, bluish glow in contrast to the orange candlelight, exaggerating his wrinkles on his face. The boy continued to stare until he let out a toothy grin, with a small gap along his smile. He balled up his pudgy fists and raised them confidently into the air, as if cheering.

"I wanna meet one! That'd be so cool! They can fight! I wanna fight with them and beat the bad guys!" Rin responded with big, shining blue eyes. He began to throw his fists into the air while imitating the sound of many punches. Rin laughed and jumped out of his covers and onto the creaking wooden floor, then charged around the priest with his hands in a position holding a sword. "Take that!" He cried, and swung his imaginary sword. His tiny, bare feet slapped against the creaking floor as he continued to run, without a sign of stopping. He swung his imaginary sword at the air before him, pretending like there were incoming enemies and he smote them with heroic execution. The priest laughed as Rin now imitated he had a pair of wings by flapping his short arms. His laugh stopped abruptly when Rin added something else along his lines.

"With their help, I'll be able to kick Satan's ass!" Rin said and he pretended to lay a kick. The priest, however, laid a quick spank at the back of Rin's big, hairy head. Rin stopped imitating his act and turned towards the father, both his small hands clasped over the sore spot that made contact with the father's hand. The father restrained his urge to headlock the boy.

"Rin! No swearing in the house of God!" The father cried out in offence, ashamed of the boy. Rin's head sank into his shoulders, but then hid all the guilt by smiling coolly. Rin knew that the father will impose his punishment next.

"Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, you will confess for your sins," the priest said then crossed his arms and legs in indignation.

Rin's devilish smile was wiped off his face. "Oh, come on, Dad!" He whined. Normally, Rin expected the Father to take away some favourite toy of his, but no—it was much worse. The boy stood still with a fat pout and crossed his arms. It may not seem like much, but to Rin Confession was the worst punishment ever invented. It involved sitting on his knees for hours confessing everything he had done to a statue of a man hanging on a cross in the church, whether it be lying, back-talking, using God's name in vain, and even when he punched a little boy in the face—or was it more than one boy? Despite living in a devout religious family, Rin was a rebellious and troublesome scamp, and he always had punishments imposed on him.

Confession always resulted in bruised knees and a stiff back, and since Rin always got his knees hurt from fighting at daycare, confession just made the pain worst. He felt this uneasiness when confessing all the bad actions he did, and most of them his father doesn't even know. What's the point of telling a statue all the wrongdoings you've committed? It's not like it'll hear anything anyways, or that confessing will change anything. Despite all this, the worst part is he couldn't get away with lying his way out of confession, and he certainly loved to lie. It was very difficult to restrain an incident to himself, especially from a priest who constantly babbled lectures trying to convince him that lying is a sin. Rin heard the lectures so many times he could memorize it and perform it as a speech. The worst is those words have now become drilled in his head, and whenever he did something wrong, those words sounded in his ear, and he began to feel guilty for once. The truth had been forced upon his helpless self!

"Please, dad! Anything but Confession!" Rin dragged on, begging, trying to justify his excuse for using that one, bad word. "At least I said it for a good purpose!" He added, "besides, I'm fighting with the good guys!" Rin formed a cheeky smile on his face. The priest had to agree that his fictional ambition was some sort of good act. The father only frowned slightly.

"I believe in them! They protect us from demons, right?" Another voice, less loud then Rin's, sounded. Another boy, who sat silently on his bunk above Rin's, spoke at last. The priest looked up to the bunk above Rin's bed, the other boy sat calmly on his knees. The covers enveloped around him, as if he were cold. He was small and frail unlike Rin. His short chocolate hair was different to Rin's messy, layered navy hair, plus he had big, squared, thick-rimmed glasses that were bigger than his soft, round teal eyes.

"Do angels really exist, Father Fujimoto? I've never seen one ever..." he spoke eagerly, but then the tone of doubt could be noticed at the end.

"It's all up to your faith, Yukio. Do you believe in them?" Father Fujimoto responded with a warm smile. Yukio paused to reflect on the father's question, his little finger touched his small, lower lip.

Indeed, now that he thought about the father's words, Yukio did feel safe from the thought that a supernatural power was watching over him. Why did he feel so safe knowing some good force existed? The world is not as lonely as it seems to most people—humanity knew only a bit about this world that was only a part of the big picture. Yukio and Father Fujimoto are two of the few who possess the whole truth about Assiah, in other terms, Earth. There is an ancient evil that has invaded the world since the beginning of time—evil that exists even today. Demons. That is the term that describes these evil forces. Yukio would rather have humanity remain oblivious about demons. The world would certainly go in a panic if they saw what he and his father see daily.

Since his birth, Yukio had been seeing the demons that crept silently in this world, and he and his father were the only ones aware of his born sight. Every day, he would wake up in his bed with that horrible feeling of facing another day seeing hell before his eyes: blood-dripping beasts clawing at his backpack, the terrifying shrill of a ghost in his ear, and a hobgoblin attempting to pull at his hair and destroy his books whenever he was alone and secluded. He would always get picked on and identified as the schitzo nerd by his own classmates—the teachers even began to believe the children. He would scream in the middle of a lesson from a demon pulling at his hair and whispering tempting, hurtful words, despite nothing could be seen from the humans' blind eyes. He would jerk suddenly and cover his ears from another demon dragging their long nails down the chalkboard, filling the room and his head with the painful ear-splitting screech as it looked straight into his wet, innocent turquoise eyes. Now, thinking that he was not alone, especially with a powerful species watching over him, that fearful feeling of facing these demons seemed to have vanished away.

Yukio looked down to the small palms of his hands, then clenched them. "... I feel like I want to fight by their side, y'know? I want to become strong enough to protect myself from demons." Yukio tried to say it confidently, but Father Fujimoto knew it had a greater, implied meaning to that of a naive little boy. Yukio's words were serious unlike Rin, who played it as a joke. Rin has no clue about these demons, and that they even exist. Rin considered his father simply as a shaman aiding people with their inner problems. He was the lucky one blinded from the other side of this world, and Father Fujimoto knew Yukio envied that about Rin.

Of course, Rin had the easy way out of this torture.

The priest could do nothing but smile sadly at the young, brown-haired boy.

"Dad already is fighting by their side, duh! He's an exorcist, he'll protect us from those demons!" Rin, still pumped up with energy despite his punishment, shouted as he pointed his small finger at a now grinning Father Fujimoto. Yukio smiled too, but forcefully. He imagined himself becoming an exorcist just like his father when he will grow up one day. When it comes to looking at this world from an oblivious, human perspective, he saw it a whole different way—with the whole, painful truth conscious in his mind. Could that be the only reason to protect himself from the darkness that lurks around him? Becoming an exorcist? He was certainly afraid of the dark, and it was true that monsters would really hide under someone's bed. These fearless creatures—angels—were responsible for extinguishing demons. He remembered a moment ago when Father Fujimoto quoted the mighty archangel Michael fighting the dragon known as Satan, the father of all demons. Now humans can extinguish demons too—just like his father—but can a weak, little boy like Yukio take on their risky role?

"Both of you seem fascinated by these creatures mankind barely knew," Fujimoto said with a soft grin then let out a large yawn, which stimulated more yawns from two smaller mouths. The exorcist closed the book and set it on the small bedside table as the boys shuffled into their covers and prepared for sleep. Yukio brought up his soft, green blanket close to his face and sucked on his thumb. Rin patted his pillow then dived his head into it, then slipped into the covers and looked at the exorcist expectantly, "do you believe in them, Daddy?" Rin said softly as he also started to suck on his thumb.

Father Fujimoto looked at him and responded, "in fact, I do. Do you know why?"

Both boys responded quietly, "why?"

The exorcist stood up and pulled the covers and tucked them around Rin's small body. His words were warm and comforting. "Because I know angels are watching over us. We are alive because of them. If you feel in danger, just remember that they will aid you no matter what. You may not see them, but they are there. Talk to them and they will listen. I have faith in them because you two are alive today, and I am grateful for their protection. You two are the most precious children I was ever blessed with."

Rin and Yukio both smiled sweetly, delighted by their father's response. Soon they slowly dosed off into a safe, dreamy sleep. Father Fujimoto leaned down towards the small table and blew at the candle flame until it died down into smoke. The smell of incense danced lightly in the night air. He slowly walked towards the doorway, the sound of the floor under his shoes creaked weakly in the silence. When Father Fujimoto's hand hovered above the switch, he paused to look at the two boys and added, "goodnight, Rin and Yukio, don't let the bed demons bite." That joke created some giggles from the boys—mostly Rin. Father Fujimoto smiled one last time before he flicked the light off and closed the door with a creak, then a click. The moment he turned his back to the door, the exorcist's smile drained away in horror when a thought struck in his head about Rin. The exorcist tilted his head up and rested it against the door, then let out a shaky breath. He ran his cold, lanky hand down his face and looked up at the ceiling, then at the small, metal cross that hung above the doorway to his own bedroom across the boys' room. Father Fujimoto felt his heart cringe at the thought of Rin's situation. Deep down inside, against all he had said, Father Fujimoto began to believe—fearfully—that Rin was the only human in this world the angels will turn against.

A/N: Well, here's the first chapter! Hopefully you enjoyed this prologue and I'm thankful you took some time to read it! Reviews will be greatly appreciated as they inspire me to continue forward!

Constructive criticism is welcomed as always! I'm not gonna be offended, so please say what you think and help me improve as a writer.