Seeing Double

There was just over a couple months left now for his group of exwires to prepare for the big exams that would make them official exorcists. Yukio sighed, furrowing his brows as he stared at the screen of his computer monitor. The scores he entered on everyone's progress in his class was not exactly reassuring. All this was also very exhausting, and he took off his glasses to rub his face. The younger Okumura twin reached for his energy drink, and tipped it back to finish it off when his half-demon brother entered their dorm room.

It was most likely nii-san's sigh of disgust that made him turn around to acknowledge his return, and in that moment Yukio quickly regretted doing so.

His hair!

Yukio immediately choked on his mouthful of drink in a failed attempt to stifle his surprise. He scooted away from his desk to spit the liquid into his trash can before another round of coughing plagued him.

"Yukio! You okay?" Rin ran over and placed a hand on his back.

Only able to manage a broken whimper, Yukio just pointed at Rin's head. "What- yo- your hair-"

Rin frowned, standing up in dismay. "You better not be laughing at it!"

No, not exactly. He had his glasses off, so what he could see was not very clear. However, it did strike him as odd that his older brother would have his hair cut so short.

"The regular barber was out, so they had this new guy… he took too much off!" Rin whined, flopping on his bed.

At that, Kuro jumped on him, meowing something. Something that made Rin sit upright in protest. "I do not! That'll only make it worse..."

Yukio located his glasses to see just how bad this was. But before he could put them on, they had been snatched out of his hand. "Hey!"

"Do I look like you now?" his older asked him, after putting on his eyeglasses.

"Give back my glasses!"

He wrinkled up his nose. "You didn't answer my question. Do I?"

"I can't see to be sure," Yukio crossed his arms, refusing to let his older brother get him upset. He could only guess that Rin was getting back at him for spraying his drink after noticing his bad hair cut.

"Kuro thinks I do," Rin struck a pose, acting like he was shooting with his finger guns.

"Nii-san…"

"You have other spares, don't you?"

"Please…"

"Pifh.. how can you see with these?" Rin finally removed them just to rub his strained eyes.

He sighed, also not in the mood to explain that reason to Rin. Instead, the more practical twin stood up to snatch his black-framed spectacles from his brother's hand.

"My others are just frames… my prescription had changed so I need to update them," Yukio explained, pausing a moment to clean the smudgy fingerprints off his lenses. Nothing annoyed him more than having 'stuff' on his lenses.

"You know, I wonder if we can fool the others, by switching places!"

"No."

"Tch… c'mon.. it'll be fun! Your hair practically looks longer than mine now, since you've been too busy for a haircut."

"Just because you got a haircut like mine, and wear glasses, doesn't make you like me," Yukio continued to refute this crazy idea.

"I still wanna bet that we can fool them. It would be a good test, to see how much they pay attention as a team," Rin raised his eyebrows.

Yukio sat with his arms crossed, staring at his slightly older twin. He did not want to admit it, but Rin actually had a good point there. Surely Shiemi may be first to notice their swap, and at worse, Shima. However, Yukio wasn't fooled for one second when Rin thought he could pull off being Shima Renzou. He knew each one of his students too well.

"Some hair gel, switch of clothes, your fake glasses, a little make-up for the moles..." Rin was already brainstorming more ideas. Never mind the fact that Rin also had his demon attributes which were rather apparent to people with a mashou. That would be the tricky part to work around.

"Okay, okay… just this time," Yukio sighed, pushing up his glasses. There was only so much that he cared to entrust his brother with this, however. "But I'm not going to let you teach… or shoot my guns."

Rin pouted at that.

"I don't like going without glasses either…"

"Well, how else are we going to do this?" Rin wondered, scratching his head. "Have you sleep during class?"

Yuki clenched his teeth, having second thoughts, until a new idea formed in his mind. "We'll stage a fake mission."


After much rehearsing, arguing, and compromising on their roles, the Okumura brothers had successfully switched their appearances in time for the meeting with the other exwires in front of the old boys dorm that they stayed. The whole thing was really terribly ironic, considering how much Yukio had secretly wished he could have Rin's strength and power. Unfortunately, their powers couldn't be switched, in the way their appearances could be.

The younger twin shouldered the Kurikara sword, reminding himself to slouch again. There was also that subtle height difference between the two of them. How he and Rin looked and acted so differently, even though they were twins, was another thing that bugged him. The fact only minutes separated their ages annoyed him too.

It was later that Saturday afternoon, so their uniforms were not required either. Rin stuck him in one of his hoodie's, while the older insisted on wearing Yukio's long exorcists coat. And again, he hoped they wouldn't get in trouble for this if Shura found out. Mephisto, on the other hand, might just have a good laugh.

Once the others gathered around, Yukio-as-Rin gave Rin-as-Yukio a side long glance and a subtle clearing of the throat to remind him it was time to start with the lesson.

"Okay… hey, good afternoon, everyone!" His older brother started off sounding a little forced, while pushing up the glasses on his nose.

I do not sound like that…

"So today, we will be doing this special training mission, to work on teamwork. Because we…" not-Yukio caught himself mind sentence as he paused to dig some black, cloth blindfolds from a pocket. "Because you guys had trouble with that earlier."

"Blindfolds?" Suguro asked, raising up an eyebrow.

"Yes. So you're gonna split up into partners," he had spoken informally again, instead of sounding more like a teacher should. Not-Rin had to resist the urge to frown at that. "And then one of the partners will be blindfolded, while the other partner has to tell them where to go and what to do."

Not-Rin groaned to play along, all while quickly glancing at the others to see if they seemed suspicious about anything. They did not seem to be, yet.

"This is not going to bode well," Kamiki had started to loose faith in this exercise already.

"I'll call out the pairs now," not-Yukio at least sounded a little more confident at this point. Hopefully he'll remember to include the proper honorifics. "To start, Suguro.. san, with Eye..zumo-san."

Urgh… he did not start to say 'Eyebrows'. I also call her 'Kamiki-san', not-Rin glanced from not-Yukio to Kamiki. From her expression, she clearly noticed that slip of tongue, which earned some curious looks between her, Shima (why?!), and his brother.

"Then Konekomaru-san with uh, Moriyama-san, and Shima-san with.. Okumura-kun," he pulled that fake 'I got this smile' as an attempt to instill confidence from calling the rest of their names properly. "Takara.. san said he felt sick with a fever, so he couldn't come."

"Figures."

That statement about Takara was set-up, since they would have an odd number anyway. But what not-Rin did not like was that his brother forgot that they planned to pair Shiemi with Shima, not with him. Their pink-headed spy was sure to figure this ruse out— forget Rin's jealousy issues with Shiemi!

"Which one of us will be blindfolded?" Konekomaru asked next.

"The ones I give these to," the pretend exorcist teacher handed the blindfolds to Kamiki, Shiemi, and not-Rin.

"So the exercise will be to start from different places on the top floor of the dorm. Since the dorms are not being used – except for ours, don't go into ours – the coal tars are starting to invest them."

"Invest?" Suguro was quick to notice that improperly spoken word.

Not-Rin looked upwards, in further dismay. Their chances of successful fooling this group before they even got started looked less likely, by the minute.

"Oh.. I meant infest. Like they're investing on an infestation.. yeah!" not-Yukio quickly made light of that play on words, briefly tugging at his tight shirt collar as well.

"Agh, shut up!" not-Rin took this as a good time to swat his troublesome brother upside the head, just because it was justifiably in character.

Not-Rin glared back, fists clenched, but still somehow understood that cue to get this show on the road and to not start a fist fight right then and there.

"Okay, so to start, we'll all go up to the top floor," not-Yukio thumbed in the direction of the stair well before turning that way. "Then from there, the blind-folded person takes lead, and the sighted person stays behind them, to tell them where to go. Each team will get one universal key (which we got from the janitor, so don't lose them) that can unlock the doors to the dorms."

That elicited a couple more groans as a result as they climbed the stairs. "That way, you have to work together as a team in order to do well."

"Makes sense though. In order for the one who is blind-folded to work effectively with their meisters, they also need to listen what their partner says, because they can see where the demons are," Konekomaru explained, in agreement of the purpose of this mission.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of the demons hid out here when the Illuminati brought down the barriers," Suguro thought out loud.

"No… you guys just needed an excuse to clean up this old, forgotten place," Shima instead poked fun at the original reason of this particular mission.

"Maybe," not-Rin shrugged, hands in his pockets. "No one else, besides us and you guys, are really allowed to come here."

"Really?" Shiemi wondered. "Any reason why?"

There was that moment of hesitation between the twins, when not-Rin decided to explain briefly. "The True Cross Order was afraid I might lose control of Satan's power and burn down the place."

"Back when Ani had to keep his flames secret," not-Yukio muttered, before picking up his authorities tone. They had reached to top platform of the stairs, otherwise reminding himself of the next step. "Speaking of which, no flames this time, Rin," he gestured for the Kurikara sword to be handed over.

"Aww," not-Rin resisted the request at first, just for realism. "I am a lot more careful now!"

"Yes, but you also tend to take over and do everything yourself, leaving out the others," not-Yukio actually remembered that line like they rehearsed, as if to show his brother how aware he was of the habit.

"Fine," the assumed half-demon handed over his sword to his brother.

This really was a precaution of sorts. They were aware if either one of them happened to unsheathe the sword, Rin's cover would be blown instantly. If not, a huge amount of confusion and alarm would come from the possibility that Yukio must have just inherited Satan's flames. More precisely, that was not something he was in the mood to reveal in this way. Heaven forbid!

"Then… what am I supposed to use?" not-Rin asked next.

"A broom, or a mop… be creative!" not-Yukio smiled smugly. Earlier, he and not-Rin had brought up an assortment of supplies for the exwires, including holy water spray bottles and like containment devices.

And his older brother was really milking it now, clearly aware of the fact that not-Yukio had his guns, the Kurikara sword, and his original pair of glasses tucked away inside the coat pocket (for emergency reasons).

Not-Rin just growled in response, on so many levels!

Shima patted him on the shoulder, also smiling in that sly way. "Don't worry. I'll keep you safe."

"No, you'll tell me to walk into a wall!" not-Rin snorted.

"Don't give me ideas!" the pink-headed one shot back.

"He'll probably burn his blindfold off before we finish," Suguro interjected.

"Try me," not-Rin snubbed, doing his best to think of retorts to go along with the other's shrewd commentary.

They followed not-Yukio out into the dimly lit hallway of the top floor. Just a few more instructions, and they'll be off. The whole set-up was really becoming stressful, due to all the unpredictable factors cropping up.

"Okay everyone! Put on your blind-folds and let's begin," not-Yukio clapped his hands. "Just remember to make sure each floor is clean of dust and demon scum before moving on to the next."

"If we work together, it shouldn't be that difficult, right?" Shiemi did her best to be supportive. She was ready with her black cloth tied tightly in place.

Not-Rin was last to tie his bandana on, being careful as he covered his prosthetic ear tips with it.

The teams promptly gathered some supplies and then split up in different directions. Phase One was finally past, and even though not-Yukio managed through that without too many mess-ups, not-Rin couldn't help but worry about Phase Two next. In theory, that part would be much easier to do, as all that not-Yukio had to do was sit back and watch. That was also the problem, because his older brother had never been the one to just sit idle. He literally had to make not-Yukio swear as playing the instructor-role, that he was not going to interfere, at any time.

So maybe not-Rin had some trust issues with his older twin that were never yet settled.

"Hey, turn left here, for this room," Shima tapped his shoulder to grab his attention.

Not-Rin reached out first before turning, his fingertips feeling for the doorframe and then a doorknob. "Key?"

Shima stepped in to unlock it. After the door creaked open, and the two stood for a moment more.

"So.. how are we gonna do this?" the double spy asked him. A good question that was, since not-Rin had been so worried previously about his brothers 'performance', he didn't think much about this new turn of events yet.

"Do you see anything suspicious?" he asked, just to buy more time as he thought this through.

"Would the spider village in that corner qualify?"

Of course Shima's insectophobia would become a problem right about now. "Don't be a chicken shit, Shima. It's not even coal tar! Just spray 'em and sweep it up!"

"Wouldn't it be easier if you just killed it with fire?" Shima countered quickly. "I'll cover for you if Okumura-sensei notices."

"No…" not-Rin habitually resisted the idea. He didn't have a good feeling about this, because he knew that Rin would actually give in. Was Shima testing him already? "Just show me where, and I'll sweep them up."

"Urgh.. I'll be way over... there.. then," he grumbled, not even offering to help.

Why…? Was it really that bad?

"Honestly.. I can't see what I'm doing! I'll end up burning up the place!" not-Rin held out his hands in protest, turning in the direction he heard his teammate's voice.

"Then peek! I won't tell!" Shima tried again.

Then where's the teamwork in that!

Not-Rin frowned. Shima's wimpiness did not help at all, and the temptation to look after getting that invitation made it worse. But no… the lazy spy had to be baiting him. Rin or not, he wasn't going to give in to his game so easily! Not-Rin gripped the broom handle, figuring he was in the middle of the room, and paused.

"Just… where is it?" not-Rin asked again, hoping for a more direct answer.

"The cobwebs are on the desk and shelves, to your le—" Shima took a couple steps further away, but he couldn't finish his sentence because he started screaming.

"What is- something's jumping on me!" Shima ran into not-Rin, almost knocking him off his balance.

"What the-"

"Eyah! Th- they're eyeballs!" Shima had grabbed him, using not-Rin as a shield.

"What?!"


AN:

Has something like this been done yet?

Just a fun little story (similar to the Salaryman Exorcist spinoff) to test the limits of these twins. Because it is the holidyas, and we need some funny to lighten things up after all the tension going in between these two.

There will be another chapter (or two?) after this one as well. Enjoy!