Disclaimer: I don't own Blue Exorcist or its characters.

As always, a thank you to everyone who helped me this chapter! There were a lot of you this time.

Chapter 1: A Parent's Terror

When Rin left his classroom that day, the sight of the other children moving out of the way was nothing new to him. They all gave him strange, nervous looks, watching him carefully. He, in return, looked down at the hallway floor as he left. For now, the young boy, just shy of seven, would have to control his emotions, reign in the insidious voice telling him to punch his classmates as hard as he could. Every single time he listened to it, he regretted it deeply after regaining his senses. His father had asked him to be a gentle person, and he didn't want to let the aging man down. Not after sending him to the hospital the year before.

After crying his eyes out back then, Rin had promised he would change himself. And while it was hard, he was doing a bit better. Between then and now, while he had punched several people (mostly for bullying his brother or calling either of them mean names behind their backs), he hadn't broken any bones or sent anyone else to the hospital. Dad was a little proud of him for that, and he was even pleased with himself. But it wasn't enough.

Rin counted the paces until he reached his brother's classroom, the 'Apricot' class, where Yukio stood outside the door.

"Hi...Nii-san." Yukio smiled, clutching his backpack. But his fingers shook as his eyes wandered over to something behind Rin.

Rin grinned back. Yukio relaxed as he focused only on Rin's face. Assuming another bully was making threatening gestures behind them, the elder brother whipped around. Nobody was there. He looked back at Yukio with a frown, but his little brother dismissed his questioning look with a cocked head and nervous laughter.

The two twins exited into the school lot, where their father waved at them from the neglected garden ledge by the gates. He stood up and brushed the dirt off of his cassock (the 'garden' didn't have many plants, and the ones it did have were drooping and ill-managed). They ran over to him, weaving through some fifth and sixth graders that had the privilege of going home on their own.

"Were you two good today?" Shiro asked, ruffling their hair once they were near.

Rin smiled widely in response, and Yukio's hand touched his father's as he chuckled.

"Of course you were!" Shiro said before withdrawing his hands. "Or otherwise the school would have called again." The priest got to his feet and led the boys outside the gates.

"That's right!" Rin insisted. "I said I was good! You said you were going to get me a present if I didn't hurt anybody for three months, right?"

"I did say that," Shiro agreed, turning back to him. He grinned, holding up a brown bag. Rin perked up instantly. "And I did get you something. Both of you. Yukio's done a good job as well."

"Eh? Me? Really?" Yukio drew his hands to his chest, tightening his fist as he eagerly looked up to his father.

"Of course!"

'That's right,' Yukio thought, letting his gaze drop. 'I'm getting better at not attracting the bullies. I can't be scared of demons. That's why they make fun of me and Rin gets into fights. Dad said I need to make sure Rin doesn't get into fights anymore.' Everything had to be done for his older brother's sake.

Once they had walked to the bus stop, Shiro pulled the 'present' out of the bag, revealing it to be a package of action figures.

"It's Blue Fighter!" Rin exclaimed as he grabbed it.

"Uh-uh." Shiro shook his head, holding the bag out of his reach. "You don't get to open that until we get home."

"What?" Rin whined. "But that's not fair." He pouted and tried to reach for the toys again. "It's not fair to show it and then say we can't play with it."

Yukio also slumped, gazing longingly at the toys. A bus came to a stop behind them and opened the doors.

"Yes, it is," Shiro said as he climbed in. "Learn how to be patient. Grown-ups have to manage their excitement and manage their feelings, so I'd like you to start now. Besides, I don't want you losing it before we get home."

The boys followed their father moping, turning their heads away as they sat on the seats in front of him. They patiently waited out the short ride home, but as soon as they arrived at the monastery, the two hurried out of the bus. Shiro hid a grin as he followed after them and finally plopped the toy box into their eager hands.

"That wasn't so bad, see?" he remarked.

'Yes, it was,' both boys wanted to say, but their attention turned to the box in their hands instead. Rin, excited to check out his new toys, rushed through the front doors with it under the blink of an eye.

"C'mon, Yukio!"

Yukio turned back just in time to see his brother disappear from sight. He reached out, then lowered his hand, feeling a little intimidated by Rin's enthusiasm and speed. It was hard not to be, when not so long ago, Yukio was always falling sick. The brunet took two steps forward, shaking off the feeling, when his father patted him on the shoulder. Yukio looked up at him and his father's encouraging smile caused his doubts to completely vanish.

Yukio and Shiro arrived at the living room together, where Rin had already ripped the box apart with glee and grabbed a figure clad in a blue uniform. He dumped three other figurines on the floor in front of him.

Shiro leaned against a wall at the entrance of the room and watched. "You get two toys each. How about that?"

"I get Blue Fighter!" Rin declared.

"Yes, I can see that. Go ahead if Yukio doesn't mind."

Yukio kneeled down beside him, content with his brother's choice. He picked up a man with brown hair and a lab coat. "I want Shiro."

Shiro perked up. "There's a Shiro?"

"Yeah. Shiro's the doctor," Yukio said. "He's super smart."

"He has the same name as you, isn't that cool?" Rin piped up.

"Of course it is!" Shiro beamed with pride. "I bet they were just trying to make their character into someone as cool as me!"

"Dad's cooler," Yukio said.

Shiro grinned.

"But that's because Doctor Shiro isn't supposed to be cool," Yukio continued. "He made Ao into Blue Fighter, so he just gives him shots to become stronger,"

"Oho," Shiro said. "Like a mad scientist?"

Rin stood the 'Ao' figure up and moved it up and down in the air. "Doctor Shiro. Doctor Shiro! Give me my shots!" he said in a high-pitched voice.

Yukio poked the 'Ao' figure with his 'Shiro' figure.

"Tadah!" Rin declared. "Super Blue Fighter is ready to fight the demon!"

The flesh and blood Shiro blinked behind them. He crossed his arms and frowned. "Hold on, Blue Fighter fights demons?"

"Yep," Rin said. "Yukio can play the demon."

Yukio picked up another toy, inspecting it. It had dark green, almost black skin, with the head of a jellyfish and long, thick, tentacle-like arms. He frowned, then stood the figure on the floor across from 'Ao.'

"Rawr."

"You actually seem to like that thing!" Shiro said, surprised. "I thought you would go 'uwah uwah scary demon!'

"It's called a Dreadman," Yukio replied. "And it's not real."

'But demons are real, and you know that, Yukio,' Shiro thought, falling into a pensive silence as he watched the twins play. 'Rin will eventually learn that too. I'm glad Yukio's okay with the demon toy. But should I really let them watch this show?'He felt like it would be bad for the twins' development, like it would put poisonous ideas in their heads before they awakened themselves. Or at least before Rin did. Shiro bit back a sigh. 'I have to control what they see in their childhood. They can't keep thinking all demons are horrible creatures. Perhaps I should trade in the toys and get new ones.'

"Well, is that Dreadman a bad guy?" Shiro asked. "Just because he's not human? What if he wanted to be nice?"

"He's NOT nice!" Rin complained. "He hurts people."

"Maybe he can't control his anger, like another boy I know."

Yukio looked at the two of them, confused. His eyes centered on Rin for a few minutes, watching his brother's every action with his mouth open. "But...Nii-san is…"

"No!" Rin interrupted. "He wants to! And that's why Blue Fighter fights them."

Shiro paused for a few seconds. 'Jeez, what's gotten into me lately? Bad for their development? Rin is supposed to be a weapon, and he will fight other demons. I shouldn't coddle his feelings,' he reminded smile in his eyes disappeared. "Then I suppose it's fine," he said when he spoke up again. "In that case, killing it would be the 'right' thing to do."

"Yay!" Rin cheered, going right back to their game.

'Why did it hurt so much to say that?' Shiro thought, biting his lip. Not wanting to linger on the feeling, he walked over to the couch and made himself comfortable as he watched the children continue to play with their toys throughout the evening, occasionally supplying new plots they could use. Around sunset, the kids switched characters. Yukio took 'Akamaru' the hacker, and Rin took 'Shiro' because he still wanted to pit his 'Ao' against Yukio's Dreadman. Shiro insisted that Yukio keep the Dreadman instead of giving it to Rin.

'In Yukio's case, it's different,' Shiro decided. 'Since Rin will awaken while Yukio remains his human brother. What if Yukio gets it into his head that he should fear all demons or hate them indiscriminately, and abandons Rin? Maybe I should integrate him into the world of demons and exorcism properly.' He rubbed his temple. 'No way, he's just a kid… Then again, if things continue the way they've been going...'

At 9pm, Shiro checked his watch and told them, "Alright, that's enough fun for one day. Time for bed."

"Daaad, I'm not sleepy," Rin complained.

"Well that's too bad, isn't it?"

Rin's lower lip jutted out as he continued to whine. Shiro swiped 'Akamaru' away from him when his grip on the toy got loose.

"Don't pretend you're not going to fall straight to sleep once you're in your room," Shiro told him, unyielding. He turned his attention to Yukio. "And you. Stop it with the puppy eyes. You know that won't work on me."

The twins continued to sulk as he rushed them to bed. Rin and Yukio got under the covers and pretended to go to sleep. They had secretly agreed to stay awake once they were out of their father's earshot. A half hour passed as Rin tried to keep himself awake. Once that amount of time passed, he considered it enough.

He got out of bed and told Yukio, "Hey, I think it's safe!"

Yukio climbed down from the top bunk. As they inched toward the door, they heard a knock on the other side. The children went quiet and stood still. Then they ran back toward their bed. They stopped short of leaping on, aiming to make as little noise as possible.

"I hear you, little ones~" an old woman said through the door, her voice high-pitched, harsh, and raspy.

"Who're you?!" Yukio asked shakily.

"Idiot, what did you say that for?!" Rin hissed. "Dad's gonna hear, that's gotta be him!"

"No… It isn't," Yukio whispered. 'What if she's a kidnapper?' he thought.

Rin cocked his head while Yukio took a few steps back, bumping into the side of the bed and falling onto it. The bed creaked loudly. A white haze slipped through the cracks of the door, distorting and bending the space behind it. It grew, until it loomed over the twins and slid straight toward them. Yukio screamed.

Rin looked back at Yukio. "What now?!"

They heard another set of footsteps outside the door. Then gunshots. Rin went pale.

Yukio couldn't force his body to move despite how much he wanted to. The misty distortion felt cool on their skin as it curled around them, consuming and suffocating them. Both twins felt nauseated while the room twisted and warped, then the mist lifted them up and became too thick to see through.

The door of their room burst open. Shiro stood in the doorway, shotgun in hand, but what he saw, or what he didn't see, almost made him drop the gun. Rin, Yukio, and the thing that took them were gone, leaving absolutely no traces of them behind. He stared speechlessly at the scene before him for a long moment before rushing out of the room and to the nearest phone, nearly tripping on it in his hurried attempt to grab it from the receiver. Once he dialed the number, he tapped the desk as the ringtone continued. But Mephisto never picked up, instead it went straight to voicemail.

Shiro didn't bother leaving a message, merely slamming the phone down. "Dammit!"

A black device buzzed on an oak desk, making the three screens hovering above it shake. A phone symbol flashed directly under them and the owner of this device brushed his hair over his ears as completely as he could before minimizing the screens. .

'Incoming call,' spoke a robotic female voice. 'Caller ID: Mephisto Pheles.'

The man pressed the symbol, accepting the call. Mephisto promptly hung up on him.

"Huh? He's gone?"

The man's voice jolted another person's attention away from their own work. Despite the former's obvious irritation at Mephisto, the other man considered it a welcome distraction. "What are you talking about?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he leaned back on his seat-a black leather couch that was in the center of the room. He too brushed aside a hovering set of screens, and put his own device on the coffee table in front of him.

"I do believe Sir Pheles just tried to prank me," the man at the desk complained, pinching his nose.

Both men heard a pop behind the couch, and the one sitting on it looked over his shoulder to see the source of the sound.

"That would be quite incorrect, Mr. Okumura. Or would you prefer 'Lord Okumura?'" Mephisto Pheles, their prank caller, said with a slight smile. It seemed like he had decided to teleport into the room to speak with them in person instead.

"I don't mind either way. Call me whatever you wish," Mr. Okumura said, looking straight at their guest.

"Oh, how convenient!~" Mephisto turned his attention to the one on the couch now, leaning in slightly over the back with an inquisitive look that looked thoroughly insincere on his face. "And does your older brother feel the same?"

"I'm your superior. Please address me as sir," the older brother said sarcastically.

"What an unusually impeccable memory." Mephisto straightened up, narrowing his eyes. "Well, Sir Okumura, you must realize that along with rank comes responsibility. That is what I came to speak with you about."

"Is there something specific we need to do?" Mr. Okumura asked. "As far as I know, no one else has raised any concerns."

"No, dear me, that's not quite what I meant. I have a mission for you both."

Mr. Okumura frowned and leaned forward on the desk, touching one of the minimized monitors, prepared to restore it again. "What happened?"

"Something created a hole in time-space about fifteen minutes ago," Mephisto explained. "A very curious and unusual event. It transpired somewhere in Southeastern Russia. I would like you to investigate the cause."

Upon hearing this, 'Sir' Okumura jumped out of his seat at once, catapulting himself over the back of the couch and twisting around to land directly in front of Mephisto. "Wait, do we actually get to fight?" he asked, immediately eager at the idea of getting out of the office he shared with his brother. Anything was better than checking reports, as long as it involved moving. "Because if this 'investigation' is about research, sitting at computers, then no way."

"I would never knowingly give you a task that would put too much strain on your limited mental resources, sir!" Mephisto said cheerfully.

"What was that?" Sir Okumura growled.

"I said, of course you get to fight~" Now his tone was as angelic as it was phony.

"Do we have permission to use our powers too?" Mr. Okumura asked, cutting right through the bubbling argument. Mephisto's attention returned to him.

"It is likely that you will have to," he said with a nod. "If you find the parties responsible I would like you to kill them immediately. You can't handle them as 'humans.'"

"No, what I meant was: Do we have UNCEDA's approval?" Mr. Okumura unconsciously adjusted his hair to cover the base of his elongated ears again. "We collectively possess the same kind of power and abilities Satan used to have. They consider us 'Living Weapons of Mass Destruction.' So you already know the kind of restrictions they've put us under, and that we can't move right away unless we intend to fight with minimal strength."

"The United Nations Committee of Extra-Dimensional Administration?" Mephisto stifled a smile but he couldn't stop the eyebrow that rose in amusement. "Please don't tell me you take them seriously."

"So you haven't even asked?"

Mephisto waved a hand in front of him dismissively. "You may do that yourselves retroactively. The Grigori won't mind, and they've been in this business for far longer. It would make sense to claim you had an emergency and didn't have the time, since together these demons are at least on par with myself."

"We can't afford to do it later," Mr. Okumura mumbled. Then he sighed. "There's more than one?" he asked in a normal tone of voice.

"Yes, of course. None in my domain can possibly exceed me on their own" Mephisto pointed out with a small hum. "Whoever is behind this certainly isn't working alone."

"Then I'm in!" The elder brother tapped his foot. His earlier irritation was gone, overshadowed by a warring state of impatience and excitement. Behind him, a long, furry tail coated in flames was swishing back and forth. "Let Yukio deal with the UN people and let's go!"

The mist was stifling. It had wrapped around them completely, making it hard to see anything outside the white, hazy blanket of smoke which seemed to be moving them. Yukio couldn't tell what was going on. He clutched his brother's sleeve, terrified, trying not to breathe it in while Rin squinted and swayed around like he was about to vomit.

The mist disappeared. Yukio opened his eyes and noticed they were no longer in their room. The two boys blinked in confusion as they realized they were in a small cabin instead, standing in the center of a sooty chimney. The first thing that hit them was the smell of the place: musky, filthy, with traces of charcoal in the air. Then, they noticed that a group of children their age were huddled in various spots throughout the cabin, though it was so cramped that there was very little space between their bodies. They all seemed to be trying to avoid the enormous oven in the room, the table next to it, and especially the white spheres that were scattered everywhere on both the floor and the table.

Yukio let out a whimper and hid behind Rin, tears falling down his cheeks once he realized the 'white spheres' were human skulls. He dug his fingers into his brother's nightclothes while he kept his eyes open just enough to count them. One...Three...Eight… Ten… A lot. There were too many to count.

Rin whipped his head around sharply and repeatedly, clenching his fist. His pupils dilated; it was clear he didn't understand what brought them there. The room had just scrambled together on him, causing his vision to blur, then dim, until he had wound up in this cabin. Why? He didn't find anyone in the room besides the kids. When his eyes wandered to a tiny window near the ceiling, he couldn't stop himself from focusing on it and loosening his hands. A small beam of sunlight shone through it.

"Huh? Why's it day?" Rin asked, looking around some more. "And where are we?! Who took us here?! How did we get here?!"

"I don't know," Yukio whispered anxiously. "Maybe the mist did it..."

"What mist?! There wasn't a mist!"

"...Yes there was."

At that point, another child bumped into two of them. The twins stumbled, letting out tiny yelps of surprise as they fell to the floor. It wasn't that the other child was particularly heavy, but it had been unexpected.

"Hey, what was that for?!" Rin yelled, laying eyes on the child for the first time.

He was an extremely pretty boy, who pulled his straight, chin-length blond hair out of his face and scowled at them. "[Don't yell at me! It's rude!]" the boy yelled back. Yukio didn't understand a word of what he was saying, but it sounded like he spoke English.

"Did you kidnap us?!" Rin demanded.

The blond's scowl deepened but he didn't respond.

"Hey!"

"[I said stop yelling, you barbarian!]"

"It... it wasn't him." Yukio sniffled, jostling his glasses as he rubbed his face clean. Tears continued to prickle at the corner of his eyes. His lip trembled as he remembered that raspy voice. "I bet it wasn't even a human!"

"Huh?" Rin cocked a skeptical eyebrow.

The blond let out an annoyed huff. "[Whatever. I'm leaving,]" he decided, before pushing past the twins, kicking up dust as he went. He walked over to the door, treading as lightly as he could and tightening his body to avoid touching anything, not even glancing at the other kids. "[It's so gross in here!]" he muttered with a grimace.

"Hey! Where are you going, you jerk?! I'll kill you!" Rin fumed, snarling at him.

Rin stomped across the room, following him. Yukio hurried after him.

"Nii-san! Stop, please, don't get angry at him," he pleaded, remembering the discussion Rin and his father had just a few hours earlier. "You heard what dad said!" he added.

Rin hesitated right as he caught up to the foreign boy. At the same time, the latter pushed at the wooden door, opening it, and promptly fell out screaming. Rin reacted quickly, grabbing the blond's foot, but before he realized it, he was thrown out the door too. He grabbed ahold of the frame just before falling out entirely.

"Nii-san!"

Yukio stared at his brother petrified, and then at what lay behind him. His knees suddenly felt weak. They were spinning, the entire house was spinning like a crazed amusement park ride. Rin and the foreign boy were about to fall out of it and plummet to their deaths. Below them lay thousands of feet of empty air, and below that a city with buildings that would piece them with their spikes before they hit the ground.

"Yukio! Help!" Rin yelled.

Somehow, despite how frightened he felt, his brother's voice snapped him into action. Yukio grabbed his brother's hand and repositioned himself behind the frame so the pull wouldn't send him flying too. 'How much help am I gonna be? I'm super weak,' he thought despairingly. Still, he tried to pull his brother back inside as hard as he could.

Thankfully for Rin, his strength was enough to hold on, giving the older brother an opportunity to throw the other boy back into the hut with his other arm. A couple of girls stopped the blond's fall. Yukio clung to Rin's hand for dear life, but tears blurred his vision as he felt his grip on Rin slip. Why couldn't he just be stronger?! Yukio closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and pulled harder to keep him from falling out. He felt his brother's weight suddenly decrease and his eyes shot open at once.

But no, Rin wasn't falling. The foreign blond had joined him and was trying to help Yukio pull his brother up. They both leaned back and Rin fell back inside the hut, landing on his knees.

"[Thank you]" the foreign boy said. He was smiling now, for the first time not angry at either brother. "[You both saved me. You're not so bad after all. Actually you're pretty strong.]"

Even Yukio (and Rin, so it seemed) understood a small part of that, since 'thank you' was a borrowed term in Japanese.

"I don't understand any of that, but [sankyuu]!" Rin said.

A loud clack caused the three boys to jump and they glanced back to see the door had closed behind them. There was an old woman in front of the doorway now too, and Yukio shivered as she smiled down at them with pointed iron teeth. The old woman began muttering something then, and Yukio let out a small gasp as he heard her. Though he couldn't understand her, he recognized her voice as the one that had been on the other side of the door when the mist came in.

Suddenly, the woman's lips stretched into a wide grin, salivating, and it immediately dawned on Yukio what she wanted. He shrieked, feeling his eyes well up with tears again.

"Y-Yukio, what's wrong?!" Rin asked as he stared at his little brother wide-eyed.

"She's- She's gonna eat us!"

"She who?!"

Yukio felt a bout of frustration burst inside of him alongside his panic. Why couldn't his brother just see?

The woman mumbled something and sniffed at him. "I smell… the Japanese isles," she said, switching to Japanese. She reached down to pick Yukio up with her filthy hands. "So it's you! And, you have a mashou, even so young? How pesky! And I hate you! I'll eat you first."

Yukio screamed and cried, arms and legs kicking in the air. "No, no, let go! Nii-san! Nii-san, please!"

"What the?! You're floating!" Rin exclaimed, his hairs standing on end. He reached up to grab Yukio, jumping high in the air.

"Oooh, I see the older brother has come too," the hag remarked, holding Yukio out of Rin's reach.

Yukio continued to flail desperately. 'Why is she acting like she's never seen us before?! She's the one who kidnapped us!'

The foreign boy seemed more adjusted to the situation than either of the twins, enough that he at least recognized what was going on. "[Demon!]" he shouted, snatching up a pair of skulls from the floor. He threw them in the hag's direction, but only one of them hit her shoulder. It became clear then that he couldn't actually see her, but that didn't stop him from charging in her general direction and ramming into her body legs. The hag let out a pained yelp and dropped Yukio at the blow.

"You!" she screeched angrily, scratching the blond across the face. "[I smell British and French spirit on you, cursed boy!]" she said, switching to English. "[How dare you charge at my poor old bones! It hurts! After this one, you'll be next!] She barked an incomprehensible command and snapped her fingers.

Three disembodied hands appeared out of thin air, grabbing Yukio and the other boy by their shoulders. The hands dragged them over to the stovetop and set them down, but continued to grip them tightly. The blond tried to struggle out of their grasp, but his efforts were fruitless. Yukio's knees lost footing and he collapsed, convinced he would die at any moment.

The old woman picked up a broom sitting by the oven, and swiped it against the side of the stove. A flame erupted from the bristles, which she ushered into the oven, setting the wood inside of it on fire. After sparing the children a wicked smile, she wandered over to the side of the stove, but at that moment, Rin dashed toward the same spot and accidentally tripped her.

The hag let out an irritated snarl. Yukio watched wide-eyed as the woman got up and snatched Rin by his arms, dragging him to the other side of the oven.

"Ghost!" Rin yelled as he struggled blindly. "Let go!"

Yukio bit his lip and looked away, feeling tears well up in his eyes again. Beside him, the blond continued to curse at the woman. 'I wish I could do something!' Yukio thought. 'She's going to eat Nii-san. She's going to eat me and this guy too. I can't even get these things off!' He shut his eyes tightly.

The hands pinning him down suddenly seized up and released their captives, flailing around in the air before finally disappearing. Yukio opened his eyes as soon as they did. 'Why did they disappear?' he wondered. The blond grabbed his hands and guided him to the edge of the stove. 'Maybe the foreigner did something,' Yukio thought, remembering how strong and brave he seemed when he helped them earlier.

The old woman looked back as soon as she saw her meal get loose. "Where are you going, you ungrateful children?!" Her lack of focus gave Rin the opportunity to wrestle himself out of her grip.

The elder twin landed on the ground and stumbled backwards, but the phantom hands he couldn't see picked him up again.

Yukio looked back as the woman leered at Rin and gnashed her teeth.

"And you! What a naughty little brat you are!"

At that exact moment, a blast of fire tore through the entire front wall, illuminating the every inch of the cabin. Their captor turned and inhaled sharply as the spinning house came to a halt. Everyone inside, both demon and human, fell over while the house screeched in pain. Rin jammed his fingers in his ears, Yukio covered them, and the rest of the children followed suit in an attempt to drown out the noise. The sun blinded them as it came in through the fresh opening. Rin looked onward in horror as some of the children close to it were accidentally thrown outside.

Yukio and the foreign boy looked behind them, in the direction of the fire. Unlike Rin, who could only see normal fire, they could see it was colored a bright sapphire.

Only the foreign boy understood what that meant.