Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Exorcist. I am also not a native English speaker, so please bear with any grammar/spelling mistakes. Please review!

Once upon a time, everything was free.

It's true! Every single thing on Earth can just be taken off of with no charge. Well, perhaps, you can get side-effects; such as food poisoning, et cetera. But everything was free, and no-one owned anything. Nobody owned anything, and nobody was owned by anyone. You are free. You are powerful. Nobody reigns over you, and you reign nobody. Life was as easy as blinking back over the infinite years, back to The Beginning – except life had not developed eyes back then, so that metaphor does not apply.

Then one day, there's a certain species who changed everything. Who evolutionised, and revolutionised, everything. To get things in those days, you must exchange it for something else worth of the exact same value. Someone would own something, and you're not allowed to touch it or take it. Everything was difficult.

Then came the age that you could own somebody. You can own your own fellow specie! You're taken out from your mother and the moment on from your birth, your life depends on a piece of paper. A contract. And you either live a jailed living man or a free dead bird. And that continues until this very day, to this very second. You are owned.

Nothing was free anymore. The species that owned everything – humans, were the only ones powerful, and no other being is powerful enough to stop them as a collective. Livestock is owned and farmed by humans. Trees and plants were owned and grew by humans. Pets like dogs and cats were owned and tamed by humans.

Humans were owned by humans.

Now, what if you're human – but also not human?

Simple. You are an alien object. You have to die; because you can't own anything while you are owned by somebody.

"No." Yukio said as softly as he could, although the tears were brimming in his eyes and his skin was an alarmingly pale white. "You can't see him. He needs his space."

His arms were overstretched over their dormitory door, blocking the entrances of his students. Ryuji was there, first in line, raking a hand through his dyed hair and shouting at his supposed teacher. Shiemi was red-faced and teary-eyed, and the rest of the class was trailing behind, although Shima was at the farthest side of the corridor, his back leaning against the wall with his hands over his face. None of them could believe what had just been announced.

"Okumura, Rin." The Grigori member said in their initially deep voice. "Although we admire your efforts of coming through this far, and we are impressed, you have failed the exam – and that means that you can now pose a threat to humankind, and our branches. As our contract states, you will face your execution twenty-four hours from now. Within the space of that waiting period, you may do as you wish – within boundaries – inside of the Academy."

"Look, you bloody piece of git. I can understand that he's- he's not got long left." Ryuji spoke, his usually deep tone now bubbly and wavering as if he's about to cry. His eyes were puffy and red too, as if he had cried the previous hour. "B-But can't we… Can't we, like – I don't know, talk to him? Last few words? I don't even care if it's a goddamn simple goodbye, for god's sake. I want to say it to him in person. God knows he tried his best in that bloody exam. His bloody best. Look, can't we just say something? Anything' would do, please, just let us get through the goddamn door…"

Rin, on the other side of the door, had no tears in his cheeks, and his eyes weren't even red, nor puffy. He had his face suffocated by the thin volume of the pillow, one hand next to his head and one draped downwards onto the floor at the side of the bed. He hadn't bothered to change from his uniform; his shirt crinkled and untucked from his pants, unbuttoned at the collar and muddied with demon blood. His tail was limp and Kurikara was underneath his chest. His demon heart, concealed in the sword, beat together as one with his human heart, and they were faint, dull…

His eyes were half-lidded, and only half of the sapphire orbs glowed through his eyelids; the glow wasn't as bright as it was the day before. It was dull as dust, and they weren't gazing at the wall. They gazed at another world elsewhere, where everything was murky, and clouded with the unknown void…

The same words repeated through his head.

"…you have failed the exam – and that means that you can now pose a threat to humankind…"

There was a sound of a loud thump, Ryuji's loud booming voice and Yukio sighing in frustration, caving in. There was a muffled sound of his twin brother muttering, "Right, only you. Everyone else, please kindly exit the building…"

The door groaned as his classmates' footsteps subdued, and the floor creaked as Ryuji entered the room. There was a nervous gulp, and the bed dulled downwards from the added weight. Ryuji had sat at the edge of bed, opposite to Rin. Rin remained unresponsive to the guest, however, and remained flopped and idle.

There was a thirty-second silence.

"Hey, 'kumura." Ryuji finally spoke. A nervous laugh bubbled up his throat. "God, I remember those days when I used to loathe you- not because you were a demon. But because of how irresponsible you were, how ignorant to everything… And it was how badly behaved you are that made us realise that we had the same goals, more or less the same ideology…"

There was a sigh. Ryuji didn't blame Rin for being passive.

"Then I realised how damn funny you were. Of course, you're a clumsy oaf, you can't even walk on a flat surface without falling face-first. You put your friends first before yourself, and even when you clearly knew that you could've been the party's leader, you agreed to be our special trump card. We worked together so well.

"I just… I just can't believe it, pal. You didn't even have any intentions at all to hurt anybody innocent. Sure, you get out of control sometimes, but you would always hold back in the end. You made us all forget that you're a son of an enemy."

Then Rin heard something that he didn't expect to ever come out of Ryuji's mouth.

He was sobbing.

That snapped Rin out of the void. Although his eyes only opened slowly, he sat up to witness his friend – the toughest out of the group, crying. And Rin didn't know how to react to this.

"God, look at me, blubbering like a baby." Ryuji laughed bitterly and sniffed. He sighed, turned around to face Rin and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Rin- bloody hell, Rin, if I have to say honestly… You're… You're the most human person I've ever met."

Rin always thought that time passed so fast, yet time was something that never existed.

Time is only an ideology that humans made so that they can keep track of their own brain and not go mad. It's only a theory. Time doesn't exist – yet it does, only in the minds of human.

Time, although it doesn't exist, can deceive the human brain. One time two hours only feels like five minutes, and five minutes seem like two hours. And you wonder – if you've just gone through five minutes of time in two hours, would the others be left in time because you just passed it so quickly?

Twenty-four hours seemed to be days and days to oblivion in Rin's mind. Perhaps it was just the anticipation, or his brain as slowly turning into mush. Or perhaps it was both.

Bitterly laughing, he had considered himself lucky. Most people never knew when they were going to die; it was a sort of… unexpected thing that happens. But him of all these people: he had the privilege to know when he was dying. It was an unlucky kind of lucky, and it made him scared.

He was now asking the questions most people would've asked – what had gone wrong? His theory exam was fine. Hell, he even rivalled Ryuji at his marks! The practical exam was even better. He smashed through the thing, and he did himself proud. But the Grigori didn't think it was good enough. Even Mephisto had melted his face into confusion and confronted them, defending his performance, booming in an unusually loud voice of how unfair the Grigori was. But Grigori being the Grigori, their decisions are unchallengeable. It was pass or die. And, unfortunately for Rin, it was a 'die'.

But he wasn't interested in thinking about what he could fix. He was more interested in which lives he could've saved in the future by killing his father.

He was disappointed in himself. He blamed himself for being so ignorant. He blamed himself for being-

No. That was self-pity. He had done his best. Father Fujimoto would've been proud he had done his best. Although yes, he should be disappointed in himself, but if his foster father was here alive by his side, he would smack him for moping around in depression. He should enjoy the rest of his hours; he was going to die soon.

With sudden surge of energy after Ryuji had left the room, he pressed his ear to the door to check that nobody was there, or they'll think that if they see his sudden smiling face he was eager to die. Now that'd be odd. No, he wanted all this precious moment to himself.

Rubbing his eyes, he opened the window and proceeded to climb up, his demon tail perking up. He decided to leave Kurikara by the bed. Once he was on the ledge, he hooked a foot on the next window, put his hands above the panes and hoisted himself up, repeating the process, grabbing into any nook or cranny if there wasn't any windows to climb left. He finally reached the roof and he sat on top of the tiles, basking himself in the dying sun.

Gazing up at the bright light, the sun reminded him of himself. The dawn represented his birth; but when the sun is up high and hot and it made the atmosphere so warm, the people below hated him because of how hot it was. And in the afternoon when it starts to get a little chilly, the people finally warmed up to him – because he gave them the light and the heat they needed. But in the end, everything that goes up has to come down, and he'll have to sink down in the end, and it'll all be dark.

Except, in his case, the sun only rises once and once only, and when it sets, it sets forever, and the world would be dark. And there is no moon to replace him.

When you are close to dying, it seemed like it was the only time your memory would unravel and you'd remember everything. Everything precious, everything sweet…

Rin stood up from the tiles and let the wind blow on his face and rake through his hair, his eyes glowing brighter than the setting sun. Of course, the sadness was still inside of him, prowling, screeching his failure, but he had come this far. For the Grigori to even let him to live this long is already a privilege, and he tried his best. It could've been better; but that's all that matters.

His friends are now official Exorcists – not his ickle brother's student anymore. Proper exorcists. And Rin was to be either an exorcist or a demon; he wanted to be both, but now, he seemed like neither of them. But he was proud of how far he had come. More so, he was even prouder for his friends. He was so happy when they announced that they've passed - all but Rin. But he was hurt when his friends' faces twisted into horror as the Grigori announced his death. It was as if someone just socked him over the head with a large boulder: it hurts. At least, it only hurts for a few odd hours.

"Rin- bloody hell, Rin, if I have to say honestly… You're… You're the most human person I've ever met."

Although he didn't want to talk to his friends, partially because of an inner jealousy that they've all passed and he had not, he still appreciated them. At that fight with Amaimon, he thought that they've all abandoned him for good. Because he was a monster – but no. They did not. They were the best first, and last, friends he could ever have. And the way they tried to confront the Grigori when they announced his death…

Hearing small, padded footsteps, Rin turned his head around to see Kuro in his small form of a cat, yawning and sitting next to Rin.

"Hey Rin." Kuro cat rubbed up his calf. "I… I eavesdropped on the humans. They were talking about you. Is it…" the cat seemed to gulp. "Is it true that you're gonna have a death sentence soon?"

Rin bit his lip and sat down back on the tiles, putting the pet demon on his lap. He rubbed his black fur behind his neck and sighed, nodding. "Yeah."

Kuro screeched, accidentally unleashing his claws, causing Rin to emit a rather painful 'Ow!' as the claws sunk into his thighs. The cat stood up on his hind legs and put his paws on each of his collarbones, his eyes bigger than ever. "Rin! H-How, why…?!"

"O-Ow. I failed the exam, Kuro." Rin pressed his lips together and breathed out sharply from his nose, feeling the claw wounds close up tightly in his skin, courtesy of demonic healing. "Haven't I told you? If I fail the damn exam, I die." He laughed bitterly. "But of course, it's expected for me to fail the exam anyways—"

Kuro seemed to tear up and blow whatever he had bottled up inside of him and pounced at Rin with his now enlarged paws, having transformed into the much bigger form. Kuro easily knocked him down and Rin fell with a scream, his hand catching onto a window ledge just in time. When he saw that Kuro jumped down the building to attack him, Rin let out a panicked shriek and jumped down, up on his feet to escape whatever wrath Kuro was holding.

But Kuro's legs made Rin seem like he was walking instead of running. Kuro's claws reached and caught him by his shirt collar and pinned him down onto the pavement, the cement below beginning to crack because of how hard the impact was. Rin turned pale at the sight of Kuro's demonic eyes – what, was it already 24 hours and the Grigori had sent Kuro to kill him? But it just seemed like only three hours had passed…

"K-Kuro—hey, p-please-" Rin figured that he'd try to reason with him. But Kuro raised up his other paw and unsheathed his claws, and Rin closed his eyes, preparing for the oncoming death.

But death was not what he had received. He heard sad, lamenting mewls above him, and he peeked open an eye.

Kuro was letting out this giant sob, meowing loudly, howling. His big eyes were wet with tears.

"R-Rin, you promised me that we'll stick forever and ever!" He cried. "After Master Shiro died, you gave me this h-hope of a promised friendship… And you broke it! You liar, you big, ugly, filthy liar! I hate you!"

There was a big plume of smoke, and Kuro seemed to disappear. But he had shrunk back into his original cat size, now splayed on top of Rin's chest, bawling into his shirt. Rin frowned, dizzied with confusion, but pulled himself back to reality and put a hand over Kuro's head, gently stroking his fur comfortingly.

That's right. Rin thought miserably as realisation struck him like lightning. How many promises have I broken now?

"Now, we can't do this." The hushed voice spoke. Everything around them was completely dark, as if they were in a void. Actually—they ARE in a void, where nothing existed. Sounds echoed and walls only exist if you imagine that they're there. "Of course, he is still weak. But I cannot imagine wasting such a perfect, excellent weapon. He is too good to lose."

"Yes, I agree with you greatly, Hightide." The second voice spoke. "But it is a risk to let him live. He poses a great threat to humanity."

"That's no worry, Crawford." A third voice said. "As the lead syndicate of all of our branches, we are not so poorly water-headed. There is another plan, lest he fails his exams."

"And what, Lumbley, is the plan? The last time we've discussed this, there were no Plan B. It was either he passes or he dies." Hightide, the first voice said, much more gruffly than his previous speech.

"Oh, Hightide! Don't be so narrow-minded; of course I have a plan." The voice supposedly called 'Lumbley' sneered. "Now, Crawford. Have you ever heard of the saying- 'to tame the dog'?"

"I'm sorry to say I haven't, Lumbley." Crawford said, with an edge of curiosity on his voice, but Crawford sounded more baffled than ever. "What is this you are planning?"

"Well, it's exactly as it sounds like." There was a roar of laughter from Lumbley's side of the void, but it sounded more like groaning than laughter. "You take the dog, torture it out of its sanity, and reshape it into the perfect monster – who obeys every single command."

"…Lumbley, you don't mean—"

"That is exactly what I mean, Hightide. He is like wax. We have to melt the wax – we need to destroy him, slowly, bit by bit. When he becomes a mush, a poor-headed fool who knows nothing, we reshape him back into a brand-new candle, and his flame will ignite our victory against the rest of demonkind."

There was silence in the blackness, before Lumbley spoke again.

"You truly are admirable, Lumbley. However," Crawford cleared his throat. "Isn't demon-experimentation banned millenniums ago? If we were to experiment with Rin Okumura now, then that would legalise every demon experimentation. We've already but the Illuminati into a strict warning, and if we do such things now, wouldn't that be… ironic?"

"Who said that it would legalise every demon-experimentation?" Hightide said with a tone of frown in his voice. "We're the topmost of our branches, and every single exorcism law is made by us. We can change the laws whenever we like. Henceforth, I accept your plan, Lumbley. I will inform the Grigori as soon as I have time in my hands."

"Excellent, Hightide." Lumbley nodded.

"Very well." Crawford agreed. "I am looking forward to the outcome of the experiment."

Something in the black void suddenly appeared; and it looked like a white, bright light, but it did not illuminate the faces of the three who had spoken. The light shone and flew upwards, and a single chant rose through the air…

"Ab initio, ab antiquo, ab hinc, ad majorem Dei gloriam!"

There was a fuzzy dizziness, then Rin woke up in an instant.

For a minute, everything seemed woozy, then he came to his senses. It seemed that he had somehow dragged himself back to dormitory and fell asleep from all that crying with Kuro. Indeed, Kuro was in his arms, nuzzled into his chest.

"Hey, brother."

Yukio, his eyes bleary and bleak, sat next to him in the bed.

Then Rin remembered that today was his deathdate, and the least person he wanted to talk to right now is his only surviving relative (his father does not count). Groaning, he turned his face towards Yukio, sniffing.

"What?" he said bitterly. "You gonna confront me of how bad I did in the exams? How I could've done better? How careless I was in my studies?"

Yukio was silent for a while, and Rin could see that he bitten his lip deep enough so that blood could drop out of the delicate flesh. Rin suddenly felt bad, and sat up, when Yukio suddenly embraced him and started to sob on his shoulders, his whole frame shaking.

"N-No." Yukio said, his voice trembling greatly as he hugged his brother tighter, closing his eyes, not caring if his glasses were askew and they were digging into his nose. "Y-You've done well. Far better than I did my own exams. Father would've been proud."

Then Rin remembered that this was his own blood brother who gotten angry from constant F's from his tests because he loved him and he cared about him, and Rin pulled him closer and rested his head on his shoulder, starting to sniff.

"No matter how talented you are, you're still the tiny ickle brother." Rin laughed shakily, tears starting to pour from his eyes. "Who's gonna cook for you from now on when you get home, eh?"

Then Yukio laughed and Rin laughed and they both cried in each other's arms, as the clock ticks two hours from Rin's execution, and a big, big change to every one of their lives.

Rin's fists were shaking that hour, but he had a big smile on his face even though his cheeks were wet. He cooked a final lunch for Yukio, and said the necessary goodbyes to his friends; but he knew not to linger longer than a few minutes with them. Because if he did, it would be harder to let go of them, and it would then be hard to face the reality of his death.

He shoved his feet into his red boots and marched outside the dormitory. A crowd was already gathering there, and his friends were in a huddle at the front. Yukio, however, was absent, refusing to watch the gore of his death, and deciding to stay in his dormitory with Kuro. And Rin was fine with that. He knew that Yukio wouldn't be able to take it well enough.

Rin was met by two Exorcists he had not met before, and they escorted Rin through the Academy fields. Rin gazed at his deathbed; a large reversed pentagram concealed inside a circle, inked in with the blood of exorcists. Inside the pentagram was the face of Baphomet; the supposed true form of none other than his own father, Satan.

He was then forced down and laid on the ground. His head was pinned back, and his arms were outstretched into the two triangles of the pentagram, and his palms were struck down with two swords. The pain was unbearable as the exorcists slowly sank the two swords into his palm and straight down to earth, and he couldn't move his hands at all because the wound healed and merged itself with the blade of the sword. They also stretched his legs so that they matched the two bottom legs of the pentagram, and Rin screamed as they struck swords at his ankles, his whole body shaking.

There was a gasp of horror in the crowd, and a sound of someone thudding down to the floor, faint.

The Aria exorcists began to chant, and Rin felt a sudden jolt in his body and he shrieked – usually the blue flames would've emitted from him, but the blades of the swords must've reduced his powers to nothingness. Everything was getting blurry, and all he could think of was kill! kill those humans who've hurt you! kill! kill! kill! kill kill kill kill kill—

An exorcist stood nearby his head, chanting in chorus with the other exorcists, holding Kurikara. He unsheathed the blade, but the flames still didn't emit. He raised the sword up high, aiming blow for Rin's neck…

"Rin!"

Rin recognised one of his friend's voice in the crowd, even though everything was spinning and it was fuzzy and it hurts. But the voice was as clear as a bell.

"Rin—no matter what happens afterwards, we promise that we won't forget you!"

Rin stopped struggling. Everything started to numb down, little by little, and he gazed upwards in time for the exorcist to lower his sword with lightning speed—and before the tip of the blade could graze his throat, Rin smiled a big, wide smile.

Then everything slowed down before it all spun around so quickly. Blood bubbled up from his throat and he choked and coughed and blood splattered everywhere like a fountain from his mouth. Sparks were flying from his body and although he knew that it didn't, the pentagram suddenly spun so fast, as fast as the speed of the Arias chanting and everything hurts and everything went up into plumes of smoke and he felt dizzy and nothing made any sense anymore.

Then every inch of his body burst and his flesh spat out blood, before everything quickly evaporated into smoke and nothingness, and Kurikara disappeared.

There was a loud, loud mewl somewhere in the distance, crying out in despair, and whichever cat did it seemed to call out to the clouds, and the thunderstorms began to veil the sky and the faces of the boy's loved ones.

It began to rain, and the pentagram drawn with blood was washed and swept away with the water.

There was no remnants of the half-demon, except from a small strip of fabric of his school tie.

When everyone left, Konekomaru picked up the strip of tie, and followed Ryuji and Shima behind.

Black.

Nothing.

I looked up, left, right, down, but there was nothing. The floor also consisted of nothing, but it was there. The walls consisted of nothing too, but it was there. I tried to illuminate the room by registering my flames, but nothing flickered to life.

I can't even see my own hands.

But there was a clinking of chains that bound me by my wrists and my ankles and my neck, and everything hurt.

"Am I dead?" I said aloud, even though I knew well enough that nobody was going to answer. But strangely enough, there was a voice. The voice sounded so strangely distorted in my ears, as if I was underwater—but I was breathing.

"No, you are not dead." The distorted voice spoke. "But you'll be as good as one, soon enough… Crawford, please tell them that we are ready."

… Crawford…?

Perhaps that was someone in the Grigori, but I knew that there was only three members of the Grigori, and none of them was called Crawford, nor did they have a voice so distorted it sounded so funny.

I am not dead.

This is not the Grigori.

I am still alive.