Chapter one : "Burning up the Blue Sea"
Warning: Very very graphic depictions of pain, lots of suffering (sorry Rin), and this story is literally a horrible/demented combinations of shitposts, memes, tragedy, and angst. Be warned.
This is being co-written by Evilneko101!
Enjoy the story!
"OKUMURA!"
The first thing that registered in Rin's mind was hey! Suguro's already yelling at him again! Suguro limped up the only slightly destroyed cliff up to Okumura. He could still hardly fathom what the ever-loving fuck had just happened. He witnessed only moment ago Rin Okumura (Rin motherfucking Okumura! What the hell?!) defeat the Impure King (THE HOLY FUCKING IMPURE KING) by simply burning it down with what seemed to be the biggest kashou zanmai he had ever seen whilst (along with the theory that it had been, he still wasn't quite sure...) infused with blue flames.
"Suguro... Shura, I" Rin began, sheathing his sword back into its scabbard and swaying slightly in place.
The uneasiness that lingered in the air was seemingly thick enough to figuratively been cut with a dulled butter knife. The (human? demon?) practical savior of Assiah slowly turned to face both Shura and Suguro, and Suguro almost laughed at the odd (slightly constipated-looking) expression painted on Rin's face.
"I...I did it." Rin laughed breathlessly, allowing Suguro to let out a sigh of relief. "I-I controlled my flames! It's got a few kinks there and here, but I...I did it!" Rin called out excitedly.
With a half-hearted reprimand on his tongue, Suguro was cut off by the calls of his two childhood friends.
"Okumura-kun! Bon!" Konekomaru and Shima yelled sprinting full-throttle towards the three, tailed by a small group of exorcists.
"Koneko! Shima! You're both okay?" Bon fussed over his friends, stumbling over to them, Rin following behind with a slightly tired expression.
"Konekomaru! I did it! I didn't burn anything except for the Impure King!" Rin announced with a smile, huffing out a breath and holding out a thumbs-up. "I won't hurt you or your loved ones, I promise."
While Rin, Shima, Suguro, and the other exorcists exchanged praises and thank-yous, Konekomaru couldn't help but feel tears prick at his eyes, causing them to burn slightly.
"Okumura-kun...Thank you" Konekomaru uttered, his voice wavering as he began to sob with a mixture of regret and relief. "R-Really... I... Please forgive me and my actions!"
"Ahh, Koneko-san, don't take it so hard" Shima calmed his smaller friend, scratching the back of his head. Suddenly, he noticed Suguro.
"Eh? Bon?! You're still alive? I thought for sure you'd be dead by now."
"You didn't notice me walking towards you and Koneko just now?" Suguro muttered, sweat-dropping at his comrade's stupidity. "Honestly..."
"Sorry, I was caught up in the chaos. But, you're alright?" Shima bashfully smiled.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired and banged-up. Nothing major. Sorry for worrying you." Suguro shrugged.
"Haha, who's worried?" Rin chuckled, coughing a bit.
"BROTHER!" The shout startled Rin, and the group whirled to see Yukio darting towards them all, focused on Rin. The look of worry, slight bewilderment, and confusion could be seen blatantly on his face from where they were all standing.
"Oh,Yukio, you're okay too! I was going to start worrying in a...minute or two." Rin trailed off as Yukio ignored him entirely and proceeded to question Shura as to why his brother was out of the confinement. 'Ouch, that stung' Rin though to himself. 'He looks distressed though; maybe I should deliver some good news to cheer him up!'
"I saved all the people here! I bet you're so shocked that your jaws about to drop to the ground! The day I'll be able to surpass you is getting closer." Rin cheerfully called to his younger twin, pushing down a dizzy feeling that was starting to surface.
'Oooo, that sounded a bit weird. Mayyyyybe that didn't come out right.' Rin muttered in his mind when he saw the strange look on his twins face. Yukio began to walk towards him, and as he got closer, Rin could feel the negative aura coming from him. 'Oh shit.'
Yukio leveled eyes with Rin for a moment, and in the next, Yukio's fist collided harshly with Rin's cheek, causing crimson to spurt out of Rin's mouth.
'Yep. Definitely said it wrong.' Rin couldn't help but think.
"Don't be a FOOL!" Yukio yelled, yanking Rin towards him by the collar of Rin's hood-cloak.
Rin stared at Yukio in bewilderment, slightly stunned by his behavior. This wasn't like Yukio.
"Do you even understand the situation you're caught in!?"
Oh. That was like Yukio. Never mind.
The silence was almost palpable as Rin (kind of hazily) constructed a sentence in his mind.
"...I do."Rin finally replied, his head turned to Yukio's general direction even if it didn't seem like Rin was even looking at Yukio anymore. He was starting to feel a little...weird. "I...finally understood. I am-" Rin spat out a bit of blood, causing Yukio to draw back a little bit. "Satan's son. And I've spent all this time trying to run away and hide from that fact, but I can't exactly run away from what I am, can I? I can't change it...it's me. I'm me... and now I can accept that." Rin continued, his voice dying down to a hushed whisper near the end.
'What...what is this feeling? It's...it's starting to hurt.' Rin thought dimly.
"Brother?"
"Yu...kio." Rin mumbled, his eyes starting to close as the pain that was dull before began to grow in intensity. His lungs felt as if they were on fire.
"What's wrong?! Rin?!"
"I..I don't know...what's...what's wrong. I-It...it hurts..." Rin breathlessly whispered, collapsing to his knees.
"Be honored, youngling. Not every child of Satan gains the pride of being my container. " A strange voice whispered in Rin's head.
That's when things starting going down-hill.
Rin could faintly hear Yukio yelling at him and feel Yukio shaking him slightly, but he couldn't summon the energy to reply or so much as twitch. It was a miracle on it's own that he was still hunched over on his knees. He had the urge to vomit, yet he didn't feel light headed or the dryness of his throat that accompanied it. Or...it no longer felt like it? He couldn't tell. He had the urge to sleep, yet his body was refusing to let him pass out. Refusing to let him sleep. Refusing to let him give in to...to something. He could almost feel it trembling under his skin .
Rin instinctively felt his hand reach for his mouth as his throat gave out a small cough. For some reason, he felt liquid touch his lips and the taste of copper mixed in with the taste of something bitter and slightly foamy. He looked down at his shaking hand to see a handful of blood mixed in with another substance. It had bright toxic green color with lime and red little bubbles barely popping up due to the contact with air. This...this wasn't right. This wasn't good, this was really really bad. Rin was sure he hadn't ate anything remotely near to this alien color within these past couple days. He wasn't even sure if he'd eaten, actually. It could have been the miasma from the impure king, but he was positive that his flames burned it to the point of molecular ashes.
Another cough ripped through, stronger than the last. Pain rippled through his lungs as if they were being clawed at from the inside. Rin hunched over, a bone-shattering pain suddenly attacking his spine.
The small coughs escalated into a massive fit. He was sure he was going to cough out his own lungs at some point. He was too busy trying not to visualize his organs coming out and hanging from throat to notice that his brother's and friends' facial expressions had changed to horror and worry whilst asking him what was wrong. Vaguely, he felt Yukio stand up and yell for help, and heard the exorcists nearby frantically calling for a doctor while Yukio helplessly tried to soothe him. But, it was to no avail as the pain in his body was grabbing Rin's full attention. Several doctors raced up the hill and upon seeing Rin's state, immediately requested a stretcher.
Rin could feel Suguro trying to support him and keep him from falling the rest of the way to the dirt. Rin appreciated the notion, but it didn't help the pain much. The hand on his chest and back were slightly soothing though, but the feeling was quickly erased when Rin felt bile rising up in throat for the first time in quite awhile.
'Oh God, no.'
Rin suddenly keeled over and began violently vomiting whatever contents he had in his stomach. The vomit plopped sickeningly on the ground and Rin heard Suguro winced and draw back a bit, the comforting hand on Rin's back never leaving. Rin gasped for air, his throat burning and tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. He braced himself for more, knowing from experience that throwing up came in waves. Before he could request a bucket or something, the second wave of vomit emptied itself on the ground, enjoying the first one as it's company. He could almost feel the disgusted looks on the doctors faces. He ignored them as nothing but stomach acid forced itself out of his body.
Great, now wave number one and two have a friend. Thankfully, that seemed to be the last of it and Rin panted for breath, sitting back on his knees while someone brushed his sweat-dampened locks of black hair out of his face. Just when he was thanking whatever deity that had spared him for the time being, the coughing from before returned with vengeance. He could barely register it as someone lifted him up bridal style and laid him on a stretcher. He was carried away quickly, while he vaguely heard something concerning a temple. God, he could barely tell what was real anymore. Minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like days.
Rin didn't know for how long he had been coughing, wheezing and occasionally spitting out blood with radioactive-looking substances, all he knew was that it hurt like all of hell decided to attack his nerves. He felt light burn his eyes as it entered his vision. He softly hissed at it, cursing whoever the hell invented light bulbs (Wasn't it Benjamin Franklin? Fuck, he didn't know. Curse him anyway.). His ears were ringing yet he could mildly make out doctors trying to attend to the wounded and those who weren't were helping them. Everybody was running around. His vision was blurry and he suddenly had an odd thought of headless chickens running around all over the place.
He faintly heard the sound of traditional doors opening and slightly cocked his head towards the noise.
"-n."
He heard his brother say his name (or was it someone else?) but his coughs drowned out the words.
"-in!"
"Rin! We're - to - you -icine. - Dow - "
In a brilliant moment of motivation and muscle coordination, Rin flipped himself off the stretcher and fell face first onto the floor.
The half-demon weakly and (whilst violently shaking due to post-tremors from all the coughing) propped himself up on his elbows, reaching up to hold his newly aching nose. Ouch. Thankfully though, the coughing had stopped. But only the coughing, unfortunately for him.
He felt someone lift him up (again; what was he, a rag-doll?) and lay him on a squishy futon and pull his shirt off. He hissed at the sudden attack of cold air on his chest and he forced himself to open his eyes, only to see Yukio pulling out stethoscope. He wheezed out in indignant protest when the cold metal made contact with his chest.
"...Yu...ki...o?" Rin huffed out, looking up at his younger brother with pain-addled eyes.
"Just relax, Nii-san. It's going to be okay. Now, tell me. Was anything in pain while you were coughing?"
"L-lungs." Rin coughed again. "Back."
Yukio nodded and reached forward, placing a warm hand on Rin's forehead.
"He's burning up." Yukio bit his lip as Rin's eyes drooped closed despite his best efforts. "Get some hot water, antibiotics and cough syrup. He can't, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, consume or ingest holy water."
Rin heard footsteps getting quiet and Yukio tried to change Rin into some soft night-clothes. Rin, on the other hand, was not exactly a great fan being stripped naked, whether or not it was Yukio or someone else stripping him down...
...Which resulted in 5 minutes of feeble struggling on Rin's part. Demon king level strength his ass, a cup would be able to do more than that.
The footsteps came back.
"We didn't have any antibiotics, but will cough syrup and ginger tea help?" Rin didn't know this person. He didn't know where he was, actually.
"It's good enough." Yukio sighed.
Rin closed his eyes. God he was tired, both mentally and physically. Right now, the only thing he wanted was to sleep, but the stupid light it the room was making it very difficult. He half-wished he had just fallen asleep on the way here, regardless of the fact he might've been forced to wake up anyway.
"Nii-san, you need to drink this." Yukio called, shaking Rin slightly. He felt something warm next to his face.
"Wha-?"-Rin managed to wheeze out.
"It's medicine."
Rin didn't want to comply, but whenever someone was sick, Yukio's word was law, for some reason. So, after a moment or two, Rin just decided to go with it and get it over with. Rin gave a weak nod as a hand wormed under his back and supported him. He felt something hot was pressed against his lips. At first he turned his head away, but began drinking it when he got used to the taste. The way the liquid entered his stomach made him shiver. It reminded him of his previous experience. Once he finished the tea, he made an effort to pick himself up, only to be pushed back down into the futon and have the blanket pulled over.
"You're really sick, Nii-san. This is the worst I've seen you, and you've been pretty bad before. You need to rest, please don't strain yourself." Yukio said in a quiet and calming tone of voice. "I'll get you a damp cloth. Stay here." Rin heard his brother's quickened footsteps recede from him and the sound of traditional doors opening and closing.
Yukio, on his way out, was kind enough to turn down the lights for Rin, realizing it was probably hurting his head. Rin sighed as the much softer light enveloped his aching body, and it didn't take much longer than a minute before he was dragged into sleep.
No one noticed his wheeze whilst his eyes rolled into the back of his head with dark nerves edging themselves on his neck,mouth and eyes.