Is manga Yukio pissing anybody else off? Seriously, Denial isn't just a river in Egypt Yukio, and you need to talk to your brother dammit!

Tears streamed down Yukio's face. The True Cross Order had been succeeding initially, but then the Illuminati pulled their trump card: a destructive, all-powerful creature, the likes of which had never been seen before. The tables were swiftly turned, the sky was blackened with so much smoke that mid afternoon turned to night and the world around Yukio was burning in fire and screams.

Kamiki and her familiars had been cut off from the Exwire group early on and they hadn't heard from her since. Shima, Miwa, and Suguro were on the other side of the hill making sure they didn't get flanked, if they weren't already dead. Nobody had even seen Shura since before the fight started. Yukio was sitting, bleeding, against a tree, sandwiched between Shiemi's barely breathing body on his left and his brother's cor- his brother's c-

He can't be dead.

Yukio decided he was allowed a little denial, since he was probably going to die soon anyway, they all were. They couldn't beat this monster; they were fools for even trying.

Yukio didn't want to die. He wanted to keep living, keep fighting demons with his brother, wanted to watch the Exwires grow up into the powerful Exorcists he knew they could be. He wanted to bicker with Shura and visit Shiemi at her family's shop. He didn't want to die.

"Yu… kio…"

The whisper was faint, but Yukio could pick out that raspy voice a mile away. His head slowly turned toward the body on his right, but he couldn't make his eyes move past the shattered remains of Kurikara.

"Yukio…"

The voice was stronger now, accompanied by the rustling of movement in the grass. Yukio still couldn't make himself look. Not until a rough, bloody palm placed itself on his cheek and wiped away the tears there.

"Yukio… why are you crying?" Rin had a hole the size of a basketball through his stomach and out his back. Rin was bleeding everywhere and lost a number of major organs, taking severe damage to the rest. Rin should be dead.

Rin could not be dead because Rin was worrying about Yukio.

"Yukio, who did this to you?" Rin's voice still rasped wetly as he choked on his own blood, his words slurred past his lips, and his eyes were hazy with pain, but his grip was firm as he tugged Yukio down to make proper eye contact. His bloody scowl was familiar and Yukio briefly shot back in time to childhood bullies and hiding behind his brother's back. "Yukio, who's making you cry?"

Yukio, still caught in his memories and shock, vaguely wondered if Satan was laughing at Rin's last attempt to ease his little brother's suffering even as he was breathing his last breaths. Yukio nearly sighed at the irony that, even at the end, he was indulging his brother's whims and pointed at the monster that was slaughtering their comrades. Rin's head turned to stare at it.

As if summoned by Yukio's finger and Rin's gaze, the monster turned to stare back.

"Hey," There was no way the creature could hear Rin's faint voice from that distance, but something inside Yukio said it understood the words being spoken to it. "I really can't forgive anybody who makes my brother cry."

The behemoth's mouth opened and it shot a beam of energy to eviscerate them off the Earth, as it had done so many others. This was it, they were dead. Yukio shut his eyes. At least it would be over quick.

There was a flash of blue behind his eyelids that was so bright it was white for a second and everything felt warm. For a moment he thought he had been sent to heaven, but he could still feel the tree at his back and Shiemi against his shoulder and Rin's blood on the grass under his fingers. He could still smell the smoke.

He opened his eyes to see Rin standing (standing!) in front of him, his hand outstretched to stop the blast, his body gone full demon. Yukio could see the monster they were fighting through the steadily shrinking hole in his brother's body until he couldn't. Only the small patch of grass they were occupying had been spared from the beam, and several meters around them had been razed. The tree Yukio leaned against had been shorn off a few feet from the top of his head.

"Hey, Yukio," Rin put his hand down, but hadn't turned to look at him. "You've been protecting me for a long time. Let me protect you too sometimes, okay?"

All of Rin's self-confidence and by extension all of his power depended on other people telling him that he was doing the right thing; that it was alright for him to do things his way. Yukio wished he realized that Rin had such terrible self esteem before he awakened, not that there was anything to be done about it now.

"Okay."

A swirl of blue flames condensed into the shape of a katana in Rin's right hand (when had he learned that?) and the half-demon was off like a shot toward the monster that seemed to be waiting for him.

Yukio sat there watching the fight that was really too far away from him to actually see (all blue flashes and roaring) before several things happened at once. Firstly, Shiemi stirred and started to wake up. The Kyoto Trio burst through the foliage to Yukio's left, yelling about being over powered and that the escape route was sealed off. Kamiki appeared, left arm severely burnt, from behind Yukio's tree, having evidently gotten a taste of the blast meant for the Okumura brothers. Shura ran out from the woods to the right, Angel, Lightning, and Takara in tow, all of them bloody and filthy.

"Where is the Son of Satan? We saw the blue flames from this direction." Angel was a demanding douchebag, even on the battlefield. Not that it really mattered considering he was swiftly ignored by just about everyone. Shiemi pulled herself together enough to summon her Greenman familiar and start producing herbs out of thin air to treat everybody's wounds, everybody was reporting on their own separate circumstances (nobody's were good), there was lots of shouting, and finally Shura stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled so loud Yukio's ears hurt. There was a moment of silence.

Shura crouched down beside him, staring, and asked "Yukio, where is Rin?"

This entire time Yukio hadn't said a word, not even moving to tear his eyes away from the fight that he still couldn't really see. He nodded his head in the direction of the spectacle and answered.

"He's fighting."

All heads turned as one to the raging battle going on so close and yet so far away. For a moment, everyone wondered what all the black sludge on the monster's skin was and then there was a bright blue flare over its shoulder followed by another black spray, and everyone clued into what Yukio already knew.

The monster was bleeding.

Lightning was the first to speak. "If he was capable of doing so much damage to it, why didn't he do so before?" There was no malice in the man's voice, only curiosity, but it didn't really matter when Angel's face contorted. The Paladin would start spewing more ridiculous notions of Rin being a traitor. Yukio answered before he could though.

"Because we didn't let him."

Shura nodded in understanding. "Makes sense; we've spent so much time convincing Rin that his powers are dangerous that we never let him fully develop them."

"So it's your fault that my baby brother's no fun." Heads whipped around and weapons were drawn to see Amaimon (when the heck did he get here?) sitting up in a tree, also watching Rin fight. "I wondered why he was so fragile despite having all of Father's power."

"Yes, yes, we all understand why Satan's son was useless up to now. But why can he suddenly fight that thing if he has such issues?" Angel was not making friends with any of the Japanese branch members.

"Probably for the exact same reason, eh Yukio?" Shura had noticed that Yukio had barely blinked this entire time, not even reacting to Amaimon's sudden presence; he was so focused on the battle. "You told him he was allowed to go full out, didn't you?"

Yukio shook his head and Shura scowled at him.

"What do you mean 'no'?"

"I mean Nii-san's never asked permission to do something like this. He's always just done what he felt like when it came to these things."

Suguro voiced the confusion that seemed to be on everyone's faces. "When it came to what things, exactly?" A small, rueful smile crossed Yukio's lips.

"Kicking the living shit out whatever makes his little brother cry."

As if to punctuate Yukio's words, there was a great flash of blue and the monster gave a final shriek as it collapsed. Another flash indicated the Rin was returning.

Yukio had to admit, his brother made something of a terrifying sight; flaming sword in hand, tail whipping around, horns and glowing eyes, and all the battle's destruction at his back. He looked like…

…like the Son of Satan.

"Beautiful…" whispered Amaimon.

Rin stopped moving and took up a defensive stance in the direction of Amaimon. The Demon King of the Earth hopped down out of his tree and raised his hands in mock-surrender.

"Easy, little brother, I'm not here to fight today. I only wanted to watch; it's not every day that Father's oldest and youngest go toe to toe. I wanted to see who'd win." Rin lowered his sword and Amaimon put his hands in his pockets. "I'm kinda glad it's you though. I never liked Lucifer. I'll be off now." The green-haired demon turned around, throwing a wave over his shoulder as he walked away. "I'll come back to play some other time, okay little brother? Bye now." And he disappeared.

With the last threat vanished, Rin's sword dissolved and he collapsed flat on his face. Yukio ran to him.

He was just exhausted, his demonic powers having healed all his wounds, but it still felt good to Yukio to look him over and confirm for himself. With the monster vanquished the remaining Illuminati soldiers were fleeing, and steadily being captured. With Suguro's help, Yukio picked Rin up and the group started moving back to the base camp.

Yukio could tell from the look on Angel's face and the way Shura spoke to him and Lightning that the drama was far from over. There were a lot of Exorcists that weren't going to be happy about having been rescued by the Son of Satan. There was still Amaimon's return to contend with and Lucifer hadn't yet been captured. Many demons had slipped through the Gate the Illuminati opened. Yukio looked at the small smile on Rin's unconscious face.

The battle was over, the last boss defeated, and the brothers back together. Yukio decided that this was enough for now.

This was enough.