The Original Sin Story and the Seven Deadly Sins Series belongs to Mothy, not me.


Okumura Yukio tossed and turned in his bed. The luminous clock on the right marked one in the morning.

He had just learned that he could very well develop demonic powers in the future, had told Bon their secret, had decided to trust him not to tell anyone about it. Perhaps, if he was lucky, Bon wouldn't tell the Paladin. Oh, God. What if he told his father? The idea of parting with his mirror image was too...horrible to even describe, and-

It was fruitless. He couldn't sleep, was wide awake, even.

In the darkness, he heard ruffling sounds and a sleepy voice rising, loud against the dead silence. "Len? You okay?" As soon as the boy had uttered that, he was illuminated by a few soft azure flames. Kyōei Rin, his own reflection, stared back in concern muddled by tiredness.

"I am fine, Kasai-kun." the taller boy quickly answered. "I can't sleep, that's all."

Kasai regarded him with yet another stare -maybe he was silently reproaching him for waking him up, or just staring into space trying not to fall asleep again. "We'll have to fix that, then." the black-haired boy said, then sat up on his bed, back straight. "Mukashi mukashi-"

Yukio would have laughed. "Sai-kun, I'm too old for bedtime stories."

The glare that Rin gave him could have melted snow. But this man of snow just stared right back into eyes so similar to his own. After five minutes, he sighed. "Fine, you win."

Rin smiled, all big and bright. "Great! Mukashi mukashi, a woman named Eve found two baby half-demons in a forest," Kasai began. Yukio raised an eyebrow, was Rin really going to tell him the story of the original sin? Wrongly?

"Shouldn't it be 'Eve found an apple in a forest'?" Yukio asked.

Rin huffed and his flames burned just a little bit brighter. "No. Eve found two half demons in a forest, killed their mother when she mistook it for someone about to attack her, and brought the twins to her husband Adam."

Yukio blinked. What kind of story was Rin telling him? Not only it contradicted the Bible, but... Oh why did he bother, it was obviously a fairy tale for demons. He waved for the shorter boy to continue.

"The twins grew up with Adam and Eve, Adam working as a lumberjack, when a few years later there was a famine-"

"This isn't happening in the Genesis and all that, right?" Yukio inquired. "You know, because of Adam and Eve..."

Rin gave him a weird look. "Genesis? What's that?"

"Hontô? It's...Nevermind. Continue."

"Okay so there was a famine, and one day, Adam and Eve took the kids to the forest, so they could help him with cutting wood." Rin continued. "The children asked them questions throughout the journey, of course. 'Kaa-san, will we get to eat lots of our favorite snacks?' 'Tou-san, why are you looking at us with such a sad face?' The parents ignored them. As they helped their parents with their job, the kids suddenly realized it was getting darker. They looked through the forest, but their parents weren't near the path. Nor near the river. They weren't anywhere."

"Don't tell me..."

"Yeah." Rin nodded. "Henzeru and Gureeteru were abandoned by their parents in the forest."

Once again, the half-demon was interrupted by his reflection, this time by a full-blown laugh. "Henzeru and Gureeteru?" he asked between laughs. "Are you serious? I was-" he was cut off by his own laughter. "I was expecting something like Cain and Abel!"

Rin counted to ten, fifteen, twenty, until Yukio could control his giggles wel enough for him to continue. Honestly, what's with that boy and those names? "As I was saying... Henzeru and Gureeteru soon realized that they didn't know the way home. The brothers walked, hand in hand, for days." Yukio wanted to tell him Gureeteru was a girl, but he bit his tongue. "Every day was the same. Trees and grass, and trees and grass. They got sick of the forest very quickly in the day, and dreaded the nights when the moon didn't come."

Well, if Yukio was honest, he had never thought about it. In the version he knew the fact that they were abandoned to starve was glossed over. "What happened next? Did they meet the Witch?"

"They kept walking," Rin paid no mind to his interruptions now. "And after weeks of walking, they finally found a familiar place. The witch's house."

Yukio imagined two kids, abandoned, probably mad with hunger, about to be taken advantage of by a selfish woman. He shuddered.

"'Come, let's finish the Evil Witch!' said Gureeteru, 'Throw her into the burning oven!' he said as he dragged his brother. 'Once the Witch is dead, we'll definitely be happy!' smiled Henzeru." Rin was actually doing the voices for the characters. "And with that, they entered the house, where they found the Witch and a Servant. The two half-demons were too quick for them. The Witch was thrown into the oven, and the Servant was stabbed. 'Ne Kaa-san, praise me!' said Gureeteru as the woman died, 'I defeated the Evil Witch!' 'Ne Tou-san, praise me!' said Henzeru, 'I've defeated her henchman too!'" the blue-eyed boy saw Yukio's mouth opening and quickly bulldozed over whatever statement he was going to say. "The twins agreed this was a good place to settle for the night."

"They also agreed in one other thing," Rin paused, eyes glinting eerily. "This place seemed familiar, almost as if...as if they had lived there before."

Yukio's heart sank to his feet. "What the h-?"

"They decided to look for their 'real' mother and father once they woke up the next day. But there was something very important to do before that."

Yukio found himself leaning in, wanting to know. "What?"

"The person that they used to call 'Kaa-san' had burned to death inside the stove. As her body went up in ashes, the Original Sin remained. With their own hands, they divided it into seven." Rin related, before counting with his fingers. "'Lust', the flower, 'Gluttony', the seed, 'Pride' the gems, 'Vanity' the spring, 'Sloth' the wind, 'Greed', the ground, and 'Wrath' the forest."

Yukio stared. So he had, in a way, been telling him the Original Sin story, after all.

Rin's voice was such that he didn't know if he was quoting or softly singing. "Fly high, Seven Sins, disgraces born from a fake mother, World, keep revolving, and cleanse these deadly sins."

"With the Seven Sins released upon the world, they looked for Vessels." Rin said. "I could tell you all the stories, if you'd like. Tomorrow."

Yukio nearly sprung from his bed. "Tomorrow?! I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow?! Are you kidding me?"

Rin laughed softly as his flames died out. "A night, a story. How does that sound?"

Yukio agreed. As he lay back on his bed and sleep began to take him, he wondered whether their story would have a happy ending. His very own 'Henzeru' had arrived through the mirror, walking beside him in a place unfamiliar to him. He wondered if they would manage to defeat their Witch.

He hoped they would.


Mukashi mukashi: Once upon a time

hontô: Really?

Henzeru and Gureeteru: Hansel and Gretel