Those who Favor Fire
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Chapter One: Soar
The stadium at the True Cross Academy of Tokyo was packed. Never had an Exorcist Exam practical been so well attended. But then the Paladin had never administered one of the practicals before either. And, of course, the Exwire being tested was the son of Satan and inheritor of the blue flames which had wreaked such devastation on Exorcists world-wide eighteen years ago.
The Grigori and their cabinet sat in the VIP box. "Exciting isn't it?" Mephisto Pheles remarked as he took his seat. Drac Dragulesc frowned at the bowl of caramel corn Mephisto held balanced on one raised hand. Blithely ignoring the disapproval he was engendering the white and purple-clad demon offered a handful of carmel corn to the green hamster and blue turtle perched on his shoulder. The turtle turned up his nose scornfully at the offering while the hamster dug in. Mephisto popped a second handful into his own mouth.
The entire Angelic Brigade was present in the stands. The Brigade's arias were stationed at regular intervals in the otherwise empty first row of seats while the rest of the members were more casually scattered through the stands. "Don't try to hold the barrier by yourself," Wang Zi counseled Bon. "There are fifty other arias here and the rest of us will be working in shifts, but I want you to stay in for the entire match." Bon nodded, knowing as long as he was contributed to the barrier Rin's flames wouldn't touch it and it wouldn't even take a conscious effort on Rin's part.
Konekomaru sat down in the seat beside Lightning. The Doctor-adept had his feet propped up on the back of the chair in front of him and looked half asleep, but the sideways glance he shot Konekomaru was sharp. "We got a hold of Okumura-kun's written and oral exams," he said. "Zi gave 'em a look-over. According to him, Rin passed."
Konekomaru took a moment to consider what he was being told. Among the Arc Knights Wang Zi was the most impeccable reference beside the Paladin himself. Lightning and Tezera Durov were both beholden to Angel for their positions, their backgrounds were too questionable without him vouching for their loyalty. Annie Oakley had been the Dragoon-adept for nearly twenty years, no one questioned her loyalty to Assiah or her skills, but she was a maverick at heart and the Grigori did question whether or not she'd follow orders any given day. Wang Zi was a stickler for hierarchy, he might question orders where Angel wouldn't presume to have that right, but at the end of the day he'd follow them... Assuming that the person giving them hadn't been exhausted into changing his mind by the end of the day. "Do you think there will be objections to allowing Rin to rank as an Exorcist?" Konekomaru asked Lightning.
"Hope not," Lightning said. "But if there are I thought the Myodha might have use for those papers with Zi's scoring on 'em."
"Bon won't finish High School until next spring," Konekomaru replied. "It wouldn't really disturb the High Council if Rin didn't pass this year. But it would suck if Rin had to take the test again for no reason."
"You might remind the Council of just how slowly bureaucracies can move. Three months might not be enough time to straighten out any irregularities if they wait until next year to make a stink," Lightning suggested.
Konekomaru nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, what's all this about then?" He gestured to the stands. "I thought Rin was among the True Cross' top twenty knights based on last year's practical, even if he didn't pass the Exam."
"If Okumura-kun weren't an Exwire, a bout like this would be a declaration that he should be considered as the next Knight-adept after Arthur is killed."
"Or retires the position?" Konekomaru added questioningly.
"Yeah, that's a choice," Lightning said wistfully. "Of course, Sir Pheles suggested this… In a sufficiently round-about way that Arthur has no clue where he got the idea from."
"But why?" Konekomaru wondered. "Is there some timeframe where Sir Pheles needs to prove that he's kept his promise to give the True Cross a weapon against Satan in Rin? There's a fine line between proving Rin's usefulness and scaring the Grigori senseless. I've seen Rin and Angel spar before, it gives Bon plenty of practice drawing on Rin's powers just to keep the collateral damage down."
"For fifteen hundred years the True Cross has been trying to bring Exorcists of all denominations under their auspices," Lightning said. "But now? I'd put money on a schism in the next decade. Your friend might be Sir Pheles' tool for separating out the dross."
Several rows up and to the left from Konekomaru and Lightning, Izumo and a snake-eyed girl quarreled over how to connect a camera to a laptop. "Be nice if the two of you could agree on something, anything before the fight starts," Renzo said from Nishiki's cellphone.
"Shut-up!" both girls snarled at the phone.
"There, they agree," Sheimi giggled from the other end of the line.
"Nishiki, just let the fox-girl take care of it," Mamushi scolded her younger sister as she took over the phone. "You've always been hopeless with electronics and we want to see the match here in Delphi."
Nishiki scowled at the phone. Izumo smirked at her. "Yes, sit down and let me sort it out," she said.
"You'll never live it down if you don't get it working now," Uke said, sotto voce. Mike contented himself with shaking his head mournfully at Izumo's lack of social graces. Godain and Mana glanced at each other then waved over one of the new class of first-year Exwires. Between the three of them they quickly got the camera up and running.
Angel and Rin walked out to the center of the stadium. At Angel's gesture, Rin hung back slightly while the Paladin addressed the Grigori. "Last year, I told Okumura Rin to refrain from using his demon-powers so as not to obscure his abilities as a knight of the True Cross." Angel grimaced, "I've been given to understand that that is not what you wished to see. This year I will be administering the practical myself so that he may show you his full capability."
"For the safety of our observers, I've asked the Battalion's arias to erect a barrier around the stadium. Okumura can chose what his flames burn, Caliburn's powers are less discriminating. In relation to Caliburn, as this is a friendly spar, neither of us will be attempting to draw blood."
More than a few of the arias looked relieved to hear that they wouldn't have to cope with blood-charged bolts from Angel's demon sword. Bon wondered if the restriction was meant to head-off any doubts about Angel's ability to kill Rin in a real fight.
With that Angel started to remove his coat in preparation for the spar. "Sir Angel! I've got money on Rin-kun getting the coat!" a member of the Battalion protested, shouting from the stands.
Angel frowned, "Gambling is an amoral practice. Lightning, take that man's name down."
Lightning sat up and tipped his hat back, "Of course I've got his name," he shouted back. "Do you think they take my word for it when it comes to paying off the winners?"
"Incorrigible," Angel complained shaking his head, but he left the coat on. He and Rin bowed formally to one another.
"What do you have against my coat anyway?" Angel asked, pitching his voice so that it didn't carry beyond the two of them.
Rin tilted his face down so those in the stands couldn't see his mischievous grin. "If I kill enough of those fashion rejects, maybe you'll start wearing something less ridiculous."
"I'll have you know I designed this uniform myself," Angel sniffed.
"You know," Rin replied thoughtfully. "That could be the problem."
"Brat, I'll have to chastise you," Angel threatened lightly as he cut off a lock of hair his long hair.
Rin let his teeth show as he grinned in response. "Lightning-san gave your coat's survival lousy odds," he informed Angel and then he charged. As their blades met Caliburn released a shock wave, countering Rin's greater strength. The younger knight skidded backwards.
"You ought to know better by now," Angel tsked as he sent blast after blast at Rin.
Rin darted through the minor shock waves, trying to close the gap between them again. "One of these days your timing's gonna be off," he said.
"You're free to believe that," Angel replied keeping up a steady barrage.
Rin stopped suddenly, thrusting his secondary sword like a lance. A narrow bolt of blue streaked toward Angel. The Paladin leapt over it, losing the tails off his coat. Their swords clashed as gravity reclaimed Angel and Rin jumped to meet him.
Again, Angel released one of Caliburn's shock waves just as their swords collided. The backlash through him higher into the air while Rin was smashed to the ground. Rin absorbed the blow, landing neatly even as his feet dented the dirt. "Caliburn's giving you freebies," he accused sending a blast of his own at Angel.
"I would not," the sword sounded offended. "One minor blast for each strand of hair, or a single large blast for the lock."
Angel twisted in midair and Rin's fire blasted harmlessly past him. He kicked off the aria's barrier to return to earth before Rin could follow up with another attack. After that the speed of the spar increased. A good portion of the audience only saw their movements as blurs and snapshots of the pair in the moments where their swords came together.
Rin's sweat-drenched bangs were plastered to his face, there were spots of dirt and ash on Angel's formerly shining white clothes and the Paladin was gasping for air. The arias maintaining the barrier had rotated out twice as exhaustion took its toll on them as well.
Rin tried another charge. At the last moment, as Angel set himself to meet it. Rin ducked under Caliburn's blade. He dug a clawed hand into the dirt to halt his momentum while he brought the back of his sword around to sweep Angel's legs out from under him. Angel flipped backwards, just evading Rin's strike. As he free hand touched the ground he smashed Caliburn's hilt into the side of Rin's skull.
Rin shook off the blow as Angel regained his feet. They both retaliated with blasts of power, blue and white bolts collided in the center of the arena with a thunderclap that shook the stands. Rin followed up by peppering the arena with small blasts of flame, trying wear Angel down.
Angel responded with a shock wave that skimmed across the ground, sending great clouds of dust up to fill the air. Rin leapt over the initial blast then kicked off of the barrier to gain more height. He broke clear of the billowing clouds, thinking them a smoke screen for a second attack. Then the dust cleared and Rin saw Angel's sharp, competitive smirk. A thick lock of hair drifted toward the ground as the Paladin raised Caliburn.
"Oh shit," Rin exclaimed as he pictured Caliburn's blast radius. He knew he couldn't manage to get clear of the coming attack in midair, still he had to try. Rin called on his flames, for a moment an image of Mephisto's wings unfurling flashed through his mind. Rin's flames coalesced into a massive set of wings. They drove him upwards, Angel's attack passed beneath him to shatter against the barrier. Mephisto hummed happily to himself. "Feathers, not the bat-wings popular fiction attributes to his father," he commented.
The arias were too well trained to fall into a stunned silence like the rest of the crowd, their voices rose through the silence in a clear chorus. Angel, too deep in the spar to be taken aback by anything, severed another lock of hair. He split the power granted by the sacrifice into two bolts and loosed them, predicting the direction in which Rin would dodge.
As startled as anyone in the crowd, Rin simply hovered in midair. Angel's first bolt caught him dead-center and smashed him into the barrier. Rin bounced off and tumbled to the ground, before he could make it back to his feet Caliburn's blade was resting against his throat.
Rin froze. After a moment Angel stepped back and offered him his hand. "Good job," he said as he pulled Rin up. "I had to sacrifice three inches of hair." Once Angel was sure Rin was steady on his feet he let go of Rin's arm. They bowed to each other, ending the spar as formally as it had begun and the crowd cheered.