A New Normal

Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

Chapter One: Kyoto Summer

After the ceremony that had formally bound Rin as Bon's retainer things began to settle into a routine. Shiemi and Shima had turned up in Delphi, safe and sound. Juuzo was assigned to head the group sent to figure out what to do with their refugees and to bring the two missing Exwires home, Mamushi went with him. It was decided that the other four 2nd year Exwires would spend the rest of their summer break with the Myodha.

One morning about a week after the ceremony, Rin looked around dining hall and grinned at the sight of people enjoying his food. "We should go sight-seeing," he announced after he and the other Exwires finished their own breakfasts. "My junior high class took a field trip to Kyoto but I didn't get to come." Rin held up a brochure. "I wanna see the Kyoto Tower."

Bon wrinkled his nose, "That place is an eyesore." Then he sighed, "Not that I have time to go sight-seeing anyway; more Council meetings."

"Oh," Rin said, his tail drooped and he scuffed his toe along the floor guiltily. "Are they going to yell at you some more?"

"Don't you go feeling bad about that," Bon scolded. "It was my choice… And I think they're over me going off script during the ceremony. Besides, they aren't really mad about the changes I made to our oath, so much as that I didn't clear it with them first. But that doesn't mean you and Kamiki can't go sightseeing."

"I think that's a great idea," Izumo interjected. "...Even if it came from Suguro." Bon scowled at her in return but decided against rising the bait.

"You're sure?" Rin asked uncertainly. "There's nothing I can do to help with the council?"

"You should go," Konekomaru said with terribly serious expression. "It will make it much easier to talk about you if you aren't there."

"Gee thanks," Rin groused.

"I'm not just teasing but don't worry," Konekomaru said patting Rin's hand and smiling. "The Council mostly needs to talk about capitalizing on the good feelings your display created."

Bon rested his hand on Rin's shoulder for a moment. "It's okay. I wasn't supposed to take over from my dad as head priest for another ten years or so, but we can't go back now so they're trying to cram a decade of preparation into a couple of weeks."

"You saved all of Kyoto from the Impure King. Good news: no one associated with the Kyoto Branch treats you like a pariah anymore. Bad news: you're getting assigned Exwire chores like the rest of us and Mom's still got you filling in for the Ryokan's chef. Plus Angel as much as said he'd be back for us the moment his unit gets assigned a mission. This is summer break you should get to have some fun; Koneko and I are consumed with all the restructuring in the Myodha; but you and Kamiki aren't so take advantage of it."

A few hours later, Rin found himself crammed into a crowded train car headed to Arashiyama, one arm wrapped lightly around Izumo's waist so they wouldn't get separated. They got lunch from a street vendor near the Togetsukyo Bridge then walked through the bamboo groves and saw several temples. As they headed back toward the train station, Rin bought a little fox charm for Izumo's phone.

"We should go to Kyoto Tower next," Izumo declared as they looked at the different stops.

Rin waffled indecisively. "We don't really have to go there," he said.

Izumo scowled. "It was the first thing you mentioned. You want to see it, so we're going there. Who cares what Suguro thinks."

"Yeah, I guess, it's not like I'm making him come with us," Rin said hesitantly.

Izumo grabbed his arm and dragged him up to the kiosk and got them both tickets for the Kyoto Station. "We're going," she informed Rin. When their train arrived at it's destination, Izumo marched straight over to the ticketing window with Rin in tow and purchased tickets for the observation deck without giving Rin another chance to protest.

As the elevator rose so did Rin's excitement. When the class trip been announced, he'd immediately been drawn to the pamphlets about the tall, modern looking spire towering over the city. Then his teacher had looked at him and declared that anyone who got detention in the two weeks before the trip wouldn't be allowed to come. Rin had tried to stay out of trouble, he'd really tried, but it hadn't been enough. Trouble followed him and so did teachers looking to give detention. Rin had wanted to see the Kyoto Tower for years, not going now that he had the chance, just because Bon didn't approve of the structure would have been stupid. He grinned down at Izumo, "Thanks," he whispered as the elevator doors slid open. He ran out and peered through one of the telescopes swiveling it this way and that.

In the end the two of them stayed and watched the sun set from the observation deck. Standing beside Izumo as the last rays of the day caught on the railing, Rin screwed up his courage. He tugged lightly on her arm. When she turned to look at him Rin lunged forward before he could have second thoughts. They collided, lips mashing uncomfortably against teeth. Izumo's hands fluttered in confusion for a moment then settled on Rin's waist, keeping him from pulling back. They sorted out pressure and noses and for several moments just stood there, Rin leaning down and Izumo stretching up, their lips pressed together.

"Was that okay?" Rin asked nervously, avoiding Izumo's eyes. Izumo nodded, her cheeks pink. "Really okay." The bus wasn't particularly full as they rode back to the Ryokan that night, but Rin kept his arm around Izumo anyway and kissed her again before they let themselves into the Ryokan.


The next day Bon sat on the steps outside the old Myodha temple talking with Karura as they watched Rin and Ucchusma work to refine Rin's control over his flames.

"You are flame as much as you are flesh," Ucchusma declared sternly. "Once you accept that fact, controlling them will be no different from controlling your limbs."

Rin scowled fiercely, a glove of flames formed around his hand. Gritting his teeth, he reached out and picked up a pebble, only using the clawed fingertips of the flame-glove. He managed to lift the pebble almost an inch off the ground before the flames lost solidity and it slipped through his grasp. "Damn!" Rin swore.

"Try again," Ucchusma instructed. "You know you can dissolve your flesh and consciousness into flame and reform yourself. What makes you so certain that you are truly flesh?"

Rin heaved a deep sigh and reached for the pebble again.

"What exactly did Rin do to the Myodha's demon bonds?" Bon asked Karura quietly. "All I know is that it felt good to everyone, really cleared the air, but the Council wants a more specific idea of what was changed."

"Have you asked Rin-kun?" Karura asked.

"He doesn't know," Bon admitted. "Says he was just acting on instinct. And, man, do I believe that coming from Rin."

Karura fluffed his wings a bit. "In Gehenna, according to popular belief, Assiah was created as a testing ground for young demons to compete through our human game pieces," he said. "But there is another legend, currently fallen from favor, that Assiah was created first and that demons- angels originally existed to serve humans. According to the legend we were created to find joy in enslavement. Satan, however, was born with clear eyes… or born flawed depending on who tells the story."

Bon snorted. "Isn't that always the case?"

"He saw our enslavement for what it was and there came a day when the skies of Gehenna burned blue. And then we all saw through his eyes."

"So for you Satan's the hero of the story," Bon said. "Your liberator."

Karura folded his wings fastidiously. "To some. The legend continues to say that the first Assiah drowned in blood as the angels ripped free of their bonds and fell. That only the very strongest rose again as demons. And of course, there was a war, so not everyone agreed with Satan's opinion even after seeing what he saw."

"Okay, so you're saying maybe Rin did something similar to our bonds?" Bon asked. "But that doesn't make sense, Rin got rid of a lot of built up resentment."

"He purged the bonds of emotion," Karura corrected. "As the legend claims Satan did. Demon Oaths can bind emotion; the oath that binds me to the Myo-o-Dharani head priest demands the generation of suspicion. Because my oath was with the head priest that emotion tainted the entire network."

"Why would you do that?" Bon demanded.

"To survive," Karura replied simply. "Suspicion was the emotion Rin-kun cleansed from the bonds, for a few minutes we looked at what had been wrought free of suspicion. The legend claims that the angel's bonds generated joy from servitude. For humans I demanded lies and secrets to generate suspicion. From a demon the promise is enough to make it fact: joy, love, loyalty, hate, fear; to promise the emotion is to have it imprinted on your soul. But if the legend is true, the blue flames can remove the imprint. From Rin-kun's demonstration it seems that even residual emotion that eventually infect the bonds can be removed, for humans as well as demons."


Shima Yaozo hesitated in the middle of handing out the day's assignments to the Exorcists assigned to the Kyoto Branch. "Okumura, Kamiki, I know you aren't normally paired together and neither of you are local, but Ryuji and Koneko are needed to speak with some of the outlying constituents about the current situation in the Myodha."

"It's okay," Rin replied. "What do you need?"


"Do you think he would have been less hesitant to ask if it weren't a typical, see how boring and dirty of a task we can come up with for Exwires, task?" Izumo asked later that afternoon as she and Rin trudged through a marsh searching for a variety of plant used in treating templates to replenish the Kyoto Branch's stock which had been spent treating the injuries from recent attacks.

It was a hot, humid day. Rin's jacket and Izumo's sweater had been left hanging on a tree branch near the road where they'd been dropped off several hours earlier, their socks and shoes discarded and Rin had rolled up his pant legs to wade into the marsh searching for the plants on their list, half of which were technically demons themselves, members of the Earth Kingdom.

Izumo spotted a demon-tuber and quickly recited, "A devakanya who had watched the devas listening to the Dharma in Vimalakirti's room appeared in bodily form to shower flowers on the Bodhisattvas and the chief disciples of the Buddha. When the flowers fell on the Bodhisattvas, they fell to the ground, but when they fell on the chief disciples, they stuck to their bodies and did not drop in spite of all their efforts to shake them off." Once the demon plant had been pacified she plucked it and dropped it in her sack.

Rin tried to repeat her maneuver but stumbled half-way through the verse. The demon plant snickered. Rin gave it a dark look, hell-fire flickering in his eyes, and it cringed submissively. Deciding that was good enough Rin collected the cowed plant.

"We've got all day," Izumo scolded. "You should learn that sutra at least. You still have to pass the recitation section of the Exorcist Exam in January."

Rin wrinkled his nose in distaste but knew Izumo was right. The next time they found one of the demon plant, Izumo coached him through multiple attempts on the verse until Rin eventually said it well enough to subdue the demon without resorting to his flames.

Then they came across patch of calcitrappa. Izumo waded out further into the water and reached beneath the floating leaves to grab the plant by it's roots only to slip on the muddy streambed. She came up sputtering, a long strand of algae hanging over her face. "Don't laugh!" she told Rin crossly.

"You got a-" Rin leaned over to pluck the algae off Izumo's face. His eyes gleamed with suppressed amusement. Then he noticed the effect on Izumo's shirt and froze, his face heating up, 'Don't look,' he told himself. 'Stop looking.'

Izumo, only noticing the earlier amusement at her expense took advantage of Rin's awkward position: frozen, half reaching down for her. She grabbed the front of his shirt and twisted, rolling him into the shallow water and ended up pinning him beneath her. Rin sat up, spitting out water. Izumo glared, her hands on his shoulders, threatening to dunk him again. Rin felt like he could fry an egg on his cheeks as he tried to keep his eyes up and not think about Izumo straddling his lap. Izumo finally noticed both her near transparent top and her position and turned as red as Rin who had started stammering apologies, even though it wasn't his fault she'd fallen in the water and even less his fault that she'd dumped him in as well. Izumo started giggling and leaned into Rin's shoulder. Rin's apologies trailed off uncertainly.

The was a bit muddy but notably cooler than the air and the coolness of the water emphasized the heat of Izumo's body against his. "Well, it's not like either of can worry about getting the other wet," Izumo said and kissed Rin. Izumo kissed with fierce determination, as nervous and inexperienced as Rin but hellbent on getting it right. As she focused on kissing her weight settled more firmly onto Rin's lap.

Rin braced his hands behind him to keep Izumo from dunking them both as she leaned into him, their mouths moving together. Rin's skin tingled everywhere they touched, even when it was through multiple layers of clothing. He held perfectly still, uncertain as to what he should do but not wanting to anything that might dissuade Izumo. Neither one of them wanted to break the kiss long enough to breath.

Then suddenly, Rin picked Izumo up and swung her off his lap. Still sitting in the water, blushing hotly, Rin pulled his knees up toward his chest.

After a moment of confusion Izumo caught on. She sat back down beside Rin, not quite looking at him. "Water's nice and cool on a hot day like today," she remarked randomly.

"Not cold enough," Rin mumbled.

Izumo giggled. "Sorry!" She clapped a hand over her mouth to cage the giggles that still threatened.

"It was great," Rin said, a dazed smile spreading across his face. "I just don't want you thinking I'm a pervert or anything."

"We should go back to gathering herbs," Izumo decided, for a brief moment her gaze drifted downward. "Once…"

"Yeah," Rin agreed with a renewed flush.


"You're in a good mood," Tatsuma commented as he passed through the kitchen and found Rin absently humming to himself as he fixed dinner. "I take it Yaozo's mission wasn't too boring?"

Rin's dazed smile returned as he thought about how he and Izumo had spent the afternoon. Then he blushed at his own thoughts.

"Ohhhh, so it's like that," Tatsuma said with understanding and gentle amusement.

"I thought Bon and Koneko were going to be gone overnight," Rin changed the subject.

"They are," Tatsuma confirmed. "Me not coming along sends a much stronger message about the shift in leadership. The Myo-o Dharani Exorcists were almost all on-hand both for the revelations and for the binding ceremony, but those of us who are only associated with the clan or the temple still need to be informed. We felt the secrets that came out would be better received if it were clear that Ryuji has assumed the role of Head Priest. Even though he's my son everyone knows how little influence I have over him."

"That's not true," Rin objected. "But I guess Bon is pretty loud when he disagrees with something. Still the whole thing sort of sucks; you were doing your best to make things right for everyone."

"Thank you," Tatsuma replied. "My ultimate goal was achieved, but I myself wonder how much was it because of me and how much was it inspite of me. Because I learned one of my father's secrets early it was a much simpler decision to surrender Kurikara to Fujimoto Shiro; I knew Kurikara was nothing more than an empty symbol to the Myodha and that made it easy to trust my impression that he was a good person who would do the right thing… even when he claimed otherwise. Because of that decision you were here to share the burden with Ryuji when my plan to defeat the Impure King failed."

Rin scrunched his nose. "You needed a little help, what does it matter? Without you Bon and I wouldn't have had a plan at all."

Tatsuma shook his head sadly. "Because of my lies Mamushi-chan was left vulnerable to Saburota's manipulation. If she'd known more he wouldn't have been able to deceive her. He might have found another way to reach the Eye, but she would still have both her eyes and would not have been disowned by her father. I didn't want to burden Ryuji with our family's obligations or secrets, but I have an obligation to all the children of the Myodha, not just my own. And in the end it was you and Ryuji who destroyed the Impure King, not I. My actions and the cost of them matter more than my intentions."

"The whole council knew and agreed," Rin argued. "But you're the only one getting in trouble… And the Council still listens to you more than Bon."

"They didn't know everything; they didn't know that I always planned to destroy the Impure King." Tatsuma chuckled. "But, you're more aware than we give you credit for. Ryuji hasn't quite realized that yet, or won't admit it anyway."

Rin rolled his eyes. "I get why this whole thing gives Bon a headache. People were mad cause ya lied to 'em and you're fixing it with more lies. And even the people who were mad about being lied to are okay with lying to the True Cross 'cause you don't want them knowing that Bon's the Head Priest already."

"They can't know," Tatsuma said seriously. "They won't take it well when they realize you are ours not theirs. And Ryuji cannot be in their hierarchy and openly be the Head Priest of the Myodha."

"I know, they'll kill me," Rin sighed. "It just sucks for Bon. He hates all this lying."


"It will be done," Angel declared. He stood and bowed to the man he knew as Baltazar then turned to leave the Grigori member's spacious office.

"One last thing Arthur," Baltazar said. "Take the Son of Satan with you on this mission."

Angel turned back to the man with a frown. "I took personal responsibility for overseeing Okumura and Suguro's training missions because Okumura was being assigned to tasks inappropriate for an Exwire. I cannot, in good conscious, turn around and take him into combat against a Grand Duke of Hell."

"We cannot afford to waste the Paladin's time on missions suitable for an Exwire," Baltazar replied. "Surely you realize that? The only reason you were assigned to mentor the hellspawn was because we needed someone both beyond reproach and capable of destroying him should it be discovered that Sir Pheles' estimate of his worth prove flawed."

"I am aware. I no longer have any reservations about my role," Angel said. "I initially doubted the Grigori when I was told to train the Son of Satan while evaluating the threat he represented to Assiah. However, after eight months of close association with Okumura, I must admit that you were much wiser than I. The boy will be a fine weapon against Satan once he is fully trained."

"I recognize that my missions are beyond the scope that an Exwire would normally be allowed to participate in, however, even within the tasks undertaken by my battalion there is a range," Angel continued. "The Grand Duke calls for a very small, elite team. Lightning and I had intended to bring Okumura and Suguro along on mission where the containment squad is of use. Suguro's barrier spells are adequate, he wouldn't be a burden on them. He would be both off the front line and under the direct supervision of more advanced Arias. As Suguro's knight Okumura would naturally be assigned to his protection. I believe, under those circumstances, Okumura's natural impulsiveness would be curbed by his oath to Suguro."

Baltazar grimaced at the mention of Rin and Bon's oath. "A solid plan, but too conservative," he disagreed. "Surely you can't be implying that Eligor is more of a threat than the Impure King?"

"No," Angel said. "But I would not have sent Okumura against the Impure King."

"The results of that battle speak for themselves," Baltazar replied.

"Luck does not…" Angel began then remembered to whom he was speaking. "Okumura and Suguro will accompany me on this mission."


Rin's eyes widened with surprise when he saw Mephisto Pheles and Arthur Angel walk down the stairs into the Ryokan's dining area. "Hi, how'd you guys get here?" he greeted them after putting down the pan of scrambled eggs he'd been adding to the morning buffet.

"Your living area is a pig pen," Angel informed him. "After our mission I expect you to pick up after yourself. Now, where is Surugo?"

"I'm here," Bon said as he came through the backdoor.

"Suguro-kun, my condolences to your father," Mephisto said, although his tone suggested they were sharing an inside joke rather than sincerity. "We in the True Cross have been informed that his injuries, sustained in battle against the traitor Saburota and the Impure King, will limit his ability to carry out his duties as the Myodha Head Priest."

"That's right," Bon said stiffly.

"We're told that you will begin assuming some of his duties. Still your parents wish for you to complete your schooling." Mephisto continued. He nodded toward Angel. "And this one won't wait for your vacation to end before resuming your internship." He produced a pair of keys with a magician's flourish. "Bowing to pressure from both sides I have established a gate connecting your bedroom closet in the Old Dorm to your bedroom closet here in Kyoto. That should aid you in keeping up with your responsibilities here even after the school year resumes."

"Thanks," Bon said gruffly as he and Rin accepted their new keys.

"If that is settled, we have to be going," Angel stated. "Lightning is fetching one of the Order's vehicles for us as we speak."