Oh dear...I hate having to wait ages for new chapters, not knowing whether a story will be continued at all or not...and there I go and make you all endure that myself. I'm truly sorry about that!

I know it's annoying, but as any writer here I do have a real life and that has kept me manically busy as well as forced me to live through a row of rather unpleasant experiences. *sigh*

Of course I probably could have found the time to write, but my heart just wouldn't have been in it and I want to write a good story after all.

I thank you for all the comments, I'm really amazed at their number and apologise for the long wait! *bows*

If nothing else, I can at least tell you that I'm absolutely planning to finnish this story no matter how long it may take.

Please enjoy this little new chapter, the next one will follow soon^^.

Disclaimer: Ao no Exorcist and all its characters belong to Kazue Kato.

Mephisto Pheles was usually in perfect control of himself and his emotions and only let those show that would further his plans. Right now, he found himself in a situation that demanded all of his willpower to keep his facial features in check. In other words, he was on the brink of not only grinning out of sheer amusement but even as much as breaking out in quite the tremendous burst of laughter.

Watching the supposedly professional exorcists, his subordinates, as they were running about like a flock of panicked chickens, desperately trying to extinguish the blue flames with holy water while also taking care of the few among them who had received some nastier burns, all of them calling for him to give them orders, was just absolutely making his day. Being a demon, he enjoyed chaos by default and this was just too good! He had been truly disapointed when he thought this youngest brother of his was just going to let himself be killed. All the more he relished the current happenings. He loved to play a good game and this one looked promising for sure.

Turning towards one of the less freaked exorcists he gave his orders.

"Make sure to put all the flames out and then return to the acadamy. I will take care of this personally."

"But Sir Pheles, what about Okumura Yukio?"

Now he could't stop the smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth anymore and he was quite certain that if the man hadn't already been disturbed by the situation as it was he would be so now.

"Ah, good that you ask! Tell him I'll handle the situation and to stay out of it."

Seeing the man open his mouth in obvious protest again he added matter-of-factly: "That's an order. The same goes for everyone else."

Turning around with a swosh of his cape, easily weaving his way through the havoc towards the graveyard's entrance, he added: "Oh, and we don't need any extra fuzz so no need to inform headquarters, richtig?"

Not waiting for a response he briskly walked through the gate and turned left, following the scent of his youngest brother's blood which his sensitive demon nose had picked up. Apparently at least one of the bullets the more competent exorcists had fired after him when they had realised what was happening had managed to hit the boy. Well then, may the hunt begin!

He leisurely strolled along the roads of True Cross Campus Town swinging his pink umbrella around as he went, being absolutely sure to catch up with his 'prey' sooner or later, seeing no need to hurry. After all, why not prolong his fun and let his little brother believe he had actually gotten away?

After having walked down quite a few roads he noticed a number of small drops of blood on the ground now and then.

Hmm, I suppose he had pressed something on the wound to stop the bleeding and it has soaked through once he got here. I doubt he'd have been able to make it much further.

Smirking to himself, he went on, taking in the warehouses that appeared to the left and right of the road.

Interesting. He isn't as stupid as I thought he was. I figured he just ran off without any idea where to go but the warehouse district is certainly a well chosen place to hide. For humans, it would be considerably hard to find him here.

Looking down at the specks of blood his smirk grew slightly wider.

Well, if it wasn't for those that is…

Following his nose and the more frequent becoming trail of blood Mephisto soon found himself in front of one of the warehouses which appeared to be abandoned. Pushing the old rusty door open, unfortunately making quite the noise, he looked inside.

A wild asortment of messily stacked wooden crates, cardboard boxes, barrels out of both metal and plastic and all kinds of linen sacks in various states of decay all over the place, was what met his eyes. No bleeding and doubtlessly disturbed boy. Knitting his eyebrows together slightly he entered the old building, pulling a face at the the slight rotten smell that was often found in places like this and that was mixed in with but luckily not covering up the scent of blood. In fact, the smell was a lot stronger in the blocked up roller shutters on the far side of the hall into account, the building didn't appear to have any usable exits other than the one he just entered through.

He sighed theatrically. What a shame…seems like this is already the end of the hunt. To think that a brother of mine would be such easy prey…

Ah well, I shall be sure to put him to good use in other games of mine from now on.

A pleased grin spread over his features at the last thought and he enthusiastically made his way around all the mess to the end of the storehouse where the smell of blood and unfortunately also the rotten odour were the strongest. Preparing a range of teasing comments in his mind, he rounded one last big crate to finally come face to face with an utterly exhausted and still bleeding Okumura Rin.

His left eyebrow twitched slightly.

His grin all but gone his eyes wandered around the space before him, frozen in the rather unfamilar sensation of utter disbelief. After scanning the ripped up bloodied sheets of fabric on the floor, they automatically jumped to the only other noteworthy feature, the sight of which surely being one out of his worst nightmares…a stinking, smelly, disgusting and utterly unsanitary manhole.

That little…!