*nervous laughter*

...H-heey?

So that...took way longer than expected but hey, the chapter's longer too so don't be mad? Please?

Also, important. I made some changes (noted in the summary) so if it's been a while since you read the previous chapters you'll want to start at the beginning again. Sorry about that -.-


Better to get it over with, Rin thought, and, with great reluctance, reached for the handle.

xXx

Everything looked… normal.

Old, dirty, a bit too worse for wear, sure, but all that was business as usual. Rin scrutinized every nook and cranny of the entryway, twice, but he couldn't find anything that would justify Mephisto's irksome presence.

Speaking of the clown, Rin cast a suspicious glance over his shoulder.

Mephisto looked like the epitome of innocence, complete with halo - how the hell was he doing that?! - and even going so far as to whistle a jaunty tune. Rin felt his eye start to twitch.

Moral support, my ass

Whatever, it wasn't like Rin needed - or even wanted - that clown's help. No, he could do this on his own. No problem.

Rin closed his eyes, let his breathing even out and his mind go blank.

Almost immediately, dozens of new sensations washed over him like a great flood. But he'd been practicing and managed to drag one from the clamor with relative ease.

Bump…

Ba-bump… Ba-bump…

With the rhythmic thumping of his own heart serving as an anchor, he began drawing out more sounds.

Next came Mephisto's pulse - difficult as it was to believe that monster even had a heart to speak of - softer and further away. Their rustled breathing and a leaky faucet down the hall followed suit, along with the barely audible skitter-scatter of a rodent's nails as it scoured the floor in search of food.

Have to tell Kuro about that one later

When sound offered nothing useful, Rin took a deep breath. Smell had always been easier for him to figure out, more intuitive, and right away a couple jumped out at him.

There was the detergent Yukio had used to wash his uniform. The remnants of soap still lingering on his skin. And…and…?

"Eh…?"

Not quite believing his own nose, Rin took another breath, and then another.

The result stayed the same.

The mold-ridden stench of the dorm, the one that had been abusing his nostrils from day one, the one no amount of air freshener or dried herbs - sorry, Shiemi - could fix, and believe him, Rin had tried.

That smell was just… not there anymore?

Rin should have been happy, overjoyed even, but considering the situation and his current company, that feeling soured real fast.

"What did you do?" he asked, demanded really, spinning around to a jab a finger in the gaudy demon's face. Mephisto smiled, unbothered by both the accusation and the appendage.

"My, my," he said pleasantly. "It certainly is an improvement, isn't it~?"

Rin faltered a little. "I… I guess…"

Mephisto's grin became a condescending smirk. "Oh? What's this? You don't sound very pleased."

"Shut up!" Rin snapped. "All of this is too suspicious!"

But Mephisto just laughed in his face and Rin's eye-twitch returned with a vengeance. He responded by sliding Kurikara off his back, and while doing so did put a stop to Mephisto's stupid chuckles, it was obvious the unspoken threat didn't daunt him in the slightest.

Mephisto rolled his eyes, and in a bored tone said, "That again? Come now, Okumura-kun. Haven't we been over this already?"

Rin's hands closed around empty air.

"Hey!" The teen's eyes flashing around the empty hall. "Get back here, damnit!"

"No need to be so loud," Mephisto said amusedly, suddenly standing right beside him. "In fact, allow me to offer some of that support I mentioned earlier and expressly advise against it."

"Shut up!" Rin swiped at his sword, but it was long gone again.

What followed was perhaps the most unfair game of whack-a-mole in the history of mankind.

Mephisto, being the sadistic mole, would pop up in random places, often the place Rin had previously vacated, and Rin, being a particularly dense mallet, would furiously leap at him, desperately grasping at the sword but never quite managing to touch it.

After having the blasted thing slip through his fingers for umpteenth time, the teen cried out in frustration. "Aaargh! Stop doing that!"

Mephisto laughed, standing before him again and leaning on Kurikara like it was a regular old walking stick and not a centuries old artifact. "Kukuku. Oh, alright~. I admit, while it is terribly amusing to watch you stub your toe against this particular metaphoric rock again and again, I do have other things to do today. So, what do you say?"

Shifting his weight of the sword, he held it up for Rin, who quickly snatched it before the clown had a chance to change his mind.

Mephisto chuckled at the way the teen immediately pressed the sword to his chest, wrapping his arms protectively around, and opened his mouth to say something, probably another insult, but stopped and looked up.

"Hmm," he said, and flashed Rin another grin. "Might I suggest apologizing~?"

And then he vanished.

xXx

Egyn lay on the bed he had commandeered for his nap and stared dully at the wooden panels above him as the vestiges of his dream slipped from his mind.

The shouting from below continued, growing louder and louder. Slowly, he sat up.

"Don't."

Dead-eyed, he looked at his sister.

Iblis was seated at one of the tiny desks, reading a book that definitely wasn't hers, if the cartoonish figures on the paper cover were anything to go by. She didn't look up at him, engrossed in its contents.

"…That little shit…woke me up..."

His voice sounded foreign even to his own ears. Gravelly and foreboding, and not at all like his usual, easy tone. Iblis flipped to a new page.

"I know." The words did not soothe him. Iblis didn't really do soothing. It just wasn't her style. "Try to calm down."

Egyn shook his head.

"I don't want to 'calm down'." Egyn did not sound like a petulant child when he said this, absolutely not, the stupid little arched eyebrow on his sister's face be damned. "I want to go break his teeth."

Iblis sighed, and finally lowered that damn book.

"Fine," she said uncaringly. "Do as you like. However, do not complain to me afterwards if things do not work out."

Egyn was out the door before she even finished her sentence.

Iblis shook her head. Honestly, that brother of hers…

Father would not be pleased with them if his precious creation got damaged, but she trusted Samael enough to step in if Egyn took things too far. Now then, she thought, turning back to the curious volume she'd acquired from one of the shelves.

'Magic guilds', was it?

xXx

Stomping through the hall, Egyn tried to ignore the tightness in his chest.

It would pass, it always did, but right now it was mingling with the ache of necrosis and the combination was pissing him off.

In this state, the prospect of having to go down a bunch of stairs and enduring more of that damned noise was instantly dismissed.

The fastest way was always straight ahead, so that's how he went.

xXx

Samael couldn't help but laugh at the expression on Rin's face as the boy clung to his sword.

His younger siblings were all quite adorable when upset, and this one was no exception. Just look at those puffed up cheeks!

Granted, the boy was dumber than a doornail - what part of King of Time did he not understand? - but that was fine. For now, at least. Stupid pawns, while aggravating, were easier to use, and the game was just starting to pick up.

Unable to resist teasing the boy some more, Samael opened his mouth just as there was a subtle spike in power above them. Oh, right.

"Hmm… Might I suggest apologizing~?"

Rin blinked at his remark with wide, confused eyes, and went still as a statue as time slowed to a halt. Only then, when there would be none to witness it, did Samael allow his face to contort in a pained grimace.

"…Ah, ahahaha~."

His blood was on fire, burning its way through every inch of his diseased body. That little game might not have been the brightest idea, not with his powers spread out the way they were, but oh well~

Samael took a few steps back, dabbed the blood dripping from his nose with a Hello Kitty handkerchief, and, once he'd disposed of that, snapped his fingers.

Rin had another three hundred and seventy-two milliseconds to look adorably baffled before the ceiling unceremoniously crashed down.

"What the hell?!"

Ignoring Rin's panicked shriek, Samael watched on with distaste as dust and plaster and splintered wood flew every which way.

Good grief. First Amaimon, then Lucifer, and now Egyn. Did none of his siblings have one single iota of respect for other people's property?

His bratty little brother emerged from the wreckage unscathed, albeit scowling. Oh, if that fool thought he was unhappy now, just wait until Samael was done with him. He'd been too lax before, that much was obvious, but he'd remind his siblings, exactly what their positions were.

Humans were frail and quick to break physically and mentally. They were also incredibly infuriating. Prior to Amaimon's little fit, Samael had had to settle for venting his frustration and murderous impulses in videogames. Or, if that simply wouldn't suffice, he'd indulge his baser side in some unfortunate pocket-dimension before returning to whatever meeting he'd been suffering through in the main timeline, his associates none the wiser.

Ah, the perks of being him~!

During his musings, Egyn had zeroed in on their little brother, and was now advancing on the boy with single-minded purpose.

"Do me a favor, kid," the King of Water muttered darkly, "and shut the hell up!"

Then he punched him.

The force behind it sent Rin flying through the entryway, crashing in and then through the wall, and onto the courtyard before his body finally rolled to a stop. Ouch.

Sparing a quick glance at the body through the gaping hole in the wall, Samael determined the boy's life was in no serious peril and turned to his brother.

"Sleep well?" he asked blithely.

"Bite me!"

Samael made a show of thinking it over, mainly to prolong the scathing look his brother gave him. Yep, terribly annoying but oh so cute~! ︎

"Now that you mention it," Samael said, once he'd had enough, "I am feeling rather famished. Why don't you run along and fetch Iblis and the three of us can catch up while we wait for our dear dimwit of a little brother to wake up, hmm~?"

xXx

Bidding his feline friends goodbye for the day, Kuro hopped off the low stone wall and began his journey home.

True cross town was as lively as ever, with an array of brightly colored signs and buildings, and tons of people milling about.

Darting between strangers and half-familiar faces, he ran into an alley, vaulting over a pile of rubbish that hadn't been collected yet and narrowly avoiding the cloud of Coal Tar floating merrily above it.

The number of demons within the city had risen dramatically since the festival. From what Rin had told him, the Order was swamped trying to deal with them all, which also meant less time spent together and to Kuro, that was the real tragedy. He hoped they'd fix it soon. He missed playing with Rin.

Kuro was just about to take another of his backroads, when he spotted Yukio exiting a convenience store. With a happy cry, the Cat Sith jumped off the roof, landing perfectly in front of the teen.

*Yukio!*

"Oh!" The surprise on Yukio's face quickly melted away. "It's you, Kuro. Are you going to the dorm?"

Kuro nodded and held his paw out in the direction of the school.

*Yeah, and you're going the wrong way! It's dinnertime!*

Yukio smiled a funny smile. It wasn't mean or anything, but to Kuro it looked…off somehow. But Yukio was strange like that sometimes, so Kuro shrugged it off. "Can you tell Nii-san I won't make it to dinner? I've got some work to do and I don't know when I'll be finished." Without waiting for a response, Yukio barged past him. "Thanks, Kuro."

*Eh? Hey! Yukio!*

But Yukio was already gone, swallowed by the masses. With an unhappy yowl, Kuro turned around and continued walking.

If Yukio wanted to ignore family time that was his choice. Rin wouldn't like it, and the thought was almost enough to make Kuro chase after the boy and give him an earful. But since Yukio couldn't hear him the way Rin could, it would just be a waste of time.

Speaking of…

*Ah, I need to hurry! Rin's making miso steak tonight!*


I do hope it was at least somewhat worth the wait. (^ ^;)

Lemme know what you think of the changes, and for those who are up-to-date with the manga...

Chapter 105...Ohmygod...just WHY?!

Goddamn fRoGs?!

Anyways, have a pleasant weekend~!