A/N: *takes deep breath* *slams face into floor* I'm so sorry this is late! A lot of different factors contributed to this delay, most focused on the end of school (I finished May 1st) and the events surrounding that. I also was sucked into the Gravity Falls fandom (read: Transcendence AU), and have been occupied with that.
*slams face into floor again* I'm so sorry!

Also, for all those whose reviews I have not responded to: I am also so so so sorry. I just...around that time, I was feeling horribly low and unmotivated to keep in contact with nearly anybody for reasons I don't understand, but rest assured that I'll try to reply to all my reviewers (should there be any) this time around! I saw all of them and was very pleased and uplifted, but I was also really down.

Right now, I'm looking at June 14th for the next update, though I'll let you know if there's any hiccups with that prediction; the next chapter isn't even started.

Please enjoy the chapter! As you can probably tell, I uploaded it the moment I was done with it (cough 3:15 AM cough)

(If there are any native German speakers who can help me with the title, please do! I just kind of put two words together and hoped they would work). EDIT: Kiara97 suggested 'Ausgleichende Gegensätze,' and was seconded by A Stranger 0.0, so I'm going to go with it. Thank you guys again!

Chapter Twenty-One: Ausgleichende Gegensätze

(Complimentary contrasts)

.

"Can't believe we have to go to Cram School even during the summer…"

Yukio rolled his eyes and shrugged on his overcoat. "It's cram school, Nii-san, not normal school. At least the hours are reduced and you have the rest of the day off."

"Says the guy who gets to go on a real actual emergency mission." Rin flopped back onto Yukio's bed, still in his pajamas at three in the afternoon. "It wouldn't be so bad if we got missions. And I'm not talking about the paperwork crap Takumi's been saddled with, or about cleaning the streets of Coal Tars or stupid stuff like that."

"You should really start getting ready," Yukio said, cinching his belt and resisting the urge to stress the importance of making sure that Coal Tars were kept at a minimum. "Sessions start at four."

Rin waved his hand. "It's the damn old man teaching; you think he's gonna care?"

All Yukio had to do was swing his head around to look at Rin over his shoulder, eyebrows raised, and Rin sat up, chuckling and rubbing the nape of his neck.

"That's what I thought."

"Oh, come on! I know I can't officially go with you, but can't I skip and go just this once?" Rin rolled onto the floor and came to a stop at Yukio's feet, his knees touching the toes of the younger brother's boots. "It'll be cool! You and me, the ultimate twin team! You can say that, like, I'm practicing or something."

Yukio sighed and pulled his utility belt off the shelf. "Rin. No."

With a moan, Rin flailed at the floorboards with his arms. "Come on, it's not like anybody will know any better! Shima's gone, Takumi's doing his stupid Mephisto-paperwork-slave routine, and they'll all just think I'm skipping!"

He couldn't suppress his own groan. "Sometimes, I think you've regressed in maturity since the training camp. Maybe being around kids your own age was a bad idea."

"And I think that the pole up your ass has been shoved up even further since camp! What's up with that, anyways?" Rin rolled onto his haunches, arms draped over his bent knees, and looked up at Yukio, his calculating-big-brother face on.

Lips pressing together, Yukio turned around so that Rin couldn't see his face. "Nothing. I think your language has gotten cruder, too."

There was another moan and a thump on the floor. When Yukio chanced another look at his brother, it was to see Rin's face pressed into a pile of his dirty laundry.

"Why don't you think you can hang out with us?" Rin mumbled. "I'm the older one and I'm doing just fine with my friends. They're your age too."

Yukio preoccupied himself with securing the straps of his utility belt. The leather was soft under his fingers, and he could see one of the edges starting to fray just a little. He'd have to get that fixed within the next couple months.

A short pause and a disgusted sigh later, Yukio heard Rin get to his feet. "Fine. Be Sir Grumpy Mole-y Four-Eyes. I guess I'm glad I don't have to deal with that on this mission. You going solo? 'Cause I feel bad for the guy you're partnering with if you aren't."

"All the doctors are gathering, but other than that, no."

There was pressure on his shoulder, and Yukio turned his head to see Rin's uncharacteristically serious face. "Is it bad"?"

"One fallen to temptaint," Yukio answered, straightening his tie. "At least a dozen infected. It's an infestation of Coal Tars in an old housing complex in North True Cross."

Rin bit his lip and glanced to the side. "…Sorry. About complaining earlier."

Yukio huffed, then turned and ruffled his brother's hair. "It's fine. You just forget sometimes, and that's understandable; you're not in this situation much anymore."

"Yeah, I guess." Rin looked back up at Yukio. "You sure you don't want back-up?"

"Rin."

His brother grinned. "Heh."

"Go to class."

"I'm going, I'm going!" Rin said. "I mean, I'll get ready and all, but I'm just a call away, right?"

Yukio rolled his eyes, then swiped a pillow off Takumi's bed and launched it at his brother. It smacked Rin right in the face, and his brother fell backwards onto Yukio's bed with a muffled yelp.

"That's what I thought." Yukio smirked and pulled out his key ring. "Have fun."

He ducked just a bit as he exited the door onto a street in North True Cross, and one of the standard dorm pillows ruffled his hair in its flight over his head.

"And that's another demerit for Mr. Okumura," Yukio mumbled, bending down and retrieving the pillow. It should probably be returned to campus, so he'd leave it with the temporary headquarters for the mission until its completion.

Around the corner of the alley he had landed in, Yukio heard a voice call out for pedestrians to stay back and away from danger, and nodded to himself as he set out. Even if he didn't like stepping out of emergency exit doorways into alleyways that could have the odd mugger, at least he'd come out close to the scene of distress.

Pushing through the crowd with a murmured litany of "excuse me," "pardon me," "I'm so very sorry," "coming through, sorry," Yukio held up his ID to the pale-haired exorcist in charge of crowd control. "Good work!"

The man—Nishimura? Nichimura? Something like that—turned to look at Yukio, a look of exasperation on his face, and caught Yukio's eye. "Oh! Okumura-san!"

Ducking under the tape, Yukio snapped his wallet shut and clipped it back onto his belt. "I apologize for any tardiness. Are those all the wounded?"

"Yes, though a survey team called to say they were driven back and a hostage was taken—is that a pillow?"

Yukio nodded, and handed the man the pillow. "Please watch it. I was unable to keep it from following me through the door. I'll see about tending to the—"

"Incoming! Survey team back, injuries present!"

"Thank you," Yukio said instead, and hustled past the man, already readying calculations of topical salves and bloodstream injections.

As he passed a woman and her middle-aged patient, she snagged him by the arm. "Here," she said. "You need to be debriefed, don't you? Tend to him."

"Understood," Yukio said, and the woman stepped away to help the next patient. He knelt by the man, who was holding the side of his face. "Okumura Yukio, Intermediate Exorcist First Class. Please catalogue your injuries for me."

"Um," The man said, "I mean, I think it's all just bumps and bruises; Nuriko-san wasn't with me much longer than to give me the necessary inoculations. You just got here, correct?"

Yukio nodded. "If you're not injured, I would like to know who is in charge—unless you are?"

"Yes. I'm Todou Saburota, Senior Exorcist, Second Class, and Warden of the Deep Keep. Do you happen to have a handkerchief handy? I'm sorry, I'm just sweating up a storm."

"Of course." No self-respecting Doctor-class would be caught without one. Unless, Yukio thought as he handed over one of the three he had handy, your name is Kirigakure Shura.

"Thank you," Todou-san said, accepting the hankie with both hands before lifting it to press against his right cheek. "Where was I? Oh, yes. You are aware of what the Deep Keep houses, are you not? If I recall, you are a rather bright young man."

It never failed to surprise Yukio that so many people actually knew his name and reputation. "Yes. It's where the left eye of the Impure King is kept, correct?"

Todou-san winced. "Well…unfortunately, the chaos all began when it was stolen just a short while ago."

Despite himself, Yukio jerked back in surprise. "But how did—but the Deep Keep is behind the strongest of magical barriers!"

His eyes flickering from Yukio's to the ground at his left, Todou-san shook his head and worried at the sleeve of his coat with his fingers. "We still don' t know how it happened. Myself and an elite force from the keep pursued a masked man here, but he used a child as a shield and sprayed us all with a noxious gas. He's up in that building," he pointed, and Yukio turned to take in officers in Hazmat suits setting up caution tape in front of a completely innocuous apartment complex, "but we haven't seen anything of the thief recently."

Frowning, Yukio moved his gaze from the building to the exorcists lying about in various states of pain. "This is the work of the gas, then."

"Y-yes. It—the gas has spread, affecting a total of thirty-one people, including civilians, and we just don't have enough doctors around."

Yukio closed his eyes. "And the boy?"

"His exposure was severe." With his eyelids drawn down, Yukio could hear not only Todou-san's quivering voice, but the murmurs of doctors and their quietly moaning patients. At least there was noise. "The boy, unfortunately is…is probably dead by now."

He opened his eyes, looked at his superior's contorted face and trembling hand and thick-rimmed glasses. Rin would have spoken, would have laid a hand on the man's shoulder and told him not to think that way, but Yukio was not Rin, so Yukio did not speak.

"And…and that man stole the left eye! It's an unprecedented failure for the Knights of the True Cross, and…and…"

Sighing through his nose, Yukio knelt before the man. His nerves were shot, his career was probably going down the tube, and right now Yukio needed him to pull himself together. "Calm yourself," he ordered, but soft as to not draw attention from the man's subordinates. "We will deal with the situation the best we can. Now, this man. Is he strong? What are his known capabilities?"

Todou-san inhaled through his nose and exhaled out his mouth, hand against his cheek still shaking, the sopping handkerchief drooping in his fingers. Yukio wasn't sure he wanted that back. "He," Todou-san pursed his lips together and paused for another inhale, another exhale. "I don't know how strong. He just…he just fled without fighting back. He was cloaked, so I don't know if we're fighting something human, or demon, or a hybrid, or anything! I just don't know. I don't."

"Calm, Todou-san," Yukio said, hands on his knees. "Calm. The less we know, the more dangerous this situation. We need to hurry. I will go and join the crew readying for the penetration of the perimeter. You should probably—"

"Excuse me, but…"

Yukio turned his head to look up at the crying woman who'd approached them, her right hand over her mouth, her left cradled over her flat stomach. He knew who she was before she even said anything.

"My son. My son, he…" She drew in a gulp of breath, but it fell out of her in two massive, wailing sobs. Doubling over, she clenched her hand tighter over her mouth.

"Ma'am," one of the Exorcists behind her said, a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Ma'am, it's…we'll do the best we can."

"You're not," she pulled in another breath, and this time she kept it. She shook her head, fixed desperate eyes on Yukio's. "Please, please, you have to help him. You have to save him. I—I'm sorry for the trouble, but you have to, please."

Rin would have assured her right away, Yukio knew. It was why they worked so well together—Rin would keep optimism up, Yukio would keep their feet on the ground. Feeling with logic, instinct with tactics. But try as he might, Yukio could not muster up the words, and looked away first.

"We cannot guarantee the safety of your child," he said, words bitter and dry on his tongue, like Father's coffee grounds. "You should prepare for the worst."

Her other hand flew up to her mouth. "But!" She began to hyperventilate, the sound of it dropping the stone in his gut further with every sobbing exhale.

Rin would tell her they would get the boy, save the boy at all costs. Yukio couldn't do that because it wasn't the truth, and he couldn't make promises he wasn't sure he could keep, and it was absolutely killing him.

"But," he said, and the woman stopped mid-painful sob, "that does not mean we will not do our best. Please, we…we do not want to see him die, and we hope that he is not. All I mean to say is that the situation does not look good, and I do not want to raise your hopes in vain."

She shook her head, letting out a muffled whine, then raised her blotchy face to look at his eyes. "Please," she whispered, "please. If he is…please."

"Of course," he said. "We will do our best. If nothing else, the body," he swallowed the lump in the back of his throat, but could not get the rest of the sentence out.

"Thank you," she said. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

Sometimes, he envied Rin's unwavering, dogged optimism with enough force he felt as though his chest would split apart.

When Rin woke up, it wasn't to his cell buzzing in his pocket, like he was hoping it would be. Instead, it was to a book smacking into the crown of his head.

With a high-pitched yelp, he started and tried to jump backwards. Because he was sitting in a chair and was unable to actually jump, he ended up shoving his chair into the desk behind him and toppling over said desk and over the edge. He ended up with his head smacking into the ground and his calves in Takumi's lap. Takumi, it seemed, had also been sleeping, because he flailed and let out a loud string of unintelligible noises that made Rin's aching head throb.

"And that, students, is why you shouldn't sleep in class when you're in the front row!" the damned old man crowed, the volume making Rin groan and shut his eyes.

The class laughed, and Rin drew his leg off Takumi so that he could curl up into a ball. While he could see his headache pulsing on the back of his eyelids, it was already fading, turning hazy and fuzzy the way light spots do when you close your eyes.

"And you, Hisoragi-kun—if you were awake, you would have been able to dodge that. After all, your boot is off! You can move around freely!"

There was a thud on the desk now above Rin, and Takumi muttered, "Is he always this sadistic? I got that boot off two days ago."

Rin grumbled out something that felt very much like a yes and uncurled a little. The headache was dying down, quickly as usual but not quick enough for his liking.

"Are you okay?" Shiemi asked, and he cracked open his eyes to see her bending over the side of her chair, hair sliding across her cheeks and halfway into her face. Rin closed his eyes again.

"Y-yeah," he said. "In a moment I'll be good."

There was a beat of quiet, and then Bon spoke up in a bit of a drawl. "Hey Paladin-sensei, you mind teaching me that move?"

Rin was up faster than his head could handle, but managed to bite out "What the hell's that supposed to mean?" before collapsing into his chair, forehead against the desk and feet stamping the ground in pain.

"Anything that can help me take you down," Bon said, "is a tool I will use, Best-in-Physical-Ed-san."

Rin grit his teeth, squeezed his eyes shut. You lied to us you lied to us you lied to us, Rin heard, faces all around him. You lied you lied you lied and you called us friend?

You are not my friend, Rin heard and turned around to see his friends—his classmates—speaking in unison. You are not my friend you lied you son of Satan you lied you're wrong you are not my friend.

You are not human, Rin heard, and turned back around to see Neuhaus-sensei, blue fire eating at his left eye. You are but another demon to be exorcised. You filthy demon. You monster. You liar. See? Your ruse is at an end and they will tolerate you no longer.

He allowed himself a second more to stamp his feet and bite the side of his cheek to keep from remembering that particular nightmare, and then said to the desk, "Haha! Give it your best shot, Not-Best-in-Physical-Ed-san. I'll win anyways!"

"That was a really lame comeback," Shima commented. "But yeah, Bon, I kinda see that not being a thing you do. I mean, the Paladin did that, and he's the strongest Exorcist. That's got to be why."

"Shut up!" Bon hissed.

"Excellent suggestion!" The damn old geezer exclaimed, back to the classroom and writing something on the chalkboard. "After all, we need to be continuing with Demon Pharmaceuticals. Still fifteen minutes in the class! Unless you all want to have some first-hand experience with mission reports and how they should be composed. That could be arranged."

In the back, Angelina-chan-that-wasn't scoffed, but remained otherwise quiet.

"No thank you," Hisoragi Takumi said. Rin couldn't see him, but he imagined the other teen's face had gone pale. "No, no fuck that I'm good."

Rin dodged to the side on instinct as a stick of chalk flew by him and collided with probably Takumi's forehead. The boy let out a yelp and another curse. Rin just plastered himself to the desk as Fujimoto let another bit of chalk fly.

"Ow—what the hell, man?"

"Language in the classroom," The old man said, a smile on his face that had Rin doing his best to avoid eye contact. "Also incentive for you to complete your physical therapy in a safe but quick manner! Speaking of which, who knows the typical recovery time including physical therapy from the inhalation of miasma for a period of, say, five minutes?"

Looking at the ceiling was much safer than looking anywhere near the old man, Rin thought. Thankfully, his Dad called on Kamiki Izumo, who responded in clear clipped tones.

She hadn't shown up in his dream, and he was thankful for that in an awful way. Everybody else had, though, even stupid Angel. And Shura-sensei. And the Old Man. And…and Yukio, even.

Rin slid his hand below the desk and felt his old flip phone in his pocket. No, it wasn't buzzing. Yukio was just busy, he told himself. He wasn't calling, he wasn't in trouble. This was a good thing, right? That or he didn't call because he was a nerd who put too much importance in the classroom. That or he didn't call because secretly he hated Rin.

It was a stupid idea, Rin thought, frowning down at his desk as the Old Man asked another pointless question and called on Takumi to answer it. It was a stupid baseless idea that Yukio hated him, but he was still afraid that maybe he did and maybe he was going all wrong with this interacting with people stuff and taking their face emotions for granted and. Well. Sometimes, Rin wished he could logic through a situation like Yukio could. Sometimes he just really, really wished he could.

"Okumura-kun," the old man asked, "what kind of lacerations need stitches?"

"Uh," he responded, pulled out of his admittedly stupid thoughts, "lacerations are…are like cuts, right?"

His old man didn't roll his eyes like the teachers at the middle school had. He just nodded. "Correct. So which ones need stitches?"

Rin pursed his lips for a moment and leaned back in his chair. Usually he'd go off his own experience for this, but he'd been noticing more and more how fast he really healed in relation to normal people. So he thought of the time Yukio'd come back bleeding and hurt and needing Rin to sew up his wounds.

He was surprisingly good at sewing, it turned out.

"Um, they…they have to cut past the skin layer, you know. Into the fat and muscle. And have lots of bleeding happening, that's usually a sign it needs stitches."

"Does this need stitches?"

Yukio laughed in a strained way. "Maybe. Doctors usually figure that stuff out by experience, and you're weird so I never know when I should stitch myself up. There's no science to it."

"Well. Oh! Last week, I came back and there was a nasty cut up the side of my arm. You stitched that. That's kind of like the one on your thigh."

"Then stitch that, I guess." Yukio grinned, high off pain and exhaustion and numb from the anesthetic he'd injected into himself. "You've been putting pressure on it, right?"

"Like," Rin continued, "enough bleeding that putting pressure on it for five, ten minutes doesn't stop the bleeding. That's a cut that needs stitches. Though there's really no method beyond that and personal experience to figuring that stuff out. Doctors usually just know by looking at a cut and comparing it to cuts they've had to deal with before, so…like that, right?"

The old man nodded. "Right. You really have to do it by feel, so knowing what to stitch is difficult for novice Doctors, and is part of why novices are paired with more experienced members. Also, different patients heal differently—especially in our line of work, where we may encounter offspring of human and demon parents—so knowing the medical history of the patient helps a great deal."

Rin grinned at his Dad, who quirked a smile back before asking Angel in the back what the controversy regarding the use of a tourniquet was. Shiemi fidgeted in her seat in the way she did when she actually had read up on something before class, which was happening more and more often. There was a tap on his shoulder, and he turned his head to the side to look at Takumi. "What's up?"

"How'd you know that? Like, does it have to do with…y'know?"

"Huh? What do I know?"

Takumi rolled his dark eyes, pulled one of his dreads out of his face. "The thing. Your deal. You know, like when you…well, when we had that fight with Shiratori."

He sucked in a breath, grinned and pushed down the you liar you liar you liar liars don't have friends. "Kind of, but I listen to Yukio."

"Ah," Takumi nodded and snuck a glance at Fujimoto, who was grilling a nervous Angel on the exact details of each side of the tourniquet debate. "He's pretty cool, yanno."

"Yeah," Rin agreed, "He's pretty cool. One of the coolest. But so am I, heheh!"

Hisoragi Takumi shook his head and rolled his eyes again, settling back into his seat. "I guess, yeah."

Rin nodded. Yukio was awesome and cool and could logic through things Rin couldn't—of course he was jealous sometimes. And then he thought about Yukio and his difficulty with discerning which cuts needed stitches, thought about his own ease in figuring out which stuff needed to be taken care of in split-second decisions, and figured that maybe Yukio needed to be logicky-good so that they balanced.

They were a team, he thought, hand still against the phone in his pocket. They were a team and worked best together, so he had to hurry up and get certified so that they didn't go off on dangerous missions without each other as backup.

Be safe¸ he thought. Be safe.

Of course he was going to want to come, Yukio thought. It was his luck that the nervous wreck named Todou Saburota didn't want to stay behind—oh no, he thought he had something to prove, so he had to come along. But Yukio was not in charge of the situation here. Todou Saburota was, and if Todou Saburota decided that his condition was stable due to the injections he'd already received, and if Todou Saburota decided that he needed to fix his own mess, then Yukio couldn't really say a word otherwise, now could he?

"I'm responsible for this. I need to go."

"All right, I understand." That didn't mean he necessarily agreed, not that he was letting Todou-san know that. Yukio picked up the birdcage with the constantly chirping canary in it. "Let's go."

The four of them—Yukio, Todou Saburota, a woman whose name he thought might be Sawaniwa Nana and a man who had mumbled his introduction—made their way into the hallway of the building.

From the outside, it was benign and blended into its surroundings; Yukio certainly wouldn't have pegged it as a hideout for a possibly inhuman thief. The hallways, however, were saturated in dark mist and the piping in the ceiling was exposed. Rubble from the thief's chaotic flight was strewn along the sides of the hallway, and Yukio saw signs of accelerated aging in the wallboard. Not good.

"If there are no objections, I will lead the way. Todou-san, if you could stay in the middle, and everybody else in the rear, I believe that would be the optimal arrangement."

The bird warbled a few notes, and whistled the next. A short pause later, it repeated itself, then moved on to a different pattern of song.

"Yes sir!"

"T-That's fine," Todou-san said, and Yukio wished that the man didn't have such a strong sense of responsibility, because he was not mentally fit for duty.

But Yukio nodded and observed the bird, which chirped and rustled in a way that Yukio conjectured might signify they should move forward. "This way, then."

For a short while, they navigated through the building, moving up stairs when necessary and stepping through the rubble underfoot. Yukio's breath was loud in his ears, and he was hyperaware of the three relatively unknown people at his back; he had been on enough missions with strangers to know that he could trust his fellow Exorcist, but Rin's presence behind him was always the most comfortable.

Yukio almost wished that he'd called Rin in, but how would he have explained that? A student, skipping class? Teacher favoritism or negligence, letting a much less accomplished Exorcist-in-training accompany him on a dangerous mission? That would be foolhardy.

"D-Despite your troubled background and youth, I-I hear you do excellent work, Okumura-kun."

He blinked, pulled out of his thoughts by Todou-san, then frowned. He shouldn't be so distracted, he was on a mission that was shaping up to be very vital. "And I know that the Todou family is an illustrious one, famous for its noble exorcists."

Yukio then glanced to his side, remembering something about the Saishinbu, or Deep Keep, and Todou-san being in charge of it. He narrowed his eyes; perhaps having Todou-san on this mission was a good one, if he was right.

"Speaking of which, hasn't every generation had strong ties with the Deep Keep?"

"Y-Yes, Okumura-kun."

He nodded to himself, and promised to see about checking out the main Library to strengthen his well of knowledge. "This is a bit embarrassing to ask, but would you be able to brief me on the 'Left Eye of the Impure King' that was inside the Deep Keep? What is it?"

"Of course, um," Yukio, still looking out the corner of his eye, noticed Todou-san make an aborted motion to push his glasses up. "Um, the 'Left Eye of the Impure King,' is…well, it's had an awful history. Over 150 years ago, at the end of the Edo Period, there was a demon that spread around infectious diseases and fevers that killed over 40,000 people."

Yukio grimaced. It really would have been nice to have Rin by his side, in other words. "And this demon is the Impure King?"

Todou-san's steps were more assured, his voice stronger with self-confidence. "Correct. When it—the demon known as the Impure King—was subdued, an Exorcist plucked out the demon's eyes, which were crucial to the Impure King's cohesion. The eyes themselves are immensely powerful, and continue to release a highly toxic miasma."

"Then this is the miasma from the Left Eye, right?" Yukio eyed it. Perhaps the thief was human after all, though they would have to be encased with protective clothing in order to withstand this sort of demonic rot. "And if there is a Left Eye, it's logical to assume that a Right Eye also exists. Does it?"

"Yes on both counts." Todou-san stumbled but caught himself by clapping a hand on Yukio's shoulder. His hand was heavier than Yukio thought it would be, and the jolt set the canary to chirping more throatily than it had before. "However, the location of the sealed Right Eye appears to be kept secret. I believe that only Sir Pheles and those involved know where it is."

Mephisto, again. Yukio scowled. With the unpredictable demon setting up test after test for Rin that threatened to expose his lineage to the world, Yukio trusted the President of True Cross Academy as much as he trusted Father to resist buying his erotic magazines at the corner store. "I see. And the bird? What is its purpose?"

Todou-san tried to bump his glasses up again, but lowered his arm and tilted his head back instead. "I-It's a replica canary. It constantly sings until it senses high concentrations of miasma. Uh, so when we get close to the masked man, it should stop because of the Left Eye's presence…"

"…Well," Yukio said, stopping and looking down at the bird hunkering down at the bottom of its cage, "it's certainly stopped now."

For a moment, they all stared ahead, down the misty black corridor. The silence made the hazmat suit all the more stifling, and Yukio finally felt the sweat beading at his hairline.

"There, at the end!" Sawaniwa-san said in a whisper, and Yukio saw the figure at the end, light glinting off the circular eyeholes of the gasmask. It was shrouded in darkness, its cloak tattered and shifting oddly in the air. At its side was what must be the sealed eye, emitting dark spurts of highly concentrated miasma into the spherical vial it was contained in.

Lying partially behind the figure was the boy, bubbles of miasma forming under his skin.

"He's still alive," Yukio breathed, and tossed his head back to adjust his glasses.

"Critical condition, sir," the unnamed Exorcist behind him murmured, audible only due to the level of silence in the hall, "we'll need to hurry to get him out alive."

Down by the back wall, the figure shifted and tilted its head at them. It moved to the side with a strange, staticky shhf-ing noise and with all the eeriness of appearing to float. Yukio narrowed his eyes, pulled his gun out, and took a step forward. He pulled the safety off and settled into a balanced stance.

"Stop right there!"

Heartbeat pounding in his ears, he watched the figure slowly move its head to the other side, and its unblinking stare made Yukio want to step back. He swallowed back the sudden lump in his throat, and steadied the gun in his hand.

It shifted a centimeter forward. Yukio jabbed his gun in its direction. He aimed for its shoulder. "Stop! One more step and I'll shoot!"

Yukio, never one for empty threats, pulled the trigger and didn't even blink.

With a great thudding noise, the figure imploded in on itself, a dark concentration of mist that vanished into a pinprick and then out of existence. Yukio jolted in surprise, and the vial holding the eye fell to the ground. The shattering glass was loud in the sudden silence, and Yukio had holstered his firearm and darted forward before he knew exactly what was going on.

The eye fell, but instead of unleashing a dark cloud of unbearably toxic miasma, it just bounced a little and rolled to the side. Yukio watched it do this, felt his eyebrows draw down and his eyes widen in confusion. He picked it up, gingerly pressed it between his fingers, and it gave into the pressure the way Yukio's old stress ball had.

"It's a fake," he breathed, and a moan from the child by the broken, dirty window had him dropping the replica. He made to move forward, to assist the hostage victim, but there was a shift of fabric and an impact in the back that knocked him forward.

Yukio rolled, mindful of his utility belt, and slid to a stop a meter or two in front of the child. Looking up, he took in Todou-san's figure, leg still extended and two prone bodies behind him. "T-Todou san?"

"Mah, what a pity," the man said, but then he ripped off the heavy-duty hazmat suit and he was not human anymore. In the miasma behind the man—the demon—Yukio saw a pair of glowing eyes, and he clenched his jaw. Possession. "I've been exposed, it seems. Well, I'll still be able to buy some time."

Goddammit all, Yukio thought, pulling out his gun. His phone was inaccessible do to the suit, and he couldn't take it off due to the miasma pouring off the possessed man in front of him. There was an injured party behind him that he couldn't tend to due to the threat in front of him, and he needed Rin. "Why are you doing this?"

"Ah, it's a bit of a story that I don't have time for," Todou-san—the demon said, but Yukio wasn't so sure if it was the demon or if it was Todou-san or both. The hazmat suit fell to tatters on the ground, and even those were destroyed by the mist hovering over the traitor.

"Oh?" Yukio said. "I thought you wanted to buy some time?"

"Hmm, I suppose there is that," Todou said, and examined his claws. "I don't need to buy that much time, though."

Yukio asked himself, what would Rin do, and quirked a short-lived smile. Sweat dripped down the side of his face. "Humor me—perhaps a footnotes version. Why would you betray your organization?"

Todou settled back on his heels, raised a hand to his chin and his eyes to the ceiling. "Well, it has to do with how my family—"

Waiting only for the tension to ease in Todou's shoulders, Yukio let off a barrage of bullets, aiming for the possessed man's vitals. The first shot grazed the other's shoulder, but then Todou moved, like Rin when he was full of flames and concentration. No, Yukio realized, stepping back and keeping his body between Todou's and the boy's, Todou was that much faster.

"That was rude," Todou admonished as Yukio ducked under the man's roundhouse and shot a couple rounds at his opponent's chest. "But also tactical. You remind me a lot of myself, like how I used to be."

Yukio stiffened, a snarl tugging at his lips. "I would never be like you," he said, low and dark. "Never betray those close to me."

"Don't be so much of a shounen protagonist, we both know you're not the type." Todou's arm blurred out, and Yukio just barely swiveled to the side in time. Noting how this exposed the boy to the traitor, he shot the man's arm and Todou pulled it back and retreated a few steps. Yukio settled in a protective stance much closer to the boy and cursed his lack of close-combat skills.

He really should have called Rin, damn the whispers and looks.

"But smart," Todou admitted, straightening up out of a combative stance and assuming a relaxed pose. Nevertheless, Yukio could see the tenseness in his legs. "Which fits what I know of you, and I should not have let my guard down."

Yukio remained silent, just narrowed his eyes.

"Which is why you should understand the parallels between us," Todou said. "As I was saying, my family planned out my future from the day I was born, and I took their orders like a dog. My father did it, my older brother did it, but what did that get me?"

"I joined before my brother," Yukio said, terse.

"Ah, but your brother…well, my acquaintances and I are having the same doubts the True Cross has been having. For why would only one son display symptoms of their father's curse?"

Yukio's eyes widened, and his jaw clenched, but he bit back his accusations just before they flew out. He thought perhaps Todou hadn't noticed, but then the man gave a little chuckle.

"So there is something. But no matter; if our hypothesis is correct, that simply means you and I are very similar indeed."

"We have a father. An older brother. The similarities end there."

"But that's not the case!" Todou slowly extended an arm, palm-up, and indicated to the both of them. "I received nothing from aspiring to be my family, so I recognized my true feelings; that I hated my family, this organization, and the whole world. Only then did I feel myself, only then did I see the light! All the missing pieces of me just fell into place, and so will you!"

Yukio snarled, "You're just weak. This is nothing more than the deluded ramblings of someone who succumbed to a demon's temptations."

But instead of denying it, Todou let his arm drop and shrugged his shoulders. "Every heart has its weakness. Are you too scared to see that mine is like yours?"

"No," Yukio said, raising the gun just a hair. "Ours are nothing alike; I may have weakness, but it is not there."

Todou straightened, tilted his head at Yukio, and appeared in deep thought. He opened his mouth, but there was a sudden, thin beeping noise from the watch on his left hand. "Ah, there's my cue. Time to clear out."

As Todou took a step back, the gloom starting to gather behind him, Yukio fired two more bullets. Both were avoided by sleight of body, and Yukio's gun was empty. He holstered it and went for its twin, thumbing the safety off as he did so.

"Well, thank you for the talk," Todou said, a small, charming smile on his face. Yukio shot at it, but Todou just leaned his head to the side and let the bullet pass. "Maybe you and I aren't as similar as I thought, but I believe we are similar nonetheless."

"Screw you," Yukio snarled, and aimed at the demon-possessed man's chest. Todou just shifted one of his feet back.

"In time you will understand that we each have great power to hate, and you will hate everything as I do. When that happens, Okumura Yukio," he said as he started to fade into the shadows gathered behind him, "I will be there to welcome you."

Yukio pressed the trigger one last, fruitless time as Todou vanished completely with that same strange shifting noise the thief had made. A beat of silence, and Yukio was suddenly hyperaware of the tension in his chest and the weight of his breathing.

A beat later, and he sucked a breath in, and then screamed it out, kneeling down and bringing his fist down against the floor. The floorboards splintered under his fist, and he realized with a start that he shouldn't be able to do that.

There was a moment of panic, then an almost reflexive what would Rin do, and he gritted his teeth. "Snap out of it!" he snarled to himself, and forced his lungs to pull in a breath of air and let it out slowly.

The boy let out a gasping whine behind him, and Yukio turned around, startled. Rin would help him, he thought, even though he knew the thought was somewhat illogical because Rin wouldn't really know how to help the poor kid.

But I do.

Yukio considered the still miasmatic air around him for a split second, and then pulled the hazmat suit off. The boy might be safe to take out and then receive treatment, but Yukio didn't want to chance moving the kid too much just in case the growths ruptured.

Steady, he thought as he gently pulled the boy onto one folded knee. These boils, he remembered as he prepped a medicine vial from his utility belt, needed the vaccine injected directly into the cellular wall. His hands trembled as he prepared to insert the first one, and he drew them back. His heart was loud in his ears, and he felt his breath coming too quick, too shallow.

Placing the vial on the ground, he lifted his hands, looked at how they were shaking. Did his words affect me that much? Am I really the kind of person to…to do that?

He didn't know the answer to that, he realized with an abrupt intake of breath.

Hands still shaking, he pulled his cell phone out of his breast pocket, hit the speed dial for Rin's phone, and held it to his ear

It was picked up on the second ring. "Yukio?"

"Rin," Yukio said, and his voice was shaking why was his voice shaking? He was a failure of a doctor, he couldn't even treat one boy without collapsing into a useless pile of rubbish. "Rin."

"Wait, I'm getting out of class—old man, dammit, this is serious it's Yukio just gimme five dammit!" There was rustling and shaking and the odd swish of static, so different from the apparition in tattered robes. A door opened, and closed, and then Rin breathed out, heavy and right in Yukio's ear. Somehow he couldn't care. "What's wrong? Do you need me there?"

Yukio let out a strained laugh and dug his fingers through his hair. "Um. Yes. Yes but no, there's no time for you to get here. Just. God. Just talk? Talk."

For a moment, Rin was silent. "Shit. Okay okay, what should I talk about."

"Just a moment," Yukio said, and fumbled with the flip phone to set it to speaker. "Okay. You're good."

"Um, I still don't know what to talk about, what should I talk about?"

"Anything," Yukio said, and then quirked a small smile. "Sing my praises."

Rin squawked on the other end. "What, that's what you called me about? Wow, okay Ego-san, I guess I know what I'm teasing you about for forever!"

"No, that was a joke." Yukio looked at his hands, still trembling but just a bit less. He set the phone on the ground. "How is your love triangle going?"

"You are the worst," Rin muttered. "Angelina-chan doesn't do anything anymore, but whenever she says anything to me everybody laughs or giggles and Shiemi gets this really weird face like she's upset but also happy at the same time!"

"Jealousy?" Yukio inhaled through his nose, and then exhaled out pursed lips.

"…no. Like she disapproves or something, like you see on old grannies faces when they see you walking along with your shirt untucked or something."

"I've never seen that, but I'll take your word for it."

"You've never seen—oh. Bastard four-eyes."

Yukio snorted, then picked up the vial. His heart wasn't racing, his hands were steadier, and he closed his eyes. "It's the truth."

"You suck," Rin said. "But yeah. Shu—Yamada-idiot still makes passes. In the stupidest voice too, like there's no emotion."

"It's called a monotone. Any memorable ones from today?"

Rin made a disgruntled noise in the back of his throat. "No. No. We are not talking about that."

Opening his eyes, Yukio gently slid the vaccination vial into one of the boils on the kid's shoulder. Thankfully there were maybe two or three large growths and a handful of medium ones—the small boils were connected to the larger ones and would receive the vaccination as it circulated. "You know I'll hear about it from your classmates anyways."

"No you won't. Now. Um. Changing the subject! Did you know that Bon gets up at like five to go running?"

"I was wondering where you were this morning," Yukio said, prepping another vaccination vial. "You really went running?"

"Oh my god it was torture. Shiemi wants to join us tomorrow though, to get a feel for what a run should be like."

Yukio, despite knowing Rin couldn't see him, raised an eyebrow. "You sure she can handle it?"

"Probably not," Rin admitted. "But she knows that we won't slow down a lot, though we'll probably do the running-back thing you and I did forever ago."

He slid the next vial in. "Good. You were the worst to run with."

"You were a turtle."

"Not. You're just crazy."

Rin laughed, a dark chuckle that had Yukio wondering where he'd picked up that kind of cynicism. "You haven't run with Bon."

"Then I guess I never will," Yukio said. The injections were coming easier, his hands were surer and steadier. His cheek was itching in that tell-tale way though, and he knew he had to make this fast. "If you have problems with his running, then I definitely would."

"He runs forever!" Rin moaned. "Forever and ever and ever and he does it so early I don't know how he functions."

"Then I feel even sorry for poor Shiemi-chan." Just one more left.

"I…I did keep doing the running-back thing before I realized he was going longer than thirty minutes," Rin admitted. "So I guess that made me more tired. He did look at me like I was crazy the first few times."

Yukio slid the last injection in. Now he had to wait a few minutes for the swelling to die down. "You are. Crazy, that is."

"Pffft, nah, you're just boring."

He chuckled, wiped the sweat off the side of his face with his cheek, and noted the growths forming on his arms. This was reckless, he realized. Stupid-reckless.

Todou Saburota had a dangerous tongue.

"…you calmer?"

"Yeah," Yukio breathed. "Yeah. Thank you."

"…you wanna talk about it?"

Yukio exhaled through his nose and considered it. He went through the scenario in his head—letting Rin know, spending another thirty minutes in there and then—no, no that wasn't good. "Not enough time. I'm kind of on a time limit here, but I'll talk to you tonight maybe. In our room at home."

"But then Takumi and Shima will be there."

Yukio waited. Rin wasn't stupid.

"Oh. OH. Oh. Okay. I—sure, I'll tell the old man to plan for another two at dinner. Actually, why don't I make dinner? What do you want?"

"…Sashimi? If not, just a seafood dish."

"I could do a mixed sashimi-don! I'll just ask the old man to ask Jiborou-san or somebody to pick some things up if we don't have them. Sound good?"

"Yeah." Yukio smiled a little, and nodded to himself. The swelling was far enough down and the vaccine had dispersed from the vials. He set about very carefully sliding the needles out of the membrane and back into their protective covers.

"Right! Um, see, we'll probably just have a bit of tuna, not much expensive stuff, but I'll see what fish we have from the market. Cutting it could be difficult, but if I get back there soon enough we should be good to go, and…"

Rin continued debating the pros and cons of certain seafood over others and if they had enough furikake for him to dump all over his. Yukio felt his smile grow larger as he stoppered the last empty vial. He looked down at the boy, still weak and sleeping but boils tended to, and imagined the look on his mother's face.

Everything would be okay.

Ten minutes later, Yukio gritted his teeth and felt his headache grow as Mephisto reported the theft of the real left eye and the attempt on the right eye in Kyoto.

"Isn't that just awful?" Mephisto Pheles said, biting off a chunk of his vibrantly childish fruit-juice ice pop. "I'm assembling an elite unit for the immediate retrieval of the left eye; Okumura-san, you will participate."

"What." Yukio said, tired and aching and itchy from the boils.

"Well of course you!" Mephisto twirled his frozen treat around, a sly grin on his face and a pillow under his arm. "We don't know our enemy's objective, so I need someone who has come in direct contact with the enemy on the team. Your skills are more than acceptable, so…why not?"

Yukio swallowed back his screams, shoved the frustration and irritation down into his gut and gritted his teeth. "Understood," he said. "Time of departure?"

"At the base. Debriefing is in an hour, and you'll depart immediately afterwards. My friend here," Mephisto lifted a cage with an odd hamster in it, "will be helping you track the eye. He has…let's just say he's got a way to sense it."

Narrowing his eyes, Yukio appraised the beast, and felt his unease grow. "Of course. Sir."

Mephisto narrowed his eyes right back. "Is there something you would like to say, Okumura-kun."

I don't want to go, he thought. I want to eat sashimi don and actually talk to somebody who I can trust about the situation at hand and I want to beat something into the ground but I'm afraid that I will be able to beat something into the ground and I'm scared.

"No, sir." Yukio said.

The President of True Cross Academy tilted his head, unnatural eyes boring into Yukio's. "If you say so," he said, and turned on his heel. "Follow me, Okumura Yukio. You have bags to pack and, if I imagine correctly, a pillow from your dorm to return."

"Yes sir," Yukio said, and pulled his phone out in front of his superior. Rain check on the sashimi don. Urgent situation appeared. Will text when I can.

Snapping the phone shut, Yukio strode forward, wind tugging at his hair.

Sometimes he really hated his job.

A/N: Pretty important plot chapter! Moving right along, and there are some more small but important differences from canon. A couple notes:

(insert noun) don: Don simply denotes that the dish is over rice. Sashimi don, therefore, is the sashimi cuts just piled on top of rice. From what I can tell it's the same/similar to Chirashi don (or donburi).

furikake: It's kind of like a shredded seaweed-sesame seed-etc. topping. There are special kinds; you can get ones with dried shimp bits in it, ones with yam, etc. They're great, from personal experience.

the medical stuff: Apparently that is how stitches work! Doctors go off experience and what they've dealt with in the past rather than a tried and tested method. And there is controversy over the use of the tourniquet, though I'd have to read up on it beyond titles to know the specifics.