Chapter Twenty-Five.

"-is why you should always remember the Diagram of Demonic Elements when it comes to fighting low level demons. Yes, some can be over come by simple force, but part of a demons power lies in never knowing all its tricks. They are constantly evolving and changing as they fight to stay in this world, and not be sent back to Gehenna."

Rin frowned in concentration, managing to make a few notes, since what Yukio was saying today actually seemed to make some sense to him. It was a whole month now since the Gehenna gate had stormed over True Cross, trying to swallow the world and destroy it, bringing the two together to create a new one.

"There's twenty minutes of class left, in that time, I'll be handing out a quick test." Yukio smiled warmly as the room resounded with groans. Rin snickered and turned in his seat slightly to look at the collection of students around him, the room was nearly full.

Despite the fact that the wealthy elite of True Cross Academy had all gone home for the summer, True Cross was still a normal town with normal schools and students in it. It was those numbers that mostly filled the room, although Rin had spotted a few that attended the Academy itself, he guessed they'd hung around for some reason and got caught up in the chaos like everyone else. A lot of teenagers had ended up with tempertaint.

"Rin, stop snickering and pass out these papers." Ordered Yukio, ruining his brothers good mood in a second. The black haired teen spun around in his seat and snatched the sheath of papers out of his brothers extended grip, scowling at Yukio's smug smile. "Thank you," said Yukio before he returned to his desk. Rin's tail lashed with frustration, at having to hand out the papers and having to once again, see the uncertain looks that the other students would shoot him. They were new to seeing demons, all of them, so he was grateful that none of them were looking at him like he was filth; they just didn't know what to make of him.

If he didn't start making friends soon, there'd be no hope once they had there lesson about Satan and his blue fire. Oh well..

"Looking good there," winked Gene, smirking at Rin as he moved around to where the young man was sitting on the third row. Sitting next to Gene was the girl, Lana, both of them looking perfectly fine and healthy after there near death experience in the factory two weeks ago. "Does your tail ever keep still?"

Rin looked down at the black appendage that was still flickering idly from side to side. "You know, I've never really thought about it," he said honestly, "its still when I'm asleep or meditating..."

"What's it feel like?" Asked Lana curiously, reaching out to touch it but Rin was at the other end of the row of desks before either of the two students could blink.

Rin gave her an apologetic smile and shook his head, "sorry, but you don't touch a demons tail." He blushed faintly and tried to chuckle.

Lana simply blinked at him confused but she nodded while Gene snickered next to her, elbowing her and whispering something in her ear that made her blush bright red. Rin knew that if he concentrated, he would have heard what it was that Gene said, but he focused on passing out the papers instead.

The last students he passed the papers to, was a trio of familiar looking girls. His smile turned a little wooden as he was ignored by the three girls that Ukobach had tried to cook alive; they were too busy staring at his brother and sighing. Rin knew that Yukio would have been well aware of their attention, as he'd been all week during class, but when Rin had complained to him about the girls, his brother had just smiled at him.

"Are you jealous, big brother?" Yukio had asked, looking up at him from his chair. Rin's face had flushed brightly, mostly because he'd never even considered that that was the reason he didn't like them. At seeing that, Yukio had gotten up and looped his arms around Rin's neck, nuzzling close until his lips were brushing Rin's ear, "that's so cute. But you know that I'm all yours. They'll never even see my tail, let alone the rest of me."

Rin's smile loosened slightly as he straightened and returned to his seat, but it faded as he sighed and looked apprehensively at the paper on the desk. Yukio called out for everyone to start, and Rin flipped it over, expecting to be confused and frustrated from the first question. This was the first years class for general Demonology 101, explaining the most basic things to the new students that had chosen to try and become Exorcists. When he'd been told he would be in this class again, he'd sulked and whined but then sighed. He knew he wasn't bright, and that he was being given a last chance to pull his scores back up from the brink.

But as his eyes looked over the questions, and his delicate ears heard the sounds of anguish and worry from his fellow students, Rin realized that he actually knew the answers! He knew Yukio wouldn't have picked questions that were any easier than he had the first time Rin had sat a test in his class. He'd never cut his brother any slack before, what so ever! But... Rin knew some of the answers!

Maybe he would actually start to understand things better now?

So, a quick explanation, and moving on... :)