Early that Friday morning, Rin and Daphne left for True Cross and made their way down to one of the most secure practice gyms all the way in the basement, several levels underground. They stretched, did a couple of warm ups, dimmed the lights to see the aura and the flames better, and set an alarm to go off in time for Daphne to get to class and Rin to check in for work.
"You're the research expert," Rin said, stretching his arm across his chest one more time. "How do we start?"
"Well." Daphne was quiet for a moment while she thought. "According to Mephisto, your flames use my aura as fuel, and you can't start a fire and then add wood." She drew Castor and Pollux from her shoulders in a flash, both swords making that distinctive whoosh sound as she brought them down to bear in front of her, going into an attack stance out of muscle memory or instinct. It was beautiful. "Just draw Kurikara and pay attention to how it feels—wait."
She sheathed her blades and the aura shut off.
"Okay, now draw Kurikara and pay attention to how it feels. You won't be as aware of the difference if we don't have a control. My mistake."
Rin raised his eyebrows to make double-sure she was ready and Daphne motioned at him, chuckling.
"Go ahead," she said.
He drew Kurikara, closing his eyes and for the first time really focusing on what the unleashing of his demon power felt like. It was warm, sort of like water about to boil, and it sparked hottest on his head and washed downward. The whole ears and fangs and tail thing had never really felt like a "transformation," more like revealing the true nature of what he was. Like taking off a baseball cap and actually being bald underneath—only not like that at all. He opened his eyes and looked at Daphne.
"Normal enough, I guess," he said.
"Okay, sheath it."
He did and she drew Castor and Pollux.
"Draw."
If the sensation had been water about to boil without Daphne's aura, it was fully rolling about to boil over with it. He hadn't really noticed the difference in the past, having unleashed the power while other things demanded his attention—things like semicapers and ghouls and stupid sparring matches organized by Mephisto. The familiar strengthening of his flames and the increase in dexterity accompanied the amplified heat.
"Do you feel different?" Rin asked, looking at Daphne.
She shrugged. "Sheath Kurikara and draw it again and I'll pay more attention this time."
Daphne shut her eyes; Rin sheathed the blade.
"Tell me when you're going to draw."
Rin counted down from three. Blue flames, that same augmented heat, and Daphne opened her eyes, shaking her head.
"Let's try it the other way…"
So she put away Castor and Pollux and then drew them but the effect was still the same—Daphne couldn't feel anything and Rin's flames were the only thing that seemed to change. They spent the next twenty minutes running experiments like that, changing distance between them, changing timing drawing at the same time then a couple minutes apart. It seemed that the closer Rin was to Daphne, the stronger the effect on his flames, but at the same time, if he focused from a distance, he could still draw some of her aura's power. It was almost instinctual, like a law of nature. A fire would seek out anything it could burn.
They were on opposite sides of the room running a time and distance combination test when Rin almost unintentionally sought out more to burn.
"Nn."
The sound from Daphne accompanied a sharp intake of breath.
"I felt that," she said next.
"You—what?"
Felt that? Felt what? He'd felt something too—more heat, maybe. He wasn't sure. Honestly, he didn't even know what had changed, or how he'd prompted that change if he'd had anything to do with it, and he said as much when Daphne asked him what he'd done.
She started swiftly across the room. "Try it again."
"No, no, wait—"
But Daphne was already halfway over, so Rin panicked and slid Kurikara back into its case. The blue light that had filled the room was gone immediately and Daphne halted in the middle of the ring.
"Please don't do that," Rin said. "Please. God. I'm still so scared of this, Daph."
He hadn't noticed until that second how furiously his heart was beating in his chest. He could even feel it in his forehead. The flames had found further access to Daphne's aura, of that much he was certain. Proximity made the effect grow stronger, so anything could have happened if she'd walked right up to him. He tried not to linger too long on the image of a dead, dismembered Daphne that came to mind.
Suddenly she was right in front of him. Rin jumped.
"You set all the terms from here, Rin," she said and slid her swords into her shoulders. "You choose the steps. If you want."
Rin stared at her. He searched her face, but he didn't know what he was looking for. His pulse was still elevated. Maybe it was comfort, maybe that's what he was hoping to see reflected in Daphne's eyes but that wasn't what was there. What was there was steadiness, solemnity. Hers was the gaze of a person who had seen and suffered unspeakable things and so no longer held any emotion resembling fear. She felt she had already seen the worst. It wasn't long ago that those eyes had held nothing but fear.
Funny how people traded places like that.
"I don't want to make decisions by myself," Rin said softly. "I never want to be the only one making decisions."
Daphne gave a single nod. "All right," she replied, then went quiet, waiting for him to reach his own conclusions.
"I just…We don't know what's going to happen. I think we should take it slowly…"
He didn't know when he'd looked down, but Daphne was lifting his chin in her hand to get him to meet her eyes once more. He did so reluctantly. Daphne smiled, but the expression was a little sad.
"We can do this," she said. "You can do this. You're the goddamn half-demon son of Satan who not only somehow manages to enjoy day-to-day life, but is also a kickass exorcist. There aren't very many other people who could do what you've done, Rin. Not everyone is that strong."
Daphne Lux was calling him strong? The person who had come out of years of abuse and trauma guns blazing ready to fight? He opened his mouth to object, but she knew where he was headed and moved the hand holding his chin to cover his lips.
"Don't you dare say that you're not strong. I will walk out of this room right now and never look back."
She let her hand fall. Rin closed his mouth. Daphne smiled at him again, running her hands down the length of his arm to take hold of his. A deep breath entered and exited her nose.
"I'm ready when you are," she said.
Rin nodded, but was still processing, his mind still turning over and over, so he told it to shut up and shut his eyes and focused on the feeling of Daphne's hands in his. Her fingers were cold, her touch was gentle. He wondered for a moment what his life might have looked like now if she hadn't come to Japan, if she'd chosen to stay in the U.S. and the army. Morpheus would still be coming. Mephisto would still be pulling all kinds of strings. It was pretty likely that Daphne would have been called in to assist with the manifestation regardless of her own personal decisions. The crossing of their paths had been kind of inevitable. He was just glad it had shaken out like this.
"I'm ready," he said.
Daphne took a step back, then several more to put some distance between them. Then she drew her blades. She gave Rin a nod, so he brought out Kurikara. What had he been thinking about that first time Daphne had said she'd felt something? Had he been thinking anything at all? Then he remembered.
He'd caught a glimpse of the light of Daphne's aura as she'd shifted and the halo had refracted rainbows all around her. In that moment he'd noticed for the first time how the colors in that rainbow were lighter than a normal one, and how the blue was the same shade as the new color of his flames. He looked up, right across at Daphne, and as she took a neutral stance and her feet settled into position, the movement made the rainbows shift into momentary visibility. Rin caught sight of the blue and the reaction was instantaneous.
The increased heat that he'd once felt everywhere doubled and focused intensely in his mouth, on his teeth. With a burst, the flames surrounding him grew larger, forming into a column that stood easily four or five feet above his head. Above his head—holy shit—were those horns? At the back of his mind a once-familiar tugging suddenly turned into a massive pull, so strong that Rin turned around instinctively. In the corner of his eye, a pair of goat feet shot out of view, and just when he started to feel a roar building in the back of his throat, energy mounting toward another tug, he sheathed Kurikara and the room went dark again.
Dark, dark. Like, Daphne's aura had shut off as well. Rin went running in her direction immediately, already assuming the worst, but before he could get halfway to her, the halo returned. Daphne was upright, breathing. That breath came heavily, but holy shit, at least she was alive. Regardless, Rin didn't stop running. He practically collided with her and wrapped her up in his arms.
"Are you okay? Did anything happen?"
"I'm fine, Rin," she laughed, breathless. He could feel her deep inhalations against his chest now. "It was exhausting but I'm fine."
Her skin was slick with sweat. So was her hair. He'd barely drawn any energy from her, and this was the result. He knew now, having dipped his toe in the water, how much deeper and unfathomable this pool actually was. What had just happened—the burning teeth, the horns, the flames, the stronger sense of Gehenna—that was nothing.
Somebody knocked on the door. Rin made sure Daphne was steady before walking over to pull it open. Yukio was standing on the other side, and he was nearly as sweaty as Daphne.
"You have got to learn to keep your pager on you," he huffed.
Rin tensed. "Did we get a call?"
"Forth form semicapers," Yukio replied. "They just completed the rest of the mu."