I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.
"Alright... I'm gonna stand up, so hold on tight..." Rin said glad that Shiemi couldn't see his bright red face in the dark as he started to lift her up on his shoulders. 'Oh man... this is awesome.' The more lustful part of his mind couldn't help but think as his head was tucked tightly between his crushes legs.
As it had turned out, the plan for getting the peg lantern across was fairly simple. They were going to unseal it and have it chase them across, using one of the girls as bait.
At first Jazz had tried to insist open being the bait instead of Shiemi, until they mentioned that the person would be carried across the bug swamp on Rin's shoulders. After that she let the comment about Shiemi being lighter than her slide, knowing that Rin had a crush on the girl. That, and Jazz wasn't too a very big fan of the idea of her being up on his shoulders.
So after they unloaded the lantern and Rin carried the cart to the other side of the swamp, the half demon boy loaded the girl up onto his back and waded back to the middle of the swamp.
"They're popping..." Renzo moaned with a shudder and he held himself in the fetal position behind a tree near the cart as the sound of the bugs being crushed underneath Rin's feet reached his ears.
"Renzo, I know phobias are supposed to be treated with care to avoid psychological damage... but grow up." Jazz said rolling her eyes.
"Alright... we're ready!" Rin shouted when he had reached the midway point of the swamp.
Bon finally stopped chanting and pulled the seal off of the lantern. "Alright, let's get moving!" Bon shouted, moving away as the lantern started waking up.
The stone circles around the opening in the front moved like eyes blinking before they seemed to lock onto Shiemi. The lantern then made a should close to the naying of a horse and reared before bounding after Rin and Shiemi who started running through the bugs towards the opposite shore. The 'eyes' seemed to have changed into the shape of cartoon hearts.
"This way..!" Shiemi shouted back to the thing.
"What are you calling out to it for!?" Rin shouted in panic as the lantern was gaining on them.
Reaching the opposite shore, Rin pushed Shiemi up and the lantern jumped over him in order to follow, landing straight in the wagon. Konekomaru quickly slapped a seal on the lantern and began to chant the sutras to strengthen the seal, causing the lantern to freeze up in an instant.
The group gave a collective sigh of relief that it had worked. Bon had came across the bridge as it all happened. "We did it." Shiemi said, looking down into the bugs at Rin and smiling.
"Okumura, I'll help you up." Bon said coming over to the edge of the swamp.
"Its alright, I'm good." Rin said climbing up the rocks next to the bridge. "Wow, that's a relief." He said leaning against the bridge with one arm.
But they all froze again when there was a loud snapping sound and the bridge began to fall back into the bugs, the seals that had covered the bridge flying off everywhere. "Okumura, what did you do!" Bon shouted at the dazed Rin.
Moments later the surface of the bug swamp exploded as a massive Chuchi burst through the other smaller bugs. The moth's six feelers shot out and wrapped around Rin's limbs, lifting him up into the air.
"Rin!" Shiemi shouted as the others staggered back in surprise.
Rin struggled a bit, but the grip around his hands was to tight for him to do anything. But he still just grinned down at everyone. "I'll be fine! Don't worry, you guys just keep moving and I'll catch up after I've dealt with this!" Rin shouted down at them. "The night's almost over, so you better hurry!" He knew once they were all gone he could use a tiny piece of his fire to burn his hands free and take the thing down with his wooden sword. But he couldn't do anything with the others so close by.
But Bon didn't move, he glared up at Rin, his body starting to tremble. "You're... doing it again..!" He growled.
"Um... my bad?" Rin said as he just continued to smile. "You need to get your head examined! As if we wouldn't help you out!" Bon shouted angrily. Rin was actually surprised by this response. "Shima! Give me your staff!"
Renzo tossed Bon the K'rik and the louder monk bent down to the ground, grabbing a talisman that had been sealing the bridge. Pitting it on the end of his staff he through it at the bugs forehead, canting all the while. "...bukiii! Homage to the all-pervading vajras! Destroy!" He finished his chant and a bolt of lightning came down, hitting the k'rik, passing into the Chuchi so that it let go of Rin and fell down into the swamp. "K'rik!" Bon shouted so that the staff returned to him.
"Wow that was so cool!" Rin shouted, looking over his shoulder in shock as Bon pulled him out of the bugs.
"Hurry up! That's all I can do! We need to get out of here!" Bon shouted at the gawking Rin.
"Huh? But didn't you just kill it?" Rin asked just before the Chuchi jumped back out of the bugs, madder than ever.
"No! So haul ass!" Bon shouted. Rin grabbed the lantern filled cart and they all ran for it as fast as they could.
"It... it doesn't look like... it's still following us..." Konekomaru said through gasps of breath once they had lost the giant bug. All the boys were panting for air, though the girls had been in the cart, being pulled along by Rin.
"Thanks for the save." Rin said, grinning at Bon.
"What are you talking about..? I was just returning the favor." Bon said as he wiped sweat from his brow. It took a moment for Rin to even remember what he was talking about. But eventual he did recall when him and Bon first became 'friends'. He had jumped in front of a Leaper demon in order to save Bon's life when the blond monk had done something incredibly stupid in the name of determinaton. "You have the same childish dream of 'defeating Satan' as me, and yet you yelled it without any embarrassment..." Bon said as he regained his footing.
"Well, an idiot like me doesn't really think to deeply about those kinds of things." Rin said, rubbing the back of his head and laughing.
"I don't think you're an idiot." Bon mumbled. Rin looked at Bon as if he had grown another head. "But your stupid if you think you can do everything by yourself!" Bon shouted angrily as reality corrected itself and his usual glare returned. "Don't forget that you have friends!"
Rin stood there, stunned at Bon's words. He couldn't even remember the last time someone had called him a friend. He wasn't even sure it had ever happened. His shocked continued as the others started to speak up.
"That's right." Konekomaru said. "If you're going to defeat Satan, you can't do it by yourself." He said, thought the bald monk still doubted that they would actually do it.
"Count on Bon to say something as cool as that." Renzo said, giving Rin a thumbs up. "Just make sure there are no bugs involved."
"Don't forget me." Jazz said. "And Danny too, if you can motivate him."
"Good luck doing that." Bon mumbled.
"Everyone's with you, Rin." Shiemi said with her gentle smile.
"Yeah..." Rin said. He felt... happy. Happier than he had been in a long time. But... at the same time he couldn't help but wonder. 'What if...What if everybody knew I was the son of Satan?' He already knew that it didn't matter to Jazz, but that's because her brother was the same way, an incredibly powerful demon. And Jazz was more than just a friend. She was family.
But what about the others? Would they still stand beside him if they knew what he was, or would they turn against him and try to kill him? To be honest... he didn't know. Yukio had been constantly saying that everyone would tell him he should have never been born or even try to kill him themselves, Jazz said that as long as they knew him before hand then it wouldn't matter, and Danny... Danny refused to speak on the subject.
So in the end, Rin was conflicted at hearing everyone's decorations of friendship. Because... it would make it hurt that much more if they did turn their backs on him.
"Yay! We got back safe and sound!" Renzo cried with relief as they all finally walked back into came.
The rest of them looked more confused and embarrassed as they saw Danny and Shura sitting there, along with Izumo and Takara, each having their own personal lantern behind them. "Oh, you managed to make it back. Good work." Shura said
"What the hell!? You guys already passed!?" Bon shouted angrier than ever.
"You're slow. I just used my familiars to carry it for him. Takara got here before me though." Izumo said glancing over at the ventriloquist exorcist.
"Ha! It took you this long to with this many people!? You're all totally pathetic!" Takara said through his usual means of his bunny hand puppet.
"Why you..." Bon growled.
"Just what is Takara anyways?" Konekomaru said as he stared embarrassed at the even smaller boy.
Rin helped Shiemi down off of the cart. "Ouch..." She said holding the back of her neck.
"You okay?" Rin asked a little worried that the head injury from earlier had gotten worse with everything that happened.
"I'm fine." Shiemi said, waving off his concern.
"Huh? Wait just a minute... isn't this everyone?" Shura said, looking over the group.
"Yeah... now that you mention it, no one's given up." Konekomaru said as he looked over the group.
"But then... who was it that used the firework?" Renzo asked.
Danny who had been laying on the ground shot up. "Shura, they're coming! Two... no three of them!" He shouted as he jumped to his feet, pulling out a sword from seemingly no where.
"Oh, you ruined the surprise!" Amaimon shouted as he fell down from the sky with a large goblin at the end of a chain beside him.
"Stop whining, we'll still get to have our fun." Beelzebub said as he also lighted down on the ground, only his body didn't seem to create the same shaking of the ground as Amaimon's.
"Shut up! Go get them Behemoth!" Amaimon shouted, taking the chain and mussel off of the goblin, which immediately rushed the nearest people, which happened to be Rin and Shiemi. Rin trying to shield the girl with his body.
"Cujo!" Danny shouted and the hell hound dropped its invisibly and assumed its full size before jumping on the goblin, swinging it around it his jaws before throwing it away, out of the bounds of the magic circle.
"About time they got their thumbs out of their asses! I'd gotten tired of waiting for them!" Shura said, shocking the students before she lifted up her hand and did a dog whistle. A snake covered in fire pushed its way out of the camp fire and into the middle of the magic circle were it burst into a bright flaming cross on the ground. After that the outer magic circle began to glow and with a burst of white light all the nearby demons were pushed away from the camp.
Mephisto was laughing as his two younger brothers landing in the trees beneath him. "I was hoping to elegantly enjoy my tea while watching the show unfold, but it doesn't seem to be going as planned." He mocked them as he sat in his flouting arm chair, drinking hot tea. "She's quite good, isn't she?"
"I'll kill her." Amaimon growled as his anger started to get the better of him.
"You cause her any lasting harm, and I will slaughter you myself." Mephisto said sternly. "She is one of my play things, and I will not have you breaking her."
"Got it. Sorry, I'll control myself." Amaimon said quickly, afraid for his life.
"Jeez bro, just make sure you use protection. Don't want to catch anything from the town slu..." Beelzebub started but then noticed his older brother's face. It was 'the rape face', the one he used to tell people they were on thin ice, and that he would happily rip their souls to shreds if they kept going. "Got it, don't touch your ass." Beelzebub said with a gulp.
The two lesser Demon Kings got themselves together and prepared themselves for the next assault, leaving Mephisto with his tea. Mephisto looked down at the female exorcist.
Shura was more than just a pair of tits... well, she was a very fine pair of tits, but she was also one of the most skilled exorcists in the world. She was able to earn high rank qualifications in Knight, Aria, Doctor, and Tamer. Her demon sword was the vessel of one of the most powerful eastern demons, the eight headed serpent which had eight separate demon hearts, one of each major type. She was also the heiress to a clan of skilled female ninjas. And on top of all that, she was the third in line for gaining the title of Paladin and had a decent amount of political power in the Vatican as well.
Yes, she was a valuable ass...et, and Mephisto was going to make full use of her.
In spirit of keeping the chapter length fairly constent, I'm cutting off here.
Rin has had a chant to think about the universe, Amaimon and Beelzebub got their asses handed to them, and we go a little deeper into why Shura's important to Mephisto.
Good enough for a chapter.