!UPDATE:This chapter has been edited and some changes have been made.

Special thanks to RisingSm0ke for beta'ing my corrections again! There's a fair chance this wouldn't be possible without your help. :)

[8/26/15]


*clears throat* …..*sags to the side*….zzzzz.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ao No Exorcist

Meet the Scientist:

[Eastern Branch of the BDRI]

[RIN]

Beep….

Beep…

Beep…

"Shouldn' you be here? You know, tah explain things tah him?" There was an unfamiliar, somewhat accented voice.

Beep…

Beep…

Beep….

A muffled response and an angry sigh, "you were correct ser, but he is-"

Beep…

Beep…

Beep…

"Just until then?" it asked. There was a muted confirmation. "Yes, o' course. I'll see you at that time then."

A cellular beep.

Something tugged his sheets down and foreign fingers ghosted across his chest, pressing against some round things that stuck to the skin. They tickled his arm and fiddled with the IVs. They crossed over his wrist and he could almost feel a shadow over his half-naked, achy, bandaged body. "That clown expets far too much o' my patient. One o' these days I won' be able tah resist punchin' him in the face," the voice muttered and something plucked at his bandages. He finally recognized it as masculine.

Beep…

Beep…

-beep-beep

There was a swish as the stranger lifted his head and looked at a monitor, observing the heartbeat's skip. Then there was a dumbfounded silence for a few moments, giving Rin's awareness time to catch up with him.

He recognized the scent of fresh medicine in the air, blood hovering like a distant ghost, and the peculiar combination of aftershave and mints. Rin could tell the bed he was lying on was not his own simply by how uncomfortable it felt. This was unmistakably a hospital bed. The muffled pain thrumming in his chest only seemed to reinforce that belief.

The eldest Okumura didn't really notice that his eyes were opening until the overhead lights blinded him with a sudden unexpected aggression that struck a nail through his skull. Squinting he lifted his free arm up over his head, letting it rest on his eyes.

Sensation came back to him in fragmented pieces and as his slow, groggy, weighted mind struggled to keep up with a pace leagues slower than normal Rin started wondering if he was still in his own body.

He hurt.

He hurt like he'd never hurt before. Though he could feel the pain like it was wrapped in a nullifying cotton barrier it beat him with the gusto of a thousand rampaging hooves concentrated into several specific points on his body. Each ache thrummed to a ditty lead by his heartbeat, speeding up and skipping and slowing as he struggled to take charge of the deadweight his body had become. To his chagrin a low, miserable moan grew from his throat without his consent and cringed internally.

"Heh heh," the voice from earlier surprised him with a laugh, "that's no surprise. By my estimation you weren't supposed tah wake up for another week. Demon or not you're bound tah feel kinda weird." At last Rin recognized the mysterious man's accent as Irish.

Rin took a moment or two to compose himself, confused and sore. After a few moments had passed and he felt as ready as he could be he heaved his floppy, boneless arm from his face and let it tumble back to the mattress.

Feeling uncomfortably vulnerable Rin noted the movement of his tail sliding out from under the sheets as he fought to open his eyes again. Tears glistened at the corners, threatening to roll down his temples and wet his ears but, ever the mule, he kept trying.

Eventually Rin pried his eyes open, blinking rapidly while his unidentified guest waited for him to compose himself. The hospital room he'd been put into was a little larger than he would have anticipated had his brain been functioning more than at the minimalist setting; there was a bathroom across from his bed and towards the left. Also to his left was a short hall with a couch along the side and a window at the very end. To his right was a door that probably led out to a hall.

Blinking he turned his gaze upwards and caught sight of an empty curtain railing, a bulky headboard, and various cords trailing out of his body.

Finally his eyes fell to the man sitting beside him. He was dressed in a white lab coat and looked somewhere in his late twenties- possibly early thirties. His curly hair was a vibrant red-orange, drawn back in a tiny pig-tail behind him and stark in contrast to his pale skin. Dark freckles sprayed across the pale bridge of his nose like sand thrown into the air.

A pair of glasses covered his green eyes and under the lab coat he wore a simple button-up shirt, a green tie, and black slacks. The getup was complete with a stethoscope curled around his neck. After an awkward pause the man raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him but Rin didn't give him any kind of response.

Neither said a word and eventually the young demon turned to a pair of IVs, following the cords to the needles embedded in his skin. Half a dozen electrodes covered his chest, tucked underneath the gauze and strangely invasive against his flesh. A thin sheet covered him from the waist down and there was something warm resting against his upper right thigh. He focused his attention on it, blinking away a hazy blur in his eyes. He could make out what had to be a tail and followed familiar black groves over an arched back, his gaze eventually landing on the little lizard-like face. Familiar yellow-orange eyes narrowed in on him and for a very brief moment Rin felt like a prey animal. Then with his paw-claws drawn under him the creature lowered his front and stuck his hindquarters in the air, tail raised like a wolf that had found something of interest.

"K-Kasei?" his voice was dry and he wondered if it was just him or if that thing he felt tickling his throat was a chip of his voice box falling down his esophagus. He wasn't given much time to expand on that thought after the hatchling snapped open his wings, causing the man beside him to tilt back and fall out of his chair with a cry of surprise. There was a gust of wind as the little one hurled himself right into Rin's face, followed by a grunt and a gasp. "Kasei!" he rasped as best he could, "-off, down, stopit-owowowowowow!"

A gleeful cackcackcackcackcacking sound clapped out of Kasei's beak and he squirmed with barely contained joy. Pushing an elbow into the mattress Rin managed to lift himself into an angled position, using gravity to push the growing hatchling down his chest and across his stomach as though he was a human-slide.

"Gah- bloody hell," the man grunted, lifting himself up and watching the dragon dance on the bed, sending frivolous sparks this way and that as he circled around himself.

"Kasei, knoc-" Rin began to chastise but the black hatchling was already busy slapping his flappy paws on his guardian's clavicle and running his tongue along the recovering half-demon's cheek. Eyebrow twitching Rin decided that, while he was glad to see the little one, he was also a bit fed up with the pain Kasei's joy was bringing him.

So he decided to resolve the issue by utilizing the very first solution that came to him and promptly bashed his head against the excited hatchling's- right between the horns. Keening with as much surprise as confusion, Kasei lowered himself to the sheets and clumsily covered his head with his paws, eyes screwed shut.

"Knock it off," Rin finally finished. The red-headed doctor huffed and leaned forward to better situate Rin's pillows, stacking them behind him and eyeing Kasei with hungry eyes.

The young half-demon didn't thank him just yet, having decided that the guy's scent wasn't worth trusting. There was something about him that made his tail stand on end. He didn't like the way the lights glinted off his glasses. Seriously, was it some secret ability that bespectacled people had? How did they know what angle to take to best reflect the light?

"Have you settled?" the red-head asked, surveying him, "are you feelin' alright now?" Rin, tired, sore, and unconvinced by the man's gentle tone formulated his response in a tacit glare. But his observer was patient and waited for him to speak.

"Who are you?" Rin finally croaked. A smile stretched across the doctor's face and he turned around to retrieve his chair before making his reply. In a fluid motion he flipped the thin metal furniture up, turned it around, and sat facing the bed.

"My name is Dr. Mocci Canniff, First-upper class demonologist, biologist, and doctor of the Biology of Demons Research Institute- I'm a renaissance kind of scientist. You can call me Mocci if you like." Rin opened his mouth but Mocci wasn't finished and leaned forward in a conspiratorial manner, playful smile softening his face, "I'm the prince that saved the damsel- aka; you."

The eldest Okumura stared at him for a long time, his mouth opened in a tiny 'o' shape, eye brows drawn together and raised to his hairline to form an expression resembling something between confused and affronted.

But, as the words were processed, as his brain chewed them over and digested them, recognition loosened his face and the expression fell. His heart suddenly felt like it was filled with pins and needles.

Beep…beep.. .beep.

"-doctor- Biology of Demons Research Institute- saved-" Rin's eyes grew wider, face paling, memories flashing across his minds-eye. He remembered a figure with white ram horns aiming to kill his brother, the chill of snow on his face, the sound of Yukio shrieking his name.

beepbeepbeep

His brother looking down at him with an expression of pain and terror. Shura hovering off to the side with a look of realization on her face.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep

Kuro curled around him with tears of grief in his eyes and Kasei beside him, sniffing his ear. The horned demon nowhere in sight.

"Woah, woah there! I didn't mean to scare you, calm do-"Mocci held his hands up in a gesture of peace and was caught off guard by the strength of Rin's grip when he caught the nearest arm, pulling the poor man towards him.

"Yukio is-" he choked out.

"- fine. As are all the other exwires and exorcists," the bespectacled man insisted, "most of them are stationed at the Western BDRI branch doing some research and trying to help locate the demon that attacked you. No one died out there but you soh keep your butt down in that bloody bed," he pushed Rin back against the pillows.

Rin would say that he'd allowed the gesture and not that his body had already been falling in that direction. Mocci didn't sit down, instead opting to eye his patient's blood pressure and glance at the A type blood bag attached Rin's arm. Though Rin knew better than to believe it, his doctor pretended not to notice him ushering his hatchling under the sheets. The ruse was ruined when a smile stretched across his face; watching out of the corner of his eye as Kasei when the youngster migrated through the sheets like a death worm through the desert. The two-and-a-half-month-old hatchling didn't stop until he'd situated himself between Rin's legs. Not particularly excited about this particular seating arrangement the half-demon moved to awkwardly try and relocate him. Before he could even lift the sheets, however, Mocci stood back and moved to the opposite side of the bed. Still on high-alert Rin decided it was better to leave Kasei alone.

"These aren't really necessary anymore," Mocci explained, gesturing to the IVs. Pulling a square of gauze from his pocket he gently lowered it over the skin where the needle was stuck in, using his other hand to remove the tape keeping it still. "Usually I wouldn't use two IVs on a person- it's just a bad idea for the body and might cause damage to the veins. But since you're not a human being it's possible to give both simultaneously and believe me, you really needed these this past week," he continued. The doctor removed the first needle and pressed the gauze he had ready against the open hole in Rin's arm to stop the bleeding.

Keeping pressure on the wound he leaned up and hooked the tube over the IV stand, twisting a nozzle on the side to stop the drip. "You're body's been under a lot of strain this week," he said, and uses the gauze to rub the wound a little before lifting it up again to check, "it's had a really tough time healing as it normally would, probably due to the shock of dying so your body is recovering slo…w…er," he frowned and watched the skin stitch itself back together. Then he looked at Rin as though to say; why did you do that?

"What?" the half-demon asked dryly.

"When you do that you make my biology homunculus want to rip out the other needle," he grumbled, seeming to forgo the gentle demeanor, and moved down the teen's arm to his hand so he could remove the second needle.

"Your what?" Rin wrenched his hand away, a guarded expression portraying new thoughts of 'lunatic, crazy, mad scientist'.

"Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. Not all scientist are crazy," Mocci promised and snatched the limb back. Using another piece of gauze he repeated the same procedure from before so fast Rin couldn't even begin to think about taking his hand back before it was over.

"Yeah, but you're that kind of demon obsessed thing," he rebuffed. Mocci sighed.

"I'm a renaissance scientist," he corrected him, "So I study demonology, demon biology, and medicine on the side. I'm a doctor," the red-head leaned forwards for emphasis, "a doctor." The gesture provoked a growl from Rin, Kasei following his lead with a slightly higher pitched warble.

"You say all that like it makes you worth trusting."

With a defeated sigh Mocci leaned back on the balls of his feet and muttered under breath something along the lines of "he said he would be difficult," before focusing back on his bedridden patient. After several moments of silence, each individual examining the other, Rin began to realize he wasn't being observed like an experiment. Rather Mocci surveyed him with the same concern any doctor would have for his patient. It was difficult to understand, considering his previous experiences with the BDRI.

While Rin made his assessment on the character who claimed to have saved his life, the doctor had been making one of his own. Apparently coming to a conclusion Mocci nodded his head and turned away, striding towards the bathroom.

"Oi, get back here," Rin tried to call after him but his voice broke off half-way and he was thrown into a mini coughing fit.

"It took a lot of hard work to put you back together so please don't break yourself!" Mocci threw away the gauze and grabbed a plastic cup from the dispenser beside the sink. He quickly filled it up with water before returning to his patient's bedside.

"Here," he said, handing it to the teen. Kasei had wiggled out around Rin's legs and was now poking his head out from under the sheets, watching with wide observant eyes. Grateful, Rin took the cup and chugged it. He could hear the familiar sound of rain on a window and looked to his left after finishing the cup.

Must be a pretty big storm, he thought. A part of his mind, the one conditioned over time to worry about his little brother and where he was and what he was doing and how happy he might be flickered to life. Mocci had said everyone was trying to find Oriens and Rin was suddenly very eager to get out of this bed and join them.

"It's getting a little stormy out there," Mocci commented quietly, seeming to understand what his patient was thinking.

Thunder rolled and tumbled and growled.

Lightning crashed and screamed and crackled.

The sky lit up with strobe lights before falling dark once again, only to repeat a few moments later.

Then he smirked, "I'm sure section 4- the weather guys- are having a blast with the demons in this one." Rin didn't seem to follow what he'd said, too busy being lost in thought for once. Eventually Mocci sighed again.

"How did I get here?" Rin finally asked, "I thought that guy had killed me for sure…"

"You're alive because of the combined efforts of a hatchling and a kin-daemon." Such a blunt and forthcoming answer wasn't quite what Rin had expected. He looked at Mocci with eyes that prompted further explanation. "That little guy," Mocci pointed to Kasei, "stored your soul in his gullet seconds before you could vanish off into the void. With your spirit stored in him Mephisto took your body back here and," he trailed off. How could he explain what that guy had done? He'd observed fire, a pentagram, plenty of sparks and a demonic chant he had no hope of understanding. Along with several other doctors and nurses, he'd been rather busy making sure they were ready to get to treatment milliseconds after Rin's soul was returned to his body so his attention had been on other things. Mephisto had had only a few moments to revive the teen so there hadn't really been a lot of time for a Q&A.

Mocci was, however, left with an image. The lights had flickered out, a dark, black pentagram had formed underneath the youth and a tiny storm seemed to be raging around him. Kasei had stood on his chest, regurgitating a blue-white substance that looked just like a florescent drop of blue food coloring in a cup of black water. It curled around itself, twisting and dancing in the dark as it was fed into Rin's mouth and nose. Before he knew it the boy was gasping, blood was shooting out of his mouth and he'd transformed from a lifeless corpse to a writhing, screaming, very much alive mess.

"You could say I did the basic equivalent of reversing time on your body but obviously that's not quite the case since your wound stayed the same. So we'll just say I brought you back with a bit of black magic and draconian tricks," a familiar voice hummed and Rin snapped his head to the side. Mephisto stepped into the room with a casual wave, "how nice it is to see you awake, Okumura Rin."

"Mephisto?!" Rin cried and gasped not a second later, slapping a hand over his chest and grunting painfully.

"Now, now, no need to get so excited," the elder daemon smiled and came to stand beside the younger's bed. Giving him a quick, halfhearted once over before summoning his customary chair, Mephisto took an extravagant seat.

"Dammit, where the hell am I? And what's going on with Yukio and the others?" Startled by the sudden change in character, Mocci glanced between them; so that's what he sounds like when he's comfortable.

"You're at the Eastern BDRI branch, in Poland. As for Yukio and the other exwires, they're still in Japan. Until further notice they will be working with the Western Branch to find Oriens," Mephisto explained without batting an eyelash. "As for you," he continued before Rin could counter, summoning a pot of tea into existence with a snap of his fingers, "you will be spending the next week or so at the Eastern Branch, practicing the purity of your flames. Mocci will be watching you and treating injuries you may receive along the way." The demon's eyes narrowed menacingly and Rin shut his mouth for once. "Those flames need to be improved before you could have any hope of destroying Ambaggon."[FW1]

"Ambaggon?" his charge asked.

"The name of the demon who killed you. He's still out there and if you don't step up your game he'll kill Yukio too," Mephisto purred and poured himself a cup of steaming green tea. He didn't at all miss the dangerous flash in Rin's eyes even though his gaze was downward. "He's the master of illusions," he tilted his head and watched the teenager's expression change.

Comprehension took across Rin's face before he started with his next question.

"The Kurikara-"

"-is right here," Mephisto cut him off, already probably prepared for every question his charge would have. He pulled out the sheath of a completely unblemished sword seemingly from no-where at all.

Flabbergasted, Rin reached out and grabbed the precious item in his hands. Though admittedly confused he was mostly relieved to see it safe and his promise to the monks intact. He examined the mune and the gold of the sageo, gripping the tsuka in one hand and the saya in the other.

"Over the course of this next week you will learn how to fight properly with your flames and with your sword. Because taking that blade from you was like stealing knickknacks from a hobgoblin," Mephisto continued with a sly and teasing grin. The young exorcist's ears almost seemed to flatten against the side of his head and his grip on the Kurikara tightened.

"So the blade that was pulled out of his chest wasn't the real thing?" Mocci only asked for Rin's benefit as he was already given debriefing covering the subject. From what he'd been told and from what he'd already seen he could deduce that the kid was more of a brawn than a brains kind of guy and worried that he might not ask the right questions.

Mocci would later learn that if Rin didn't ask himself he wasn't interested in the answer and wouldn't listen regardless.

The sub-king nodded, "it was nothing more than the most genius of replicas," was his proud explanation, an impish grin on his face and head tilted back. "It was created to channel your flames through it when you held it unsheathed but if someone else had removed it from its saya nothing would have happened. The experience should have been something like putting a car in neutral. You could press on the pedal all you wanted but the car wasn't going to move any faster." Rin's expression turned into one of understanding; he recognized the feeling. He'd felt, very faintly, like something was wrong but there hadn't been time to focus on it between training and Shura and baby dragons and Shura and Yukio and Shura.

Unconsciously grimacing, his gaze fell over the blade in his hands and took his mind of the trauma that came in the conniving form of a red-haired she-demon. This one felt more appropriate in a way that he couldn't simply put to words. It just fit in his hands better.

"You knew this would happen then?" Rin sounded unusually suspicious, caution in his eyes that hadn't been there before and it was obvious Mephisto could tell his trust in him was dwindling.

There's a contemplative pause between them, Mocci's presence seeming to vanish into a category unimportance.

Then Mephisto laughed, "Hah, of course not!"

"Then why-"

"-Should that honestly be your concern right now?" the daemon's eyes had darkened, insinuating a threat and narrowing on the teenager. A bead of sweat fell down the side of Rin's face and his pulse quickened a little. The other grinned and stood up, "you have until tomorrow to finish recovering. After that you will train 'your heart out'" with one last wicked grin the demon sub-king has left the room. Which left Mocci there seething at his patient's side, grumbling about procedures and heart wounds and how he shouldn't be up and moving around for at least 3 more days.

Thus was the beginning of a very long and very stressful relationship between a demon and a demonologist.


BOOM.