Summary: All's quiet on the western front. The lines are drawn in the sand. Now, all that's left is to get every player into position. Some take the lull better than others.
Notes: Did she do That? She DID :D
The key clicked in the lock and Yukio turned it, thinking of his destination. He spared a brief thought that he was glad Sir Pheles' keys still worked or travel would have gotten much more time consuming for everyone.
Would they stop working when he died?
Bright light over a mountainous region interrupted that as he stepped through into his new location.
Other exorcists moved with purpose around the Russian encampment, though, as he looked closer, he saw that they all carried themselves as if they expected an attack at any moment, very pointedly not looking towards the golden glow on the horizon. The light barrier.
He exhaled in a long breath. Then he went to go find the command tent.
Sir Lewin wanted a word with him.
"Yes!"
Lewin cheered as his folded paper made it into the goal he'd built when he flicked it. The bright sound made several passing exorcists flinch and sent him giggling. What were they so wound up for? The apocalypse was coming one way or another, whether they enjoyed themselves in the remaining however long it took or not was their choice.
"You're going to give them heart attacks, Lewin," Osceola said, sigh on his lips as he went over the incoming data with the fine-toothed comb that was his brain.
From his side, Lucy snorted, taking a swallow of the tea she'd brought in a thermos with her. "They need something to keep them from getting complacent. It's good for them."
And what was good for the goose was good for the gander, after-all. Or whatever colloquialism fit the analogy he was going for. Lewin leaned back in his fold-out chair, glancing around to see if his special guest had made it yet.
There, amongst a sea of uniforms, was the kid now, walking towards their tent with a placid expression that he just knew hid discomfort.
Yukio Okumura, he had discovered, was almost as interesting as a demon.
He saw when Yukio caught sight of him and waved to call him over, "Over here, Okumura!"
That pulled Osceola's attention away from his data and Lucy from her notes. Lewin felt amusement bubble up in his chest that, in the absence of his brother, the belle of the ball had become the human twin.
"Sirs," Yukio said when he made it to them, that quick mind of his apparent as he scanned the setting with sharp eyes without letting on what he thought.
"Got a chance to look at the gate yet?" Lewin asked, partly to give him an excuse to see the thing again, and partly so he could see what Yukio's reaction to it would be.
Those blue eyes flicked to the ever-present golden glow that eclipsed the camp and a frown twitched at Yukio's lips before he answered. "No, I came straight here."
Awesome. He stood, kicking his chair back and grinning. "Cool, take a walk with me, Okumura- we'll catch you guys later!"
Lucy gave him a grunt of acknowledgment and Osceola a polite goodbye.
As they walked, he hummed some random tune to keep the silence away and because he was happy to get an excuse to pick apart Yukio's brain- not that he would be saying that to the anxious guy, but it had him feeling downright giddy.
The silence persisted, Yukio seeming unwilling to speak, so he would have to break the ice.
"I hear you're all moved into your new place, you liking it alright?" He kept his voice bright, listening to see the effects of his prodding.
"Yes sir," the pinnacle of Japanese politeness hard at work, was Yukio Okumura. "Thank you for asking."
It would be interesting to see what Yukio thought of the barrier. Lewin kept up the idle chatter, mind focused on the light through the evergreens as they left camp. The golden glow made itself apparent even in the bright dawn, a certain tone that drew him like a moth to flame- or would that metaphor work best for the king of insects? Of fire?
They arrived, breaking through the last outcropping of trees to the overlook of the plane below. Nestled in the center was the gate. He grinned, hearing the gasp from Yukio, and turning to see the look on his face.
"It's been there for a few days now, nothing in or out of it, and we can't see through to the other side, not even with every bit of technology we can dig up pointed at it." Was it wrong that their inability to pierce the barrier was making him excited instead of furious or worried like it had Arthur and the rest of the Order?
Down at the base, exorcists and researchers scurried around like little black ants. He'd been down there earlier, poking and prodding at things until an exasperated researcher had sent him away.
"Things have been quiet everywhere since most of the demons left Assiah," Lewin said with a hum. "You've been keeping busy?"
"Yes," came the slow response, Yukio recovering from the shock he'd gotten from seeing the barrier. "Classes have kept everyone at the cram school busy, we still have to prepare for the exorcist exams and the exwires have their regular classes to go to as well."
That was funny. He laughed, hands on his hips to Yukio' startled expression. "The apocalypse might be here any day now and kids still have to go to school, right?"
Not that he didn't know the feeling, having been a student when the infamous Blue Night happened. The excitement of the whole thing had made it almost impossible to concentrate on studying, not that Osceola hadn't made sure he kept at it under dire threat of punishment if he didn't.
A non-committal sound left Yukio. "They've pushed up the exam date to get more exorcists in the field."
More exorcists, all with nothing to do when their main purpose for being was in another unreachable dimension. Really, what the Order was doing was getting more bodies for the frontlines. Time would tell if it would work in their favor or not.
"What do you think of the barrier?" He said to change the topic, fiddling with the frayed edges of his coat and rocking back on his heels.
Blue eyes blinked at him behind his glasses, Yukio searching for an answer to give. "It's, er, ominous, sir."
"Hah! Yeah," he scratched at his cheek, scanning the opaque barrier again. "That's one way to put it."
But not the way he'd put it.
"I think it's beautiful." Lewin let a soft smile scrawl over his face, even when it made Yukio go silent again.
Another moment passed. Yukio shuffled at his side.
"So, why did you call me here, Sir Lewin?" Yukio finally spoke with what was clearly a struggle for politeness' sake.
Ah, he'd picked up on that. The barrier wasn't the reason he'd been called all the way out to the Russian wilderness. Just a fun perk. Good.
"Call it future planning," Lewin said and kept smiling when it made a wariness fall on the younger Satan Spawn's shoulders, "I've got something- a task- that, if this all blows over, you're the only one capable of."
Those blue eyes narrowed, his grin stretched.
"Let's talk details, then you can decide if you're up for it, hm?"
A light barrier.
The only thing that held back all of Gehenna from flooding the physical world and turning it into a true Hell on Earth.
And that last conversation with Sir Lewin.
Yukio contained a shiver, shoving the knowledge of what was coming down as he neatened his lesson notes for the day on the desk.
Today he had to break the news to the exwires. He winced, already knowing the explosions that were going to come from Izumo and Bon. Patting his case to assure himself the headache pills were there let him breathe a steadying sigh.
Noise in the hall prepared him for the door cracking open to reveal Bon, Konekomaru, and Shima, the tail end of their conversation reaching his ears.
"-no way in hell anyone's up for a party, Shima," Bon growled, stomping to his seat and dropping into it.
A chorus of 'hi, Mr. Okumura' and various iterations of greetings sounded that he gave a simple response back to.
"The tension is killing me, here," Shima said with a whine as he slumped into his own seat. "Come on, at least dinner and drinks somewhere."
While Konekomaru mediated between the two, citing needing to study alongside agreeing a dinner wouldn't be too much to do, Yukio began thinking of ways to avoid going out.
Izumo and Shiemi walking in next distracted him next and he could see the moment Shiemi's eyes lit up when she heard Shima wanted to have an outing.
"Before we begin," Yukio said to interrupt before they really got going, "I have some news about the upcoming exams."
Just as he'd thought, Bon and Izumo snapped to attention, halting talk about parties.
He coughed, getting the others focused, then spoke. "The Grigori have moved up the exam dates to the end of this semester."
Immediate explosions of shock followed.
"Are you kidding me?" Izumo shrieked, slamming her hands on the desk. "That's six months away!"
"Yeah, are they crazy?" Bon added, "Why would they-"
The room fell silent on his question as they realized why, exactly, the exams were being moved up. Yukio hid a sigh.
"Oh," Shiemi said, her soft voice breaking as she stared up at Yukio with sad eyes. The look was becoming a common sight on her face.
"Yes," Yukio said when the silence persisted too long. "So, I have a few changes to the lesson plans and I've got the new syllabus here- you all will need to decide your meisters soon."
Business as usual.
Just business as usual.
Growling stole his attention back from going over the start to the day's lecture and Yukio squinted to the source of the sound and stilled when he saw Bon, furious, glaring at the papers crinkled in his hands.
"Suguro?" He questioned, hand paused where he'd been erasing the diagram on the board.
"Dammit!" Bon snarled the curse out, slamming the papers to the desk and gritting his teeth hard enough to make the enamel squeak.
"Uh, what's wrong, Bon?" Shima said, edging away even as Konekomaru leaned in to put a calming hand on Bon's arm.
"Isn't anyone else bothered by this?"
"Bothered by what, Bon?" Izumo scoffed, though Yukio could see she had some idea by the way she bit at her lips, a nervous tick she had.
"Seriously?" Bon stood, an abrupt movement that rattled the pencil on the worn surface as he jerked his head back and forth to the rest of the exwires. "No one else is going crazy with acting like everything's normal? That we're all fine?"
Ice solidified into a bitter core behind his ribs, a deep chill that seeped into the rest of his body until his limbs numbed and his mind froze over.
"No one else cares that we're all just sitting around in a classroom while Rin's off in Gehenna with a demon that tried to kill us and- argh!" Fierce brown eyes burned into his when Bon met his placid gaze, panting breaths coming from his mouth in his tirade.
"Who cares about the exams we know we're not ready for when Rin could be dead or worse, in Satan's hands, and we're just twiddling our thumbs and useless here!"
His hand cut across his body when he flung it in a sharp gesture, caught up in his anger and growing louder each word that tore from him. "Why aren't we doing something? Why aren't we trying to bust in there and get him back?"
"Hah!"
Bon startled, drawing up short as he broke into harsh laughter.
Yukio shivered where his palms pressed into the worn grains of the wooden desk, feeling like the grin on his face was maybe a bit wider, more wild, than he should be sending his students.
"No, go on, Suguro," he laughed again, seeing Bon flinch back and Shiemi gasp, "I want to know what else we should be doing to save Rin."
"Mr. Okumura…" Bon tried, trailing off at his glacial gaze.
"Should we try to break the barrier that Lucifer, first amongst the Ba'al, demon king of light, put up around the Gehenna Gate?" He said, voice snapping like an ice shelf splitting into the ocean.
"Or," mocking chuckles bubbled out of his lungs, "Oh, I get it! You think maybe we should go attack Satan ourselves, Suguro?"
"I- I didn't," had he hit a nerve? Yukio leaned over the desk something dark welling up in his throat from a bottomless void.
"Yuki, stop it!"
He jerked back, alarm shattering the frost coating his mind at the piercing cry from Shiemi.
She stood, panting after her outburst to the stunned silence left in her wake.
"Shiemi?"
Green eyes bore into his and he couldn't make himself move. The white fury that had whipped up in his head had blown out, leaving him aimless and searching for something to say.
A shuddering breath left Shiemi and she seemed on the verge of crying. She didn't, though a watery sheen coated her pupils and tears had built there.
"He wouldn't want us fighting each other," she said, the simple sentence cutting straight into his chest as if she'd stabbed him with a cold knife.
"Rin's going to come home." How could she know? She couldn't, he knew she couldn't.
Still, he couldn't bring himself to contradict her.
"Everyone's doing their best, even if it's just passing our tests." At that, Bon sucked a short inhale, blinking in a rapid flutter of lashes and looking about as off-kilter as Yukio felt.
Shiemi clenched her fists at her sides when she drew back, squaring her shoulders as if preparing for a fight. "Rin's fighting to come back to us, so we can't fall apart before he gets here, okay?"
"So," she said, voice losing some of its fire and her chin ducking down as if she'd just realized she'd been yelling, "We have to keep fighting, too."
"Or, not fighting, um," the tirade had ended, Shiemi folding back into her normal shy self as she fidgeted under the attention of the entire room.
Amazing. Yukio laughed again, the sound loud and drawing everyone back to staring at him like he'd grown a set of wings.
"Please accept my apologies, everyone," he began, brushing a hand through his bangs in a rough pass and adjusting his glasses, "I shouldn't have shouted."
"No, I'm sorry, Mr. Okumura," Bon said with an abashed expression tugging his brows and lips down. He bowed, sitting again, "I know there's not much else we can do, I just let the frustration get the best of me."
Izumo bumped her shoulder to Shiemi's, "Nice pep-talk, Shiemi."
Shima and Konekomaru got through their shock next, untensing from their postures and giving their own two cents while she blushed and took her seat.
The wariness faded from them and he steeled himself, it was time to get things on track.
"If we can get back to the lecture, then."
His hand didn't tremble when he drew up the next diagram on the board.
It didn't, but he wanted to.
Machines beeped, a steady light indicating their activity, though it wasn't the only noise in the room.
"It's been awhile since we've been back."
He nodded at the statement. It had been awhile. The scents in the room were all faded completely, only theirs and what they'd brought with them covering the natural smells that the environment gave off.
"You were right, Astaroth confirmed it."
A sharp pain barely registered past the ever-present agony as a needle slid home and soothing cold washed through the veins of his vessel.
"We have enough of the newest batch of elixir to last a month."
Nodding, he turned to face the form that had come to a stop at his bedside, "Thank you, Egyn."
"But," he continued, gaze going to the bright light reflecting off the miasma outside the wide windows surrounding the walls of his room, "It won't take longer than a week."
Egyn returned to getting his equipment set up. "I know, I just wanted to be prepared. I didn't expect him to interfere."
No. Neither had he. His eyes narrowed before he relaxed again.
"And you're sure Father-" Egyn cut himself off, the face of his costume turned to the floor.
Lucifer didn't shift from his position, lost in the sight of Gehenna sprawled out before him until it faded into the horizon over the peaks of the snow-capped mountains.
"We just have to wait, Egyn."
It would all end soon.
He didn't need to be king of time to know that future.
Notes: WOW it feels weird not to write a 60 page chapter lololol
We're getting into end game, baby ;) Hope this isn't too agonizing a chapter while I start up the next bundle of joy coming everyone's way~
Does it count as a New Year's gift if it's technically 2 am at posting time on January 2nd?