OK so this is the new chapter!

Thank you for the reviews/favorites/follows!

darkynstars asked: Also, I have a few questions: Will you write about Rin's other brothers, or have Satan appear in the story? Will you have Mephisto spend some "brotherly" time alone with Rin?

Answer: Yes his other brothers will come into the story and so will Satan. Mephisto might, I have to see how the next few chapters go.

sorara banana asked: but will rin ever have any kind of encounter with papa satan? like is shiro going to die? or will there be some plot twist?no spilers you can answer this with a yes or no.

Asnwer: Yes to the first question. Maybe to the next two!

I think that was all of them, sorry if I missed any.

Onto the chapter!

Rin raced, full of sugar from the ice-cream they had gotten before they returned, ahead of Shura as they neared the dorm's entrance, his hand in his pocket as he fingered the stone he was given. As he went to open the door, he couldn't help but take notice of a small tremble that went through the small rock and paused. Blinking, Rin looked down to his pocket in confusion. Why did it do that? Could the rock not go inside?

He frowned at that thought. He wanted the rock to go inside, that way he wouldn't lose it. At that moment, the trembling stopped and Rin was able to step into the building without any problems.

Behind him, Shura frowned and spared a glance towards the talisman that was hung up out of sight. It was there to help enhance the wards they placed on the building, put there every since Astaroth was able to get into the building when Rin was sick. Typically, Rin shouldn't have stopped at the door the way he had, as if he wasn't able to enter. The only reason for that would have been if his demon blood was acting up, but as far as Shura knew, his blood was still inactive. There should have been no reason for him to stop.

Her eyes looked to Rin, who was now dashing down the hall, trying to see if there was any sign of a demon on him. She thought back to the moment he had paused outside the door and tried to think if she saw a demon on him or something, not that it should have mattered but she would rather be safe than sorry. Again her mind came up blank.

Filing the thought away, she decided to save the incident for the moment she would tell Shiro and Yukio about everything that had happened today. Shura walked into the lounge area, listening as Rin raced up the stairs nearby, before she settled down into one of the seats with a sigh.

Taking another deep breath, she pulled out her phone and dialed in a familiar number. Holding it up to her ear, she listened to the ringing until the phone let out the sound of the owner's voicemail. After the beep was heard, she spoke.

"Oi, Shiro, listen. Whenever you hear this, which I'm assuming will be at the end of your mission, you need to get back to the dorms as soon as possible. This is about Rin. Something happened at the park that I need to tell you and Yukio in person, so get here as soon as possible. Bye."

With that Shura hung up. Taking another deep breath, she waited a few moments before sending a similar message to Yukio. She reminded the teen not to skip his classes, knowing how important they were to the younger exorcist, but still told him to get back as soon as possible.

Now, she just had to wait.

Rin raced through the halls and up to his and Yukio's room. Once he was inside, he took the small rock out of his pocket and looked at it in his hand, thinking about what that man, Astaroth, had told him. The man seemed convinced that maybe demons were real, but that would be silly, right? Yukio and Shiro had both told Rin that demons weren't real, at least not the ones he was thinking about. Yukio had also told him they wouldn't keep any more secrets from him...but...

...there was still that seed of doubt in his mind.

Looking up from the rock, Rin let his eyes drift over the room. His eyes fell on the desk in the room and Rin slowly made his way to the wooden structure. Slipping the small rock back into his pocket, Rin bit his lip as his hand reached out to grasp the handle of one of the drawers, grasping it in his sweaty hand.

He didn't know why he was so curious or why he was so determined to see if there was anything to prove his thoughts. Yet, he felt like if he didn't try to find out what was going on, he might end up missing something very important to his life, but he didn't know why.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Rin slowly pulled the drawer open, only to frown when he didn't see anything of importance. He saw textbooks and notebooks, yet nothing that would help him look into the sudden questions in his mind. He was about to close the drawer when a closer look to the books brought his attention to one in particular. It was beneath two other books and Rin couldn't even see the title, yet he knew this was no regular textbook.

Reaching out, Rin took the textbook in hand and looked over the cover. The words did not see to relate to anything he knew that his brother had homework on, let alone even seen his brother with this textbook out to do work. The eight-year-old opened up the book and began to skim through the pages, his eyes taking in the words and pictures. The beginning of the book seemed to have things on different plants, yet as he flipped further into the book, Rin took notice of the odd creatures he was seeing.

Suddenly he gasped, and Rin flipped back to a previous page. There, printed on one of the pages, was a creature similar to the one he had seen in his dreams. Its skin was just as brown and gray as the one in his dreams and it looked just as terrifying.

But why would Yukio have something like this? Rin knew he never explained what the monster looked like to Yukio, yet here was something that looked so similar to it. Yukio told him it wasn't real, but why would he have something about it then? Rin tried to justify it, saying in his head that maybe since Yukio didn't know what he was talking about, he didn't know that Rin was telling the truth.

Yeah that had to be it.

But, Rin still couldn't shake away the feeling that something wasn't right about that thought.

Shaking slightly, Rin let his eyes look to the text that was besides the picture. He read over each word, trying to figure out something, but there were many words he didn't understand or know how they applied to the picture. However, his eyes did catch one word he could read and understand. There, right before his eyes, was the word "demon". Rin tried to find something around the word that said the monster wasn't a demon, but everything he could understand either didn't help or it helped say that this thing was a demon.

But why would Yukio have a book on demons, when he said demons weren't real? Rin bit his lip, his trembling growing worse at the thought of his brother lying to him again.

'It's just a book.' Rin told himself. 'Maybe, Nii-san just wants to read about these things. This doesn't mean he lied to you.'

Rin looked further into the book with shaking hands, his eyes looking over all the pictures rather than the words. He didn't recognize many of the other things he saw, but he couldn't deny there was a picture every so often that sparked a thought in his mind, as if he had seen it before.

THUMP!

The book fell to the ground when Rin's trembling hands lost their grip on it. His legs felt weak as he wide eyes stared at the two pictures that were in the book. They were both pictures of Kuro, or at least, they looked like Kuro, only one had one tail while the other picture had two. His mind went numb as he tried to comprehend the fact that there was a picture of Kuro in a book that had demons in it. Why? Why would Kuro be in there? He wasn't a demon too, right?

Rin fell to the ground and scrambled to get a look at the text besides the pictures. There, right before him, was the word he understood. "Demon" was printed in the paragraph besides the picture. He struggled to justify it in his mind, struggled to explain why Kuro looked so much like the demons in the book. Maybe he just looked that way, and it was just coincidence. But, just like before, that doubt remained.

Unable to take anymore, despite the biting curiosity beneath his skin, Rin closed the book and returned it to the drawer, placing it beneath the other books just as it had been before. With deep breaths, Rin reached back into his pocket and took out the small rock. He wanted to talk to Astaroth so bad, but he couldn't do it now, not when someone could see. Fighting the urge to call him, Rin slipped the rock back in his pocket, just in time for a soft meow to come from the door.

"K-Kuro!" Rin exclaimed, both happy and hesitant at the sight of the cat walking into the room.

Kuro tilted his head the young boy, confused at his hesitance. He sniffed the air and twitched his ears, trying to find something wrong with the room or the boy. His eyes narrowed on the small amount of coal tars floating in the room, mostly by Rin. Kuro knew it was possible for the coal tars to slip into the building, but there were still quite a few in here despite the wards against rot demons being up. The wards had been put up when Astaroth came in, and while they were nothing against a demon king, they should at least keep the coal tars out. Kuro would check on the around the room later to be sure.

Otherwise, Kuro lept towards Rin, getting the coal tar away from the boy while at the same time seemingly just looking for attention. Rin smiled at the cat, letting his worries disappear when Kuro rubbed up against him and purred.

"So you're saying a ghoul purposely lured you away from Rin?" Shiro asked as he and Yukio listened to Shura explain what had happened at the park. Both had rushed back to the dorms when they were free, determined to know what had happened to their boy. "Yet there was nothing wrong with him when you got back?"

"There was only a coal tar on his sleeve." Shura replied with a nod. "But that's not odd since those things are like flies. The only really odd thing after that was that when we got back, Rin paused outside of the doors like he couldn't go inside."

"Do you think the wards were affecting him?" Yukio asked, worry evident in his eyes.

"That's what I thought, but after a few seconds he walking through the door like nothing happened."

"But there was nothing on him?" Shiro asked.

Shura shook her head, "Not that I saw."

"But why? Why would you get pulled away from him at the park for no reason? He can't see demons, so they couldn't do anything other than maybe try to give him a temptaint, yet you said there were no wounds. So why?" Yukio muttered, trying to understand the reasons behind the demon's actions.

"A demon king." Shiro spoke up getting them to turn to them. "I wouldn't be surprised if Astaroth made another go at Rin, and with how powerful demon kings are, it doesn't matter if Rin can see demons or not."

"That brat should know better then to listen to strangers." Shura huffed.

"That might not matter to demons." Yukio mumbled, thinking back to that night when Astaroth had appeared in their room. He thought of how Rin had relaxed at the Demon King's touch without any type of protest. If there was that reaction even when Rin was awake, then Astaroth would have no trouble talking to Rin out in the open like that.

"What do we do about it?" Shura asked, crossing her arms and looking at the two before her.

"We need to keep a better eye on Rin when we go out, to try not to loose him. We can't confine him here, but we have to try not to let him go out alone. I don't want to risk those demons getting a hold of Rin and trying to bring him to Gehenna."

What they didn't know, was that right outside the room they were talking in, was Rin. He didn't focus to much on the entire context of the conversation, but what he did focus on what that they were talking about demons as if they existed. They said two specific names of demons, one of them being the guy he met. Did this mean his father and brother lied to him?

Placing his hand in his pant pocket, he fingered the rock in there. Tonight, he would call Astaroth and get his answer. Tonight, he would find out the truth.

Closing the door behind him, Rin slowly crept into the empty room. Instead of doing this somewhere obvious, Rin had fled to one of the rooms on a random floor of the dorm building so there would be a greater chance of not being found. Moonlight streamed in from the windows and Rin knew that both Yukio and Kuro were asleep. Even if one of them woke up, he would already be long gone.

Standing near the windows, Rin bit his lip before holding the rock he had clenched in one hand up to his face.

"Astaroth." Rin whispered quietly to the rock and clenching his eyes shut. After a few seconds of silence, Rin opened his eyes only to jump away from the window when he saw Astaroth sitting outside of it. Rin reached out and opened the window, but Astaroth didn't jump in right away. He pointed to a small strip of paper outside the window instead.

"Can you take that off? I doesn't bother me, but if I come in then the paper might get ruined and we'll be found out." Astaroth said.

Nodding, Rin quickly rushed forward to untape the paper from the wall, his hand tingling when it came in contact with the paper. Astaroth slipped inside when it was off and sat on the window ledge, smiling at Rin.

"So, you figure anything out?" He asked.

Rin fidgeted where he stood, nervous about answering, before nodding his head and opening his mouth. "...Are...Are you a demon?"

Astaroth blinked at the question before letting out a chuckle. "Ah, so you figured that out huh?" At Rin's stare, he nodded. "Yes, my name is Astaroth, Demon King of Rot."

"Are you bad?" Rin asked, looking the demon over.

"Well, that depends." Astaroth sighed. "To some people, demons are always bad, but in reality, demons are just like people. You know how some people are bad and some people are good?" He received a nod. "Demons are the same. Sometimes we had to be bad but most of us are good. Do you trust me Rin?"

Rin bit his lip. He knew he shouldn't but this man...demon...felt so safe to him. Not only that, but he was actually telling Rin the truth, unlike some other people he knew.

Taking a deep breath, Rin looked the demon in the eyes and nodded. "Yes, I trust you. Can you please teach me about demons?"

Astaroth smiled. "I'd be glad to."

SO that was that! What will happen!

Feel free to comment, ask questions, etc.

Until next time! :D