First impressions lasted. This was a simple, unequivocal truth of the world and with dirt stains on his uniform, plaster dust clinging to his wild, bluish black locks, and a particularly angry scowl contorting still child-like features, Okumura Rin made far from a positive one.

Watching in silence as the boy struggled against his bindings, Iblis wondered if he realized what a pitiful sight he made; with shoulders pulled high, fear and anger rolling off his frame in rushing waves that fanned the azure flames that wrapped themselves around him. Less armor, and more akin to an infant clutching at their blanket for comfort. Iblis felt embarrassed just looking at him.

Worse still however, the child appeared not to have even noticed her yet, something the King of Fire found both troubling — such an utter lack in basic observational skills was going to get him killed — as well as vaguely insulting. Sure, she wasn't brazenly announcing her presence like others might, keeping it reasonably muted, but the boy had eyes, did he not? And yet his entire focus was directed straight ahead, on the smirking figure seated across from him.

As was always the case with Samael, her brother's only concern seemed to lie with his own amusement, allowing the younger boy to shower him in insults and making not the slightest attempt to hide his pleasure at the discomfort he'd wrought.

It was filthy behavior. Utterly unseemly. And the sight of it once again reaffirmed Iblis' long-held belief that her older brother truly was the most despicable sort of person.

The demoness sighed, feeling the stirrings of a headache as the ridiculous exchange carried on.

The sound did not escape the notice of the room's other occupants. Eyes blue as hellfire turned towards her - noticing her at long last - and Iblis, eager to get on with things, responded to the boy's earlier query.

"Would a summation suffice?" she asked, nodding at their unfortunate relation, "Or would you prefer a more comprehensive list?"

The question earned her a side-eyed look from Samael which she soundly ignored. Her brother was in no position to complain, least of all over such a minor barb as that. And, if it truly bothered him to such an extent, well then perhaps he might reconsider using sex toys as a means of restraining one of his younger brothers.

Unlikely, but one could hope.

Returning her attention to the boy, Iblis waited for him to respond. He was taking longer than strictly necessary, and looking at her oddly on top of that. Had the sarcasm in her voice not carried? It ought to, or did...he couldn't actually think she was serious, right? Surely not. Even just the thought of an in-depth discussion regarding Samael's 'proclivities' was utterly repuls-

"Who the hell are you?"

…hah?

The perceptive observer would have noticed the change. As if electricity suddenly ran through the air.

Rin was not that observer.

"...Pardon?" Iblis asked after a while, a sliver of ice having crept into her tone.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Samael smile into his glass. Irritation bubbled under her skin, the temperature rising ever so slightly as some power slipped through the cracks in her façade.

"You heard me," the boy snapped, oblivious to the very real threat growing in front of him. He turned away, the flagrant disrespect in that one move tightening already taut strings. "Just how many weirdos did you invite?!"

For the second time that day, red filled Iblis' vision.

xXx

…Incredible...

Samael sat, riveted by the scene unfolding before him, unsure whether to applaud Rin's stupidity or bemoan it. It was rather amazing after all, even if his frankly magnificent ability to stick his foot in his mouth and choke on it was likely to get him murdered in a violent fashion one of these days.

Being a model observer, however, Samael remained perfectly quiet, face set in its neutral if perpetually complacent expression as he monitored his sister's reaction.

Iblis' back had gone ramrod straight, hands curled to fists at her side. He knew her nails had pierced flesh when the telltale scent of blood brushed over him, vanishing quickly as the skin healed over once more.

Languidly pouring himself another generous helping of wine — the alcohol might not be doing much for him but the taste was wonderful nonetheless — Samael had to admit she was actually faring quite a bit better than he'd expected her to.

In the past, those few, special fools who'd committed the crime of degrading the irascible King had quickly found themselves suffering a painful and exceedingly fiery death. And while the ages had seen a drastic decrease in the frequency of her outbursts, there was no mistaking the obvious rage in Iblis' current bearing as her eyes attempted to bore holes into Rin's admittedly vacuous head.

Samael bit back another smile.

Oh, it was killing her not to make reprisal, which made the fact that the foolish boy still drew breath all the more telling.

Samael was under no illusions that this uncharacteristic display of restraint had anything to do with Rin himself. Because while it was certainly true that youth begot folly, Iblis had never been lenient about such things before.

She'd all but slaughtered Egyn upon their first meeting, and despite the water demon's elemental advantage, had failed in that endeavor only because Azazel had chosen to interfere and rescued their misbegotten brother.

It was very likely, of course, that prior to their departure from Gehenna, Father had given instructions not to harm the Nephilim boy. Instructions which Egyn had admittedly ignored, but that foolish brat never listened to anyone, consequences be damned. Still, forbearance had never been his sister's forte, so for her to stay her hand so completely like this…

Samael felt satisfaction curl within him as he took note of the signs that confirmed his initial assessment.

It appeared things might work out after all~

"Now now, Okumura-kun," he scolded mildly, drawing both his siblings' attention back to himself. "That's hardly an appropriate way to refer to an honored guest. And after she came all this way to meet you!"

Rin looked less than impressed with his words, and said as much.

"Do I look like I care?!"

No, honestly he looked like someone who was about to get their face burned off, if the tightening in his sister's jaw was any indication, but Samael couldn't just point that out, now could he?

Drumming his fingers on the Koma sword, the King of Time considered the boy. To any other demon, even those of an especially dense persuasion, the subtle threat to their Heart would have been enough to stop them dead in their tracks, but as always, Rin didn't even seem to notice.

What a bother.

Dropping all pretense for a moment, Samael gave the boy a look. Just a look, nothing more, but it was all he needed to make Rin's mouth close with an audible click and make his pulse waver. Heh, such a delightfully human reaction~

"Okumura-kun…," he drawled, the syllables rolling of his quicksilver tongue like drops of mercury as he allowed a tiny bit of his true self to show through his painstakingly crafted persona.

"Do be quiet."

With that, Samael waited, patiently allowing the seconds to tick by. At his challenge, the teen remained blissfully silent, albeit with a rather foul look on his face and, satisfied, Samael carried on in dulcet tones.

"If you recall," he said, "the Order agreed to a stay of execution under a number of conditions, foremost of which being that you must pass the next exorcist's exam."

Samael paused to sip his wine. Ah, still wonderful~

"Allow me to shatter whatever delusions you may have now and tell you that, were you to continue to progress at your current rate, you will most definitely fail."

It took a moment for his words to sink in, but when they did, Rin turned quite an interesting shade of red, different from the one before.

"But not to worry," Samael added, swiftly interrupting what was sure to be another rudely worded and ultimately pointless protest. "I did promise I'd assist you, and as it so happens, we now have the expert in fire-based demonic powers here to instruct you."

Eyes shifting to their more so than usual sour-faced sister, Samael added wryly,

"Rest assured. Iblis here will have you whipped into shape in no time at all."

For a moment, Samael expected some flicker of recognition to make itself known. After all, even the dimmest of exorcists, and especially ones so hellbent on defeating Satan, ought to have at least familiarized themselves with the names of the Ba'al. There were only eight of them. It wasn't that herculean a task.

"Shura's teaching me."

"I'm aware," Samael returned blankly, internally mourning the death of modern education. "However Kirigakure-sensei's knowledge only stretches so far. Don't worry. She'll continue to instruct you in swordsmanship. Iblis will simply handle the rest."

"And what if I don't want her help?"

"Unfortunately, this is non-negotiable." Really now, even Samael was beginning to lose his patience.

"Screw that! I-"

"…Say…"

Iblis' voice cut through the air like a finely sharpened blade.

"…Just now...Don't tell me…"

Hot. It was getting hot. The air was burning.

"…You considered me inferior…"

How many veins were those on his sister's forehead? Three? Four? Oh dear.

"…to a HUMAN…?!"

Rin's chair clattered back as Iblis dragged him up by his throat, lifting the teen clean off the floor as if he weighed nothing at all. In his shock, Rin's flames had come undone. A grave mistake and one he tried to rectify, small sparks of blue flickering like candlelight, only for Iblis to squeeze, nails digging into delicate flesh as she cut off his airflow entirely.

"…So weak," she breathed, disgust mixing with something that could almost be described as wonderment as she watched him struggle. "How could Father ever have produced...something like this..?"

Rin let out a small, choked whimper, eyes swimming as thin wisps of smoke began to rise from the place where their skin met, the scent of burning flesh mingling with that of blood.

And that, that was Samael's signal to put an end to things.

Raising his hand, Samael prepared to stop time. Iblis would need a while to compose herself, by which point Rin would hopefully be in a more compliant mood himself. If nothing else, perhaps this little encounter had jogged the boy's memory a bit, and reminded him that whether he liked it or not, there was an order to things, an etiquette by which he would need abide, quite literally upon pain of death.

But as Samael went through the familiar motions of halting the flow of existence itself, a stab of excruciating pain shot through his body, accompanied by the awful realization that-

He couldn't do it.

Pure, unadulterated rage flashed through him, followed closely by just a hint of panic that Samael quickly and ruthlessly crushed.

So, the damage to his body was more extensive than he realized? That was…bothersome, but not something he wasn't able to deal with. Samael could, would recover. He just needed — and oh, the irony stung with this one — time.

Which, for now, put him in a somewhat awkward position.

Samael did not, for even one second, doubt he could take the irate King — the gap in ability was simply too vast — but a fight would require him to release his hold on the Gate, something the Order would undoubtedly have things to say about. Why, perhaps Angel — bless his poor, clone heart — would even be granted his dearest, lifelong wish to take that ridiculous and embarrassing cleaver-blade of his to the demon's elegant throat and lop off his head.

And of course harming Iblis carried its own repercussions as well.

Not only would it hamper negotiations between the two of them, but for all her unsociable behavior, Iblis was in disturbingly good standing with the majority of their Family, something neither Lucifer — on account of being absent so often due to his particular circumstances — nor Samael — on account of finding most of them to be insufferable imps — could claim.

He also supposed publicly renouncing Father and turning his back on Gehenna had not helped in that regard.

But despite all that, and now Samael truly regretted using his remaining powers on a game of whack-a-mole of all things, the crux of the matter was that he simply couldn't afford to let Rin die. Not yet, in any case. Not when all the pieces were finally starting to come together.

So, with his priorities once more established, what was there to be done?

Thoughts began flitting about like atoms as he wondered just what combination of words and actions would get him the most favorable outcome, to the point that Samael barely noticed the cafeteria doors being flung open until they thudded against the wall.

Pain and annoyance flitted across Egyn's dark features as the relentless heat enveloping him like an oppressive blanket. He managed to shrug it off with relative ease — which, when you thought about it, said more than enough about his and Iblis' general interactions — striding resolutely into the room, raising the nozzle of a…

Samael blinked.

…Hmm…Hadn't thought of that.

"Oi, Ibby!"

At the sound of the moniker she so loathed, his sister looked away from her prey, snarling at the interruption.

In response, Egyn flashed her a winning smile.

"Close your eyes, kay Sis?"

And with those words hanging heavy in the air, he squeezed the handle of the fire extinguisher.