See, the funny thing about having been around long enough to witness humanity go from wrestling each other naked in the dirt to venturing out into space was seeing how little things ever really seemed to change.

Oh, of course there were the cities; built, levelled and put back together. Wars waged, treaties drawn — which were naturally broken again when it became convenient, but that was neither here nor there — but the people, for all that they were shuffled out like day-old pastries, stayed essentially the same. Same desires, same faults. And it wasn't that Egyn had ever expected much to happen in the short time he'd been gone but...really? Nothing? The God of Gehenna — arguably the God of everything — shows up and it just gets shoved under the rug like a questionable stain no one can be bothered to deal with?

Talk about a let-down.

Bathed in a sea of fluorescence, courtesy of a hundred or so billboards broadcasting all manner of inane messages — hot woman with toothpaste, pointless and stupidly expensive sports event, hot woman with soda, hot guy with toothpaste— the King of Water let his eyes wander, idly scanning the brightly lit buildings below where humans flooded the streets like teeny little worker ants despite being nowhere near as industrious.

And wasn't it just horrifyingly hilarious, a true testament to human unwavering apathy that even when the world drew ever closer to total collapse all anyone seemed to care about was the latest football match.

Not that Egyn couldn't relate to the sentiment. Demons were hedonists by nature and as such he empathetically understood the desire to focus on the more pleasurable aspects of life. What he did not understand was their willful ignorance of their place in the world.

Not that it really mattered though, the demon thought as he absently nibbled on his slice of lime. Even if they were made aware of the darkness lurking just beyond the veil, it was hard to imagine them actually doing something about it. Beyond shoving the responsibility on someone else that is.

They might not need to act, of course. There wasn't a single guarantee Lucifer would manage to revive Father any time soon. Or ever for that matter. Not when you considered that, in all this time, he hadn't even found himself a durable vessel. And where Lucifer's situation could already be likened to bottling up a nuclear explosion, imagining Father in a delicate bag of flesh and sinew seemed so far outside the realm of possibility you'd need an unhealthy level of imagination to even conceive the thought.

And yet, it had happened. A 'miracle' that had left a yawing chasm torn straight through their little family as proof of the fact.

Not that Egyn minded, or even noticed, all that much. It wasn't like the lot of them, with some marked exception, hung out that often.

In any case, miracle or not, Lucifer made it clear he would not be discouraged. Truly, his eldest brother's perseverance— stubbornness, if you asked Egyn — was nothing short of legendary. And his ability to completely disregard common sense in favor of piety in its most extreme form was outright terrifying.

...Seriously, humans had no idea what they were dealing with.

Sighing as his thoughts and mood took a sharp dive, Egyn abandoned his empty glass, pushing his chair back. Over the span of an hour, the bar, a more upscale one this eveving, had grown quiet around him, the number of guests dwindling down to almost nothing and transforming the fine establishment, and by extension Egyn's little corner, into a den of the morose.

A chance of venue. That's what he needed. Something noisy and crowded, capable of serving something stronger than the weak cocktail he'd been nursing for the past twenty minutes.

Dipping his hand into his pocket, Egyn dug around for the slim bit of plastic, paying no real mind to the waitress sidling up to his table until instead of taking his empty glass or even handing him the bill, she wordlessly slid into the chair opposite his.

At least she'd brought him a new drink.

"On the house," she said, cherry red lips stretched in a smile and heavy lashes fluttering like butterfly wings as she pushed the amber liquid closer in invitation.

Egyn smiled back, bringing his chair closer again. He accepted the drink all too happily, dragging it closer until the sharp scent of ethanol covered up the too-strong, too-sweet smell of perfume wafting his way.

"Thanks," he said.

She was pretty enough, all sun-kissed skin and appealing features flattered by deftly applied products. Wisps of honey blond hair held just the faintest of curls and framed sparkling brown eyes. They darkened as Egyn let his eyes travel a lazy path along every visible part of her that wasn't her face before moving back up to meet her heated gaze.

'Pitiful', a dry voice that bore a disturbing likeness to his sister muttered in his head. Egyn could imagine Iblis seated beside him, eyes rolling to the heavens as if to ask how anyone could possibly be attracted to him. The thought brought a genuine grin to his face, made him turn his attention back to the brunette to ask,

"So, what are you doing after this?"

xXx

The air was cold, stinging against fevered skin, red and trembling. In his throat, his pulse hammered a fearsome beat as fear, thick and dark as tar, drenched his mind, locking up his muscles.

Yukio swallowed; mind forced blank as he took a single, resolute step. His foot met air, sinking, falling down down down, into the abyss, a single thought echoing in his head.

'I'm going to die.'

xXx

It was on the second ring of the second try that the call was answered.

{ ...What? }

"Oh my~" Samael chimed happily, grinning at the thinly veiled hostility in his little brother's voice. He leaned back into his chair, the amusement dripping from the words belying their innocence. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything~?"

A growl rumbled across the line, making him tut in mock disapproval.

"Now now, Egyn," he said, allowing for a hint of genuine reproach. "It won't do for you to go and scare your playmate."

{ Swear to Father, Samael } , the other hissed under his breath, { If you called just to shit with me, I'm gonna shove your damn hat so far down your throat you'll-! }

"And as fun as that sounds, I'm afraid I haven't the time for idle threats, brother mine," Samael cut the tirade off sweetly, eyes on the manila folder lying on his desk. "You see, I have a job for you. I take it you've left Japan?"

{ Yeah } Egyn went quiet for a moment, and Samael caught only whispers of the hushed conversation on the other side. { Look, can this wait? I'm kind of in the middle of something here... }

"I'm afraid not," Samael began, taking perhaps a little too much pleasure in Egyn's annoyed huff before adding, "Don't tell me you've already forgotten what galant knight saved you from death-by-Iblis. But let's compromise, shall we? Be a good boy and finish up quickly, and I'll text you the details in, hmm, two hours?"

{ Three }, Egyn countered, { And after I do this we're square, agreed? }

"Naturally. Now have fun~ Don't do anything I wouldn't~"

Egyn scoffed, and Samael moved to disconnect only for an irritated 'wait' to follow suit.

"Yes?" he asked, eyebrow raised in question.

There was a long pause before Egyn spoke again, as if debating whether to say anything at all. That, or his mouth was otherwise engaged. The former seemed more likely, but the latter gave Samael's voyeuristic side the most delicious thrill, and weren't requests such as the one he was about to make so much better when given in person-

{ Why me? }

"Because you owe me," Samael answered simply, reigning himself in.

And although it was the truth, it was far from the only reason. After a split-second deliberation he decided that the occasional spell of forthrightness wouldn't hurt, with the added bonus of keeping his foolish brother on his toes.

"And because it concerns an acquaintance of yours."

xXx

The call ended, Egyn tossing his phone onto the messy pile of his discarded clothes before settling against the headboard once more, mulling over the short conversation.

An acquaintance. How wonderfully vague and unhelpful, especially considering that such shallow connections, past and current, ran within the high thousands for him. But that was Samael, through and through, wasn't it. Lies and secrets and shadow games only he seemed fully aware of, the rest of them only knowing just enough to act within the confines of what his brother would allow.

Unable to fully suppress a sneer at the thought, at the blatant manipulation that was surely taking place, Egyn quietly ran through the possibilities. An acquaintance of his, but one entangled in Samael's affairs. Probably not a human, or Samael wouldn't need his help. Or perhaps the Order was watching a little too closely for him to act. Or maybe his brother just didn't feel like dirtying his hands. The possibilities were endless, but whatever it was, there had to be more to it. In all the time Egyn had known the silver-tongued demon, nothing his brother had ever done hadn't had at least two dozen underlying reasons, however convoluted or unimportant they might seem at the time.

Which begged the question, just what was that bastard up to now?

"Everything okay?"

"Hmm? Yeah. Sorry about that." he didn't sound particularly apologetic as he ran his fingers through the girl's disheveled hair, gripping the dark roots. "Now then. I wonder how I should make it up to you?"

xXx

Once the girl was sound asleep, sated and covered in countless marks, Egyn helped himself to a brief shower and a shiny, red apple from the fruit bowl on the kitchen counter before taking his leave.

He felt no particular inkling of guilt over cursing her. With demon activity on the rise, it was only a matter of time before some goblin scratched her or a dream sprite poisoned her sleep. Actually when you thought about it, he was being thoughtful, in a way. He was giving her a taste of the madness to come and a chance to acclimatize before the rest of the world went askew.

That, and a nice dose of terror never hurt the possession process, left the soul ragged and ripe for the taking. Their compatibility wasn't the best — 43% at most — but it wasn't the worst he'd ever had. He'd keep her in mind, at least until something better came along.

Egyn had barely made it out the door, sweet juice running down his chin as he bit into the fruit, before his phone chirped.

Right on time.

Egyn fished his phone out of his pocket, watching the unread message icon flashing on the screen. He considered not opening it, eyeing the device as if it were a coiled viper.

But then, as it always did, temptation won out.

Egyn stared at the illuminated screen, reading and re-reading the whole message, triple checking the picture attached because surely this couldn't still be going on?

The message and the picture stayed as they were, leaving him with nothing to do but viciously fling the half-eaten fruit away and storm unerringly in the direction of the sea.

xXx

Strange as it might seem considering its affiliation to his element, Egyn utterly despised the cold.

As usual, winter had shoved aside autumn and eagerly rushed towards Aomori, stripping the land of color and life and wrapping everything in its frozen embrace. To some, the distant snow-capped mountains and skeletal trees might have made a charming sight. Something to wax poetic about and though the demon supposed that it did possess a certain monochromatic elegance, beauty could only excuse so much.

In no way did it make up for numbness seizing his limbs, nor the chattering of his teeth.

Waving his hand, the ground by his feet split; parting like the Red Sea as truckloads of snow and ice were blown aside. It wasn't the most efficient way of clearing a path, but it conserved energy and kept him from having to trudge through knee-high piles of the stuff.

He could have gotten another demon to do it for him. It would have been quicker and less demeaning, would have made him feel less like a glorified albeit very handsome snow plough, but Egyn had elected against it. Just like he'd opted against moving at any pace faster than a passive stroll.

It wasn't reluctance that prompted these decisions. Definitely not. Just like that troublesome feeling rising up inside him, growing stronger in time with the seal's increasing pressure, wasn't nostalgia or any other type of sentimentality...

...Egyn just wanted to go home. Or at least somewhere with central heating. If Iblis were there, then all the better because for all her frostiness, it was never cold where she was.

Seriously, curse Samael for making him deal with this crap again. And curse Hachiro for letting that shitty woman of his wander off. And with an exorcist of all things! The fuck! Had that dumb snake gone fucking senile or something?!

Not that it mattered, but it might make Egyn feel the tiniest bit bad about having to beat him up for such a heinous lapse in judgement.

Ugh, but it was all such a pain. It'd be so much easier if he could just grab the woman and leave the confines of the seal before the hydra had a chance to react. Hachiro might throw a fit later, might resent him for taking his precious trinket away, but damn it all if Egyn was about to let that idiot boss him around. He was King, damnit, and if he ordered Hachiro to hand the bitch over the only words out of that snake's mouth ought to be 'of course, Your Highness'.

And yet, despite it being entirely within his right to demand such things from his kin, the thought left a bitter taste in his mouth, mind aglow with memories of lazy days spent drinking or terrorizing some random village.

Egyn shook again his head, hoping to dislodge more than just the snow clinging to his hair.

As it always did when the topic of Tatsuko came up, it wasn't long before his anger turned fully to shitty kunoichi. All of it was her fault, after all. If Hachiro'd never met her, if he'd killed her like he was supposed to and not given her a chance to fill his head with nonsense, then everything would have been fine.

But life couldn't be that simple, could it. And by the time Egyn caught wind of the situation, it had been too little too late; the child's small, pink fingers clutching at Hachiro's black ones as it huddled against his leg and leaving the poor King to try and pick up his fallen jaw.

Naturally, Egyn had been against the whole thing, had told Hachiro how ridiculous he was being but had it worked? No. Not at all. His words earning him nothing but strange looks from the other demon as if Egyn was the one being unreasonable for thinking a demon falling for a human was anything but utter madness.

Egyn supposed he was somewhat grateful he hadn't actually been there to witness the 'fated encounter', as his old friend had put it, a giddy note in the hydra's normally bland voice that made the King of Water want to bash the fool's face against a rock. Repeatedly.

"Whatever," he muttered, purple eyes raised to the slow spread of pink across the sky. None of it mattered anyway because however lowly he thought of them, Tatsuko and her look-a-likes made Hachiro, ugh, happy.

And who Egyn to screw with that.

Except...

...was that blood...?

Egyn's feet stilled, discomfort tingling up his spine as his senses fanned out.

There. Human, but with just the smallest undertone of demon that it had his hackles rising and his feet carrying him in the direction of the shrine.

"Fucking damnit, Hachiro!"

xXx

Samael's first clue that something unnatural was happening was that he did not recall ever entering this place.

This room possessed neither doors nor windows, its walls, floor, and ceiling all devoid of features. Logic dictated that such a space ought to have been pitch black, yet sitting there, Samael could only have described his surroundings as pleasantly bright and inviting.

Ignoring the inherent wrongness of the situation, the King of Time sat perfectly at ease, intent on the chess board set before him. It held but a scant number of pieces: Rook, Knight, and Queen, all three circling the enemy's Ivory King. Wordlessly, Samael placed a new piece on the board, and as the Black King touched wood a thousand voices began to whisper.

"Was it wise?" they asked, drowning the impossible room in thick concern that left the air heavy.

"Was what wise?" Samael replied, eyes glued to his solitary game.

"Sending him there. What if-"

"It's fine."

The concern sharpened with admonition. "But-"

Samael raised his eyes, a confident smirk at his lips and complete self-assurance in his words.

"I know what I'm doing, Azazel."