The day could not end fast enough. As soon as the bell rang, Yukio was the first out of his seat, running to the dorms to get changed. Rin followed at a more sedate pace, snickering at him; Yukio coolly ignored his brother.

"You should not be allowed around other humans," Rin commented, finally catching up to Yukio, who was unlocking the door to their dorm. It was dilapidated on the outside, but with a… gracious gift from Mephisto, the inside of the room was very nicely furnished. The demon had proclaimed that it was for "my favourite half-human brothers!", seeming to forget that Rin and Yukio were his only half-human brothers. Still, Yukio would take it; he was sure he could handle whatever agenda Mephisto had.

"Humans?" he asked with a small smile, pushing the door open. "You sure you didn't mean torture subjects?"

Rin snorted. "Forget Satan. The next megalomaniac I'm going to have to beat is you." he said teasingly. The still-smiling Yukio inclined his head, not denying the accusation.

"You'd better make it a good fight, big brother. I won't stand for anything less than your full potential. Maybe I should start practising my evil laugh for when you fall dead in front of me?" he replied lightly, eliciting a small chortle from Rin.

"You're evil enough already. You don't need a special laugh for that. I really feel bad for those friends of yours… you're going to give them a heart attack today."

"There is that," Yukio said with mirth in his voice, "but watching people jump three feet in the air is always fun, don't you agree?"

Rin opened his mouth, then closed it again. "You know, I can't even argue with that," he conceded, shaking his head. "It is going to be fun. I'm going to sit in on this class just for that."

"Take notes," Yukio reminded Rin as he pulled on his trench coat, not entirely joking. "I want to know exactly what they think when 'Mr. Okumura' is mentioned."

"You can count on me," Rin replied, his sharp teeth catching his lower lip as he grinned. Yukio smiled back and finished changing, holstering his guns and tying his dagger Suzaku at his hip. The dagger held Yukio's portion of the twins' shared demon heart – Rin's part lay within his sword, Kurikara. The two weapons were halves of a whole, just like the twins themselves.

"Shall we?" Yukio offered. Rin answered him with a grin, then pulled out his magic key and slammed it into the lock of their front door, throwing it open and disappearing into the space-time void beyond that led straight to the cram school. Yukio grinned to himself, deciding to give the students time to discuss who 'Mr. Okumura' was by checking his appearance one last time, and peered into the mirror to make sure his demon features were hidden.

He hadn't gotten the sharp teeth – those belonged to Rin – but the more distinctive pointed ears, whose tips hid behind some hair that he grew out just a little longer than the rest. Both of them had the tail, though; Rin liked to curl it around his torso, while Yukio preferred it spiralling downwards around his left leg. It wrapped sturdily around his weak left ankle and kept it from twisting, and it was unlikely that he'd ever have to remove his pants in front of strangers, as opposed to easily torn shirts.

Patting a stray lock of hair into place, Yukio took out his own key, inserting it into the front door. He waited for a few seconds before opening the door and starting to walk calmly down the space-time pocket. It was only a few metres before he reached another door, and he pushed it ajar, stepping into the classroom beyond.

Yukio kept his back straight and face neutral as he went to the desk, resisting the urge to look at his new students' expressions. Only when he set his books down did he turn to them, unable to contain the dark smile that tugged his mouth from ear to ear as his eyes fell upon his friends' faces.

"Hello. I'm Yukio Okumura, Middle First Class. Welcome to Anti-Demon Pharmacology. I'll be your teacher, but I'm also still your classmate, so just 'Yukio' is fine if you find that easier. Let's get along or it'll be a long year!"

He would have shut his eyes so he looked more like an anime villain, but that would mean passing up on the utter looks of shock that Ryūji, Renzō and Konekomaru wore, and Yukio absolutely refused to do that. The two girls – Kamiki and Paku – didn't look surprised at first glance, but Kamiki had one of her round eyebrows raised, and Paku's eyes were narrowed in a slight frown.

Rin was laughing silently in the back of the class, doing his best not to thump his desk, but his cheeks were bright red with effort. Shura – er, Yamada for now, he supposed – was bent over a video-game console, although he could see her shoulders trembling with silent laughter; Nemu (did Mephisto honestly think Yukio wouldn't recognise the slimy bastard? His 'brother' was slipping) remained impassive. The other boys were an entirely different story. Ryūji's face was slowly turning purple, Renzō seemed to be choking on something, and Konekomaru just stared, his jaw nearly touching the floor in astonishment.

"Mr. Miwa, you should probably close your mouth. You might catch flies," Yukio chided gently, still smiling. Konekomaru nodded, his face paling as he shut his mouth. "Now, shall we begin?"

"Yes, Mr. Okumura," droned Rin in the most sing-song voice he could muster. Yukio fixed his gaze on his brother, smile clearing slowly, and Rin immediately put his hands up in a conciliatory gesture.

"Wonderful. Now, our classroom is home to Goblins and as such is usually abandoned, but not to worry." Yukio caught Paku's worried eye, keeping his face as gentle as he could manage. "They avoid brightly lit human areas and are only capable of causing mild mischief. The same, depressingly, cannot be said for my dear brother – Rin, if you would stop turning your desk-mate's notes into a paper plane. I'd really rather you not screw up his chances of actually learning something in my class."

Said desk-mate, Nemu, was not about to learn anything from Yukio, whether out of their mutual hatred for each other or the fact that he already knew all of this. But he'd been granted a golden chance to take the piss out of the guy and not face repercussions, so why the hell not?

Rin now managed an easy smile and smoothened the paper out, handing it back to an unbothered Nemu. Yukio sighed exaggeratedly, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Try to keep all of that to a minimum, please." He shot a warning look at his brother to show he was serious. Rin meant well, but he was a right monkey at times, and Yukio could not afford to screw up the education of young exorcists. Anti-Demon Pharmacology was vital in the field, Meister be damned. The texts he and Rin had studied at Shiro's feet had gone on to save their lives multiple times. It was his responsibility to arm his students with that same knowledge –

"Uh, Yukio?" Rin called, sounding slightly worried, and Yukio snapped out of his daze. "You… alright there?"

"Wha – oh, yeah, fine. Sorry." He collected himself quickly, shooting a brief grateful look his twin's way. "As I was saying, the Goblins that inhabit this classroom are malevolent – all demons are – but they aren't dangerous, so you have no reason to worry. They turn ferocious when exposed to rotten animal blood, like in the vial I have here, but I'll be diluting it with some milk so they don't get too feral when I lure them out."

"But – but why would you need to-" stammered Paku, breaking off. Yukio waited for a second to see if she was going to finish her sentence, but she remained silent, so he answered her anyway. The question was clear enough.

"A lot of you here don't have Temptaints. These are demon-inflicted wounds that allow you to see demons; all exorcists require them, or you'd be useless in the field. The barest cut will do, after which I'll dispose of the demons quickly. So those of you who don't have your Temptaint yet, please come forward and let's get this done! One by one, why don't we start with you, Paku?"

The girl stepped out of her seat hesitantly, trembling as she moved up to the front. Yukio mustered a kind smile as he put a hand on her shoulder, murmuring, "Relax." She nodded a little, but her shivers didn't calm in the slightest, so Yukio put his hand on the holster of his gun just in case. You could never be too careful – what if the girl proved to be a demon in disguise? It was unlikely (she didn't smell like it), but regardless.

Yukio reached for the vial of rotten blood and was about to uncork it before he noticed Paku's lingering fearful expression.

"Do you want to do it yourself?" he offered, a little timidly. Feelings and empathy were more Rin's speed – he lifted his eyes to catch his brother's gaze, but Rin's face was unreadable. Yukio gulped and turned back to Paku, who was nodding vigorously, relief written all over her features.

Oh, thank the gods. He handed the vial to her, and she opened it with shaking fingers. Yukio turned to take the milk dropper from the desk –

There was a distinct sound of glass shattering, and the wet, thick feel of blood seeped over his shoes. Yukio spun, gun half-out, horror coursing through his veins and praying that he had just been hallucinating.

Paku's face was white. Her pale hands were covered in partly-congealed, pungent animal blood, and her skirt and shoes were spattered with the stuff. The broken vial, now just an assortment of shards, lay on the floor. The blood, meanwhile, was busy forming a giant puddle that had by now reached the first bench of the classroom.

Oh, no. Yukio's stomach sank as the familiar chitters of feral Goblins hit his ears – then dropped clean out of his body as it hit him.

Something isn't right. This isn't what Goblins sound like. It's more the noise made by… Hobgoblins.

Just his luck, wasn't it? And now he could sense it in his very bones: The demons had waited long enough. Their song carried on the air to him, and he felt the way their legs tensed in readiness to pounce. "Little prince! Traitor prince! We're coming for you!"

Yukio grit his teeth and barked out a single order to his students before all hell broke loose.

"Run. Now!"

To their credit, all five of them fled in an instant – even Kamiki, who almost looked for a moment like she wanted to stay and fight. Yukio had no doubt she was mentally capable of it, but he wasn't about to put a student in danger, however easy it might be for him to dispatch it. Nemu was gone too, as was Shura. Neither of them would need to help. Rin, meanwhile, was now by his shoulder, the silver sword Aoi unsheathed and grasped tightly in his hand. Yukio drew his own guns, flipping the safety off and wrapping his finger around the trigger.

Three, two, one.

His body acted before his mind, as it was wont to do when you'd trained for the field for so long. Yukio squeezed his triggers again and again, staying rooted to the spot as he took aim. In contrast, Rin was a silvery storm of movement, slicing through the Hobgoblins left and right. Their cries of anger as they dissipated into dust grated on Yukio's ears, but he ignored them and focused on loading in a new clip.

The fight didn't last five minutes. Of course, Yukio hadn't expected it to, but it was still a relief when he shot the last one out of the air and set his gun back in its holster. Rin wore a similar expression as he sheathed Aoi and turned to his brother.

"I don't think that was a coincidence." Yukio exhaled, not wanting to believe it. It was surprising, but Rin was often the pessimist between the two of them.

"I know. I still can't help hoping it is one."

"Yeah, but… we don't have room for hope, Yuki." Rin's eyes softened a little, but he continued anyway. "Who do you think could have put her up to this? Neuhaus?"

"The man can summon a Naberius. And he'd want to take us directly. Mephisto?"

"Possible." Rin considered. "The bastard would love to humiliate you like that, to have your first class be a disaster and all."

"Yeah. Still feels like I'm missing something, though. If it was Mephisto, wouldn't there be pink glitter all around, or something to indicate it was him?" Yukio knew he made a good point. Mephisto believed fully that a good 'artist', in his words, should always leave a signature.

"True. Could it just have been her nerves, then?" Rin tilted his head to the side, thoughtful. "Paku seems like a good girl." Yukio raised an eyebrow.

"Three minutes ago, you were talking about how we 'don't have room for hope'."

"Three minutes ago, we hadn't run through a list of suspects and found them all wanting," countered Rin easily. Yukio gave him a light scowl, then turned back to the bloodstain on the floor, wincing.

"That's going to leave a mess."

"Oh, yeah." Rin stifled a laugh. "Well, since it happened in your class, I'll leave you to clean it up. See ya!"

He was out the door before Yukio could catch him by the collar and throw him into the wall. Muttering darkly under his breath in a vocabulary that would probably have Shiro washing his mouth out with soap, Yukio kneeled to begin the arduous process of cleaning, his face set in a glare that could probably terrify his birth father off his throne.

Just Rin wait. He would show him. Brothers didn't betray brothers like this. And after all his talk about comradery between twins, too! His older brother would pay – in blood, Yukio thought, his scowl growing ever deeper.

It was only fitting.


i have not been on this hell-site in a literal year. damn. anyway, i hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! i'm gonna try to keep uploading here and on ao3 but ngl i've mostly moved there so it's probably best to keep up w/ me there? all my hyuuizu and other kurobasu stuff is there, etc etc, this acc is just so no one steals my stuff. n e way! please review (damn, almost said comment) if you enjoyed 3