Daphne looked absolutely beat when she came home that night, dropping her bag on the floor and shedding her shoes and stumbling into her house slippers as she untangled herself from her jacket and hung it up. Rin watched her from the kitchen, tracking her slow progress through the living room, then to him. He'd turned away from the stovetop enough that Daphne could walk right up and wrap her arms around him in a kiss. It wasn't a hello kiss; it lasted too long.

"I love you," she said, pulling back, and, without saying anything else, she went upstairs.

Rin puzzled in front of the stove until the noodles started to boil over and demanded his attention. When Daphne reappeared, she'd changed clothes and had a completely different look on her face—almost like she'd traded places with another person.

"Any updates?" she asked, smiling, carefully reaching around him to fish a noodle out of the water and carry it quickly to the sink to rinse off some of the heat before she put it in her mouth.

"No. You?"

He glanced at her and just caught the slightest glimpse of the return of that tired Daphne. She snapped it off to say, "No. Nothing."

She was cheery all through dinner, and it wouldn't have been weird if she hadn't come into the house the way she had to begin with. Something about it just felt forced, but Rin didn't pry. He knew better. Besides, the lack of manifestations of their demon had them both on edge. They wanted to find it. As quickly as possible.

During the dishes, Daphne went quiet. He'd cooked, so she cleaned, but he didn't relax. He watched her tense arms as she rinsed each plate, the absent placement of each dish on the drying rack, and chewed on his lip.

"Are you—"

His phone went off and interrupted the question. Frowning, Rin dug it out of his pocket. Dispatch.

"Rin Okumura," he answered.

"Mr. Okumura, good evening," whoever it was that was running calls for the night said on the other side. "We're sorry to bother you, but your manifestation flag just turned up a hit."

Rin tensed. "Where?"

"Just outside the city," the voice replied. "In the northern warehouse district."

"Text me the address," Rin said and got up from the table. "We're on our way."

He only had to glance at Daphne. She understood.

In a flash, the two of them grabbed their coats and shoes, and Rin grabbed Kurikara, and they left the house, walking briskly down to the main road and flagging a taxi. Rin showed the driver the address the dispatcher had sent him.

"As fast as you can, please."

And they were off.

Rin drummed his fingers nervously against the seat the whole ride there. Daphne sat in anxious silence. The driver tried to strike up a conversation a few times, but deadly stares from both of them eventually discouraged the guy enough to shut him up. The ride was expensive, but Rin shelled out the yen without even thinking twice about it, getting out of the car and stepping onto the asphalt.

Immediately he could sense that presence.

Immediately he knew something about it had changed.

Daphne started off without him, jogging away from the street and toward a warehouse that had exorcists out in front of it. Rin couldn't get his feet to move. That thing hadn't always been this powerful, had it?

"Rin?" Daphne called back. "Are you coming?"

He nodded, took a step, froze. Then he nodded again, and forced himself forward, but his legs felt like they were moving knee-deep through mud. The tension loosened as he walked, but not enough to be completely gone by the time he and Daphne reached the door and the exorcists. One of them gave an awkward salute.

"We've just secured our perimeter," she said. "Thank you for coming down. We're not really sure what to do. The warehouse is full of, uh, coltars. Lots of rotting beams."

"And they're moving according to pattern?" Daphne asked.

"Not all of them, no," the woman responded. "You'll, um, see what I mean. Follow me."

She gestured for them to go with her as she led the way into the warehouse through an open door. Inside, the space was big and mostly empty—a storage facility without much to store. A few exorcists had set up spotlight beams to illuminate the vast darkness, but in the center there was a darkness they could not illuminate: a cloud of coltars that buzzed and swarmed, probably five thousand strong. The mass of them nearly reached the ceiling. Daphne came to an immediate halt.

"We estimate an additional thousand or so are in the building," the exorcist who had brought them inside said, pointing at a free-floating coltar not far from her head. "But they're slowly joining that swarm in the center."

"It's not unusual for coltars to swarm," Daphne said, swallowing.

"No, precisely." The exorcist gestured them forward once more and Rin and Daphne followed her closer to the mass. "Two-thirds of them are swarming, the others…"

Rin squinted. It was difficult to distinguish, but yes, without a doubt, a portion of the coltars were flying frenzied in the shape of a large, five-pointed star. Even as he watched, others began to do the same. It wouldn't be long before the whole swarm was perfectly organized—just like the goblins or the ghouls or all those other demons they'd seen. He glanced at Daphne and it looked like she'd reached the same conclusion. Her skin was ghostly pale. She'd got her temptaint through coltars. Seeing so many of them all at once no doubt brought up memories.

"We were called out to take care of them before there was a swarm," the exorcist said. "When we arrived, only a few were making this pattern, but it didn't take long for the others to react. It's been growing since then." She glanced between the two of them. "What would you recommend?"

Rin looked to Daphne, and her eyes were fixed on the swarm. She shook herself out of it, though, to give him a curt nod.

"We'll need to talk alone," Rin told the exorcist.

She nodded. "I'll keep my team on the Fatal Verse for now," she said and walked off.

Neither Daphne nor Rin spoke for a second after she left.

"I can feel it, Rin," Daphne said.

Frankly, Rin couldn't believe she hadn't felt it the second she'd gotten out of the car, like he had, but it was different, and Daphne—as powerful and Gehenna-ridden as she was—wasn't half demon. She turned her focus to the swarm again and studied, her eyes rapidly tracking their movement.

"What do we do?"

Hell if Rin knew. He shook his head. "If the ghouls are anything to go on, this could turn south fast."

The other recent manifestations that had shown the gravitational distortion had been duds, like the goblins, where the presence, no, the demon had manifested but hadn't stuck around. He and Daphne hadn't been able to get much information out of the sites except the pattern that the demon had been moving north. Now it was here, in the same room as them, apparently possessing coltars. Half of them were swarming in a star shape now.

"We can't just stand here, Rin," Daphne said, but she was equally frozen, scolding herself more than she was scolding him.

He nodded, but didn't move. Coming face to face with the demon again knowing full-well what they were dealing with, Rin found himself stuck. That thick mud feeling from before started to creep up to his waist.

"Why come back now? What does it want?" Daphne wondered aloud.

Rin watched as more and more coltars joined the star-shaped throng.

"Why bother possessing and discarding demons at all?"

Then it clicked.

Automatically, Rin stuck an arm out to sweep Daphne back with him as he retreated from the swarm to the perimeter. Startled, she followed, staring at him for an explanation.

"It's taking their power, Daph," Rin said. "That's why it feels different. Every demon it possesses makes it grow stronger." Or, at least, that's what he thought. It felt right somehow. He knew. Almost like it had communicated with him.

Rin realized in that moment that it was not "it" but "she", and as soon as that thought crossed his mind, the swarm of coltars became a tempest and a wind whipped up like a tornado in the warehouse, shattering one of the bulbs on the spotlight beams. The lights of the others flickered and Rin felt that presence focus on him. She hadn't realized he was there.

Rin drew Kurikara immediately.

He barely heard Daphne's protest as he swung the blade around to bear and stalked forward toward the swarm, the blue flame igniting. It excited the coltars and their formation pulled tight. That demon may have taken over three or four thousand, but Rin would not let her have any more. He stoked his flames higher, burning the tiny demons that were still free as he passed them.

Hello, dark one, she spoke in his mind, gentle, caressing, but, like dipping a toe into a raging current, there was power underneath the surface. Power that could kill.

Rin did not respond.

Dark one? Do you hear me?

Behind him, Daphne shouted orders to the other exorcists to get rid of the coltars as quickly as possible, and the lead exorcist gave more specific instructions.

Dark one?

She sounded worried, confused. Hurt, almost. It nearly made Rin pause, but the wind howled through the warehouse once more and shattered another light. The exorcist manning it cried out in pain. Rin gritted his teeth and pressed forward. The wind was stronger near the swarm, pushing him back.

"What do you want?" he shouted into it.

I want to be one, she replied.

Then it happened. She reached out. Rin felt but could not see her, and her strength was incredible as she pressed her hands against his chest. He just reacted. It was reflex. She touched him and he let loose—involuntary. An act of self-preservation more than anything.

An eruption of blue flame filled the entire warehouse. The coltars were consumed, and the demon shrieked, releasing Rin and fleeing in a panic. Once the flame went out, Rin and Daphne and the exorcists were the only things left in the place, everything non-living or demon having been burned up. Rin fell to his knees, his energy completely zapped. He had to steady himself on Kurikara.

Daphne appeared at his side. She waved back a few of the other exorcists who tried to come near, then crouched and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Are you all right?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"Did I hurt anybody?"

"No, no, I don't think so. What happened?"

Rin shook his head. He let out his breath.

"She tried to possess me."

He looked grimly at Daphne. She leaned away, the severity of the statement far from lost on her. All around the perimeter of the warehouse, the other exorcists chattered about the excitement of the encounter and the blue flame and how it hadn't hurt at all. Rin and Daphne sat silent.

"What do we do?" Daphne asked. It was the second time she'd said those words in just a couple of minutes, but their meaning had changed completely now.

Rin shook his head.

"I don't know."