Ahhhhhhhhhhh
WARNING: There is probably the grittiest horror scene I have ever written in here as far as human-eating/cannibalism is concerned. And indeed, there are mentions of cannibalism. Normally, I try to be considerate and not be overly gory. But I decided to push myself a little outside my comfort zone on this one – that said, I don't like gore a lot, so it's not quite Hacker movie level, but it's not what I typically write. There is also a very me-esque fight scene, which happens in typical me-style. So you get the best of both.
Also, this is a LONG chapter, so take a break if you need to. (I will use ;;; rather than …. or ,,,,, for page breaks in which it is safe to take a break from reading and come back later. I just couldn't break it up into two more chapters – it would have ruined the flow.)
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CHIII, pt. 2: The many tainted shades of ivory
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"I sleep all day,
I prowl at night
Do anything to feel alive-
I'm in the end just what you made me.
I look the same,
But I'm not fine,
The master of my own disguise,
If you knew the truth you'd probably hate me...
I'm turning into a monster, you'd better run and hide...
I'm turning into a monster,
right before your eyes..."
~ Monster Beth Crowley
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"Name your price." Mephisto said almost boredly, tired of this dragging on. Once again, the sound of compression springs releasing filled the room – but this time the panel moved, not from the wall, but the floor. In a presently vacant corner of the room a single, smallish panel slipped away, coming back up with something on it. Upon closer inspection, however, it was not a something, but a someone.
"Nemu?!" Izumo remarked incredulously, recognizing the tiny, orange-haired kid. Mephisto, unsurprised, watched with a blank expression. "What is he doing here?" Shura said, moving to inspect him. He did not have his puppet, his medium for conversation, but then, he wasn't remotely awake either.
"He is, for now, sedated. Strongly sedated." Lucifer explained. "I suppose after Gray's show earlier, you are not surprised that one of your own has betrayed you, Samael."
"Not hardly. No one else could know the binding spell I use to keep Amaimon under control."
"Glad we are in agreement – which is why he has to die."
"What?" Rin, silent until now, spoke up for the first time so far all day. "First you want us dead, now you want him dead? What the hell are you planning, Lucifer!" For once Mephisto did not stop him, merely watching.
"He is going to die anyway." Rin paused at this, expression faltering. "He is sick. Very sick." Lucifer explained. "He has about two months left in him if medical treatments continued, which is why he came to me to begin with." A tinge of guilt coloured Rin's face, though even he didn't know why he felt it. "But I have nothing left to offer him. His demon abandoned him, sensing his growing weakness, leaving him with nothing."
"What about his parents?" Izumo asked. "What about my sister?"
"They are alive, but have given up searching for him. Nemu ran away from home. He won't go back there, no matter how he is encouraged to." Izumo's face palled, almost not wanting to believe it.
"The boy can not mentally function without his demon. He is...unstable, in a sense, if there is no external force to keep him grounded. Without the demon to protect him or speak for him, I have had no choice but to keep him in a deep sleep – but no demon will take him now. He is too weak."
"So you decided to pull the plug on him." Yukio surmised, drawing all eyes to him. "But why put him in here? Why have Mephisto kill him? Why not do it yourself?"
"Because I have far less need of the thing he keeps inside. The energy he keeps inside." Understanding dawned on the young exorcist's face, followed quickly by a frown of revulsion.
"I strongly encourage you deal with him before he wakes up." Lucifer warned. "Once your task is done, I shall give your humans the water they require – but no sooner." With that, the intercom disconnected with a click. A long, digestive silence followed.
"What are we going to do?" Shima announced. "We can't let him wake up – believe me, I've seen the nasty side of him. What Lucifer said is no joke – he will literally kill us if he wakes up."
"I believe you, for once, but only because I've heard of this happening before with special children." Izumo agreed, looking at Nemu worriedly. "No one knows why it happens, though."
"You are both correct. That boy will certainly kill you if he wakes without a demon to keep him controlled." Mephisto stated, hand on his chin as he thought.
"But we can't just kill him – right?" Rin said hopefully. Bon shook his head.
"I don't think we have a choice right now, Okumura." Bon said solemnly. "Lucifer hasn't given us much of a choice. Either kill or be killed."
"But..." Rin tried to protest, but couldn't come up with an effective counter. "But...he's our classmate..."
"I agree with you, Rin," Konekomaru stated. "But the situation being what it is, I also think Bon is right. Besides," He turned a wary eye onto the two full-blooded demons, apprehension making his empty belly ache.
Mephisto sat and pondered a moment, Amaimon becoming more awake as he did so, looking around him curiously.
"What will you do, big brother?" He spoke at last, looking over to Nemu. Mephisto let out a sigh.
"I guess there really is no other option." He said with a shrug. " I will have to do it. There is no other way."
"Mephisto!" Rin went on to try and rebute him, to come up with some valid reason not to kill the boy. But the only reasons he could come up with were ones of moral fiber, which meant nothing to the older demon. If he wanted to stop this, he had to argue on Mephisto's front – the logical front – which he, as a person, wasn't good at using.
By the time he had come up with anything, it was too late to change the demon's mind. Mephisto picked up the boy by his orange-red shirt, turning him to face him with an impassive expression.
"Mephisto, please – "
"If you don't want to watch, then turn away." The older demon snapped irritably at his youngest sibling. "There is nothing you can do to stop this if you don't want to die."
Rin didn't turn away, watching helplessly as Mephisto, in a rather unexpected move, latched his fangs onto the boy's throat like a vampire. And, like a vampire, he seemed to be swallowing the blood which flowed out, most of it going down that way. A few small rivulets escaped, trails of bright crimson falling like tears to the steel floor.
Amaimon, now wide awake, began to stir. He watched Mephisto drink the boy's blood, and judging by his expression, was interested in partaking. He moved, and once more the exwires watched helplessly as he tenatively crawled over to Nemu's paling body, reaching out with a cautious expression for the boy's arm. Mephisto growled menacingly at him, causing Amaimon to retreat quickly to the other side of the room, wary of being struck.
Konekomaru couldn't handle the sight – the idea of the two demons fighting over his classmate's corpse was too much for him to take. His stomach surged acid into his throat, and a frustrated and frightened tear slid down his cheek.
Mephisto only released the child's body once he was completely dead, his fangs making a sticky, wet popping sound as they released their prey. Blood stained the demon's lips and teeth, making him look utterly terrifying as he licked away the blood dribbling down his chin. Looking over at his students, he could tell they were all in varying degrees of shock or disgust – Rin looked angry as well as disgusted, but he could tell the anger wasn't directed at him.
He felt the seal inside him begin to weaken, and knew his window of opportunity would not be long. He moved away from Nemu's body, a subtle flick of his fingers leaving Amaimon to begin cleanup, which he took initiative of as soon as the older demon walked away. The traded places in the small room, Mephisto wondering what he needed to do.
"Miwa," Mephisto addressed his student, who looked up at him with frightened, teary eyes. Mephisto chose to ignore both these, addressing him in a nearly professional manner. "You are fairly good with technology, yes?" The question caught the young boy off guard, causing him to fish for a reply.
"Y-yes, sort of – why?"
"I don't have a lot of time to deliberate. The effects of the seal inside me will take root again soon. I don't have the energy to teleport, but I have just enough to conjure something small – a cell phone, maybe." This time, instead of wary stares, Mephisto got cautiously hopeful ones. "There likely won't be any signal in here, but if me, Amaimon, and Rin all went against that wall, where the intercom is," He gestured to the corner. "We may be able to open up the shell of the room and wire-tap something through."
"Oh – that's actually a good idea." Shura agreed for once. "Do you think you would know how, Konekomaru?"
"T-That depends on the wiring system in the intercom...but if it means we can contact someone, I think it's worth a try."
"But what about resources?" Shima argued. " I get that we are all going to die anyway if no one comes to get us, but we are in dire need of food and water – I, for one, don't really trust Lucifer to provide much of either."
"Hm? What are you talking about?" Amaimon chipped in. Shima turned to look at the demon and was immediately repulsed by what he seen. The earth demon's face was stained pinkish with blood, a surprisingly large portion of Nemu's neck now gone, down the demon's gullet. Shima wisely chose not to directly look at the exposed tissue, the white of the boy's trachea catching his periphery enough to make it clear just how much was gone. No doubt that's what Amaimon was referring to. "There's plenty of food here, if you aren't chicken enough to eat it. I could probably eat this whole kid by myself, but I don't think Aniki will let me have all of it."
"You – you can't be serious!" Rin argued vehemently. "It's bad enough we had to watch him die – now you expect us to eat him?"
"No one said you had to."
"You – " Yukio grabbed his brother's collar as he went to charge at Amaimon.
"There's no room in here for confrontation!" He chastised. "Besides, if you attack him now, you will definitely die! Is that what you want, Rin? Do you want to die?"
"No!"
"Then stop being an idiot!"
"Enough, both of you!" Shura stepped between them, reminding herself that tensions would be high, given the situation. "There's no time for that!"
"Eins...Zwei...Drei..." Mephisto conjured quietly. A sudden poof left a dangling pink cell phone in his hand – and the bulk of the energy he had planned on using gone. Konekomaru jumped when the object was tossed his direction.
"I have plenty more where that came from, so feel free to dismantle it as you see fit. It might just be the only thing that will get us out of here alive." Konekomaru nodded, a tired but determined look on his face despite the disgust he felt over what was happening in the other corner.
Once more, the hissing began. Another panel on the floor, located in a different corner, provided what was around a ten gallon jug of water atop a fitted table, with a small spicket attached to the bottom. The atmosphere of the room became conflicted in an instant, caught between hopeful, grateful, excited, disgusted and fearful.
"Water!" Rin, distracted, rushed up to the water jug, carefully inspecting it. "It doesn't smell like anything weird is on it." He announced. "There's enough here for everyone." He then turned his attention back to Shiemi, who was blearily awake, slumped against a wall like a rag. He moved over to her, cradling her once more.
"Look, Shiemi – there's water. You can drink." He reassured gently, shaking her lightly. She seemed to snap out of her stupor for a moment, blinking at him owlishly. "W-w..." She tried in vain to speak, but didn't have the moisture left to make sounds.
"Come on. I'll take you over there, okay?" Rin picked her up gently, handling her as if she were made of delicate glass. He carried her the few steps to the water, setting her just under the spicket.
"Do you think you can drink?" He asked, leaning down to see her eyes when her head lolled forward weakly. After a moment, there was a barely-perceptible shake of her head. Somehow, Rin understood, and placed a hand on the faucet.
"I...I know it isn't fair, but I can't help you drink if I don't drink first. My body won't let me." He explained. Shima was made to protest, but Bon jabbed him in the sides, knowing that she wouldn't be able to drink by herself at this point.
"Let him do what he has to do." Bon defended. "I might not like the guy, but I trust him. He won't be selfish about it, and besides, Shiemi probably can't drink on her own. She needs him to help, which he's in no condition to do right now."
As Bon was speaking, Rin began to carefully drink from the spicket, not wanting to touch his lips to it. He felt the urge to gulp the water, to practically drown himself in it, and damn did he want to drink until he could no longer stomach it. But he knew he wasn't the only one that needed it right now. Bon was right about that much – he wouldn't be selfish about it, for now.
'I can come back for more later.' He told himself before reluctantly pulling away from the water. He took a breath he hadn't known he was holding, bracing himself. Normally, the idea of having to put his mouth anywhere near Shiemi's would have him turning red as a beet. But now, still thirsty, still cotton-mouthed despite the mouthfulls of water he'd just drank, he was dreading the impulse control he would have to exercise to keep from swallowing the life-giving fluid that Shiemi needed.
Taking in another breath, his classmates and teachers looked on as he took another mouthful of water, transferring it to Shiemi the only way practical right now – by mouth. Half the room jumped when she let out a pitiful but short-lived wail of pain, Rin gently encouraging her to swallow with his fingers massaging her throat.
"I know it hurts." There was a quiver in his voice. "But you have to drink."
Again and again he transferred the water to her lips, each time eliciting a whine or groan of discomfort or pain. After not having water for so long and being so dehydrated, her throat ached with the raw intensity of a burst blister. The air in this room was stagnant, but dry, causing her mucous membranes to begin drying up in her throat. The pain was almost intolerable.
But she wanted water. She wanted it so bad.
"M...more..." She croaked after a few rounds.
"Do you think you can drink on your own?" Rin asked, helping her when she tried to sit up. She looked behind her bleary-eyed, but beginning to feel better, looking at the water spicket. She nodded, looking back at Rin. "I don't think...I can hold myself though." She forced herself to speak, glad she hadn't gone mute.
"I'll hold you. You can drink."
"Oi, I don't mean to be the bad-guy here, but the rest of us need water too you know." Izumo said with crossed arms. "I understand she needs it more than us right now, but if you want that water to last, you are going to have to ration it at least a little."
"Nah. Bad idea." Bon countered. "Everyone needs to get hydrated first. Then we ration whatever is left. There's at least ten gallons there. That's plenty for everyone to drink their fill and still have some left over, unless you think you can guzzle a whole gallon in one go." Izumo didn't have a rebuttal for that, and so kept quiet. She figured, being a boy and the book-worm he was, that Ryuji probably knew more about survival than she did anyway.
Shiemi drank the water until she could drink no more, her stomach cramping from the sudden fullness after a few days of being empty. Rin pulled her gently away, letting everyone else have their turn at the water. Much to his surprise, everyone waited their turns patiently for a drink. The thought made him a little happier – until he seen Yukio limping over to the jug.
"You got hurt?" Rin said aloud, wondering how he hadn't noticed. Yukio ignored him until he had knelt and downed several mouthfuls of water, which Rin understood.
"It's not that severe." Yukio replied quietly. "It will be fine in a few days."
"Best you not draw attention to things like that." Shura, who unexpectedly slung an arm over Rin's shoulder, whispered conversationally. "Not that it matters much anyway, but I don't think it's wise to give the rest of them any more reason to worry, y'know?" She clarified, sparing a very fleeting glance at Mephisto, who wasn't paying them any mind, more focused on whatever Amaimon was doing. Shura daren't look to see herself, already knowing.
But it would seem she was destined not to be the only one – in such a small space, there wasn't anywhere for sounds to really hide. The sound of a shirt ripping drew the unfortunate attentions of several of the exwires – including Rin, who all but retched at the sight.
Amaimon had sufficiently rendered the neck of the corpse clear of any flesh, and was moving on to his shoulders, for which he had to tear the shirt. The sight of the exposed muscle, the weirdly pearly tissue, the off-white of what remained of the trachea – none of that bothered Rin particularly. He had cut apart enough chickens and meat in his life that the sight of the flesh and even the bone didn't especially phase him – provided, of course, he didn't think about it. But what did bother him, what did make him want to choke up all the water he had just swallowed, was the fact that the boy's face – now deprived of a name or any kind of known attributes, purely for the sake of staying sane – the boy still had a face, still had a human face.
It didn't feel real anymore. None of this felt real – but maybe that was for the better, Rin thought. Maybe it was better if he didn't accept it, if he pretended it was all just special effects and fake blood. Pretend that that face didn't belong to someone he knew, pretend that he wasn't watching, cloudy-eyed and half-aware, as his rival, his enemy, his goddamn brother was eating that boy's body, tearing off strips of pinkish flesh with the aloof attitude you would expect of a predator enjoying it's meal. Pretend the sight didn't make him want to be sick –
And above all, pretend it didn't make him hungry.
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Mephisto watched his human subjects discreetly, paying them no direct attention for fear of rousing their suspicion. He was beginning to dread this whole affair – no matter how this ended, he would not walk away with all of his pieces on the board. If they didn't perish, they would surely jump ship. While it was true that there were always other pieces, he really didn't relish the idea of having to start from scrap all over again, not when fashioning all the pieces he already possessed had taken up more of his personal time than he cared admit.
More pressingly, however, was the Vatican. He needed those bigots to keep him in the upper keep, or else his plans would falter, and he simply didn't have the patience for that. Lord of Time he might be, but even he was in a race against it. Well, a race of a demon's pace – which was, in this particular context, not very fast. Lucifer was in the lead right now, however, and that was something that Samael just couldn't stand for right now.
Ah, but concerning himself with such a distant future was inconsequential if the nearer one put him into bigger trouble. Oh, this was all so vexing! On one hand, he needed to maintain some kind of appearance for his human subjects, or else they would revolt against him – one human was nothing to a demon, understand, but a few armies of them could give even him a run for his assets. In here, and weaponless to boot, these exorcists were not of much more threat to him than a colony of cats. That was a significant improvement than the insects they had been before, but still. No, it was that pesky foresight he was known for that made them seem so much more threatening to him now.
However, while he did need to maintain some kind of appearance, he couldn't, in these circumstances, be expected to maintain his gentle-man like dignity. No, no, it wouldn't be possible, not after what he had already done. That illusion was already gone. Which left him the utterly frustrating task of coming up with some alternate, in-between facade to appease both the humans and himself, and now that Amaimon was here, him as well.
That didn't even cover Lucifer. But he had all night to ponder on that one, and planned on making use of the silence to do so later.
"You know, I hate to be the one to state this, but Amaimon did have a point." Mephisto sighed. "The only edible thing in here is that boy's body. Despite how it may repulse you, if you don't eat now, you might not ever." As if to emphasise his point, a loud, wet crack echoed in the room. Wandering eyes found Amaimon ripping a clavicle from it's fleshy prison before biting down on it with another cracking sound, crunching on the bone like candy.
"...He has a point." Yukio muttered quietly, drawing all eyes to him, but none more so than Rin.
"Are you mad?" Rin asked legitimately.
"No." Yukio replied calmly, pushing up his glasses. "I am being logical. Something you are not very good at." Rin flinched from the jab. "I dislike the idea of cannibalism just as much as the next person, but that body is going to rot if it doesn't go somewhere. May as well make use of it while it's still edible."
"Yeah, but food means waste." Bon interjected a response Shima was about to make, stopping him.
"True – but we are much safer with that filth than a rotten corpse. At least that has been taken through at least one immune system. Besides which – " Yukio's face, which had been a frown, now became a scowl. "By the time any of us are really hungry enough to consider cannibalism, that body will have looked like a dream come true. He wasn't close with any of us, and being dead already, none of us have to have the weight of killing him on our conscience."
"No, we just have to deal with the weight of eating him!" Rin shouted back, voice echoing painfully off the walls.
"If you want to starve, be my guest." Once more, Yukio was strangely calm. "But you'll regret it when your hunger drives you to kill someone really close to you. It could be me. It could be Shiemi. It could be any of us. Whoever is weakest at the time."
"You stop talking like that, right now." Rin growled.
"You can do what you like, little brother." Yukio said flatly, almost coldly. "But I have no intentions of killing anyone who is worth something to me. I also don't want to starve."
"Yukio..." Shura said, half-warning, half-question.
"Well, while this is all quite the interesting conversation," Mephisto interrupted, calling attention. "I'm afraid you don't have a lot of time to deliberate if you want there to be anything left." He nodded over to Amaimon, who had gluttonously eaten a large part of the boy's upper back now, exposing the spine and shoulder blades, still red, still warm, in a grotesque fashion.
"If you want any part of that, then I will have to take it away from him, for if you tried, he would kill you, and then probably eat you as well." Mephisto explained, disturbingly casual about it. "As such, I demand 20% of anything left for myself."
"Twenty percent?" Bon looked shocked. "But there's hardly anything there to begin with!"
"Ryuji?" Konekomaru looked up at his friend, shocked and disturbed that he would even consider the idea.
"I need food too." Mephisto said simply. "Besides which, there are...reasons, why I have to eat at least part of it."
"Like what?" Bon countered.
"Ah ah, tick-tock." Mephisto pretended to tap a watch on his wrist. "Amaimon is eating at a slow pace right now, but as he realizes there is pressure on him, he will doubtlessly eat faster." As if on cue, Amaimon scarfed down a sizable chunk of flesh, swallowing without really chewing.
"Grrr..." Bon and Yukio both deliberated for a second before Yukio responded.
"Fine. Take what you have to." He said forwardly. "But no more." Mephisto grinned like a cheshire cat, rising to his knees.
"You have a deal, little exorcist." Mephisto grinned wider as he crouched, crawling with surprising grace over to his sibling, who growled on reflex upon his arrival.
"Now Amaimon, you have had your fill." Mephisto chastised. Still, Amaimon did not budge, though he did stop eating. Mephisto's grin suddenly faltered.
"Amaimon." The tone was warning. In response, a strange thing happened – Amaimon, rather than heeding his older sibling, instead chose to let his hackles slowly rise. Another growl slipped his throat, and in less than half a second, what began as a simple glance in the direction of the other's eyes became a staring contest.
'he can sense I am weakened. This is not good.' Mephisto thought briefly. The atmosphere became immediately tense, enough so that the humans noticed it too, and began to migrate slowly towards the wall opposite to where the two demons were at.
"Get behind me." He heard Rin whisper as they shuffled about. 'Good boy.'
The tension mounted, and Mephisto let out a low, threatening growl. His posture was straighter than Amaimon's, an attempt at displaying dominance, but one which his little brother just wasn't going to be intimidated by. Not today.
Mephisto always wondered when it would come to this. Amaimon and he had come to blows before over petty dominance disputes – but with no demon power to rely upon, the elder really had to wonder what the outcome of this would be if Amaimon didn't back down. The younger demon was easily twice his physical strength, even if he lacked the same agility or speed. Mephisto wasn't really made for physical combat, and Amaimon knew it – but he also wasn't stupid enough to think his older brother was defenseless. No, Mephisto might not of had muscle, but he made up for it with built-in weaponry.
Rin et al watched the two demons engage each other in a sort of challenge, Amaimon's tail flicking irritably by his side as his hackles visibly raised. A single, wide swish of his tail elicited from Mephisto a nearly cat-like growl, the hair on the back of his head quite visibly standing, or attempting to stand, on end. A silence followed, broken by a single, much quieter growl. Several agonizingly tense seconds followed. Rin, who was particularly aware of the subtle language of their movements, moved to cover his classmates as fully with his body as he was able, suddenly squishing them against the wall.
No sooner had he done so than the tension broke – exploded, really – into demon-on-demon violence. It was hard to tell who made the first move, but Rin guessed it was Mephisto, since his hand was the first that he'd seen connect with Amaimon's face. He didn't punch him, though, but instead raked claws that Rin wasn't even aware he had down his sibling's face. This made Amaimon rear back with a snarl, throwing his own claws forward, landing them on Mephisto's chest and shoulders. The weight and momentum nearly sent said demon tumbling backward, but he caught himself narrowly on his heels, using the adrenaline in his system to fuel his strength as he all but threw Amaimon against the wall to his left.
Expecting it to be Amaimon who retaliated, Rin was dumbfounded and more than a little horrified when Mephisto came back on top of him in an instant, not giving his younger sibling a single moment of recovery before his claws were sunk quite deeply into the flesh of Amaimon's neck, pinning him down. The earth demon let out a terrible, raspy hiss, kicking his elder in the ribs hard enough to jerk him back – but not hard enough to make him let go, apparently. There was a flurry of blind movement as Amaimon tried to free himself, letting out a deafening and utterly hellish, guttural scream as he did so. But Mephisto had the upper hand, grappling his brother with sharp, hooked talons until his back was flat on the ground, a feat which took more effort than he'd of liked. He crushed Amaimon's throat with one forearm, claws sunk into his shoulder – and as soon as the opportunity presented itself, bit down hard onto his brother's exposed cheek.
Amaimon made a terrible fuss of this, thrashing with renewed vigor, the series of growls and snarls exchanged between them becoming louder and more intense. Amaimon grappled with Mephisto's wide shoulders, trying to push him off, to no avail. Rin looked on with both fascination and horror at the scene, settling more for the latter when Amaimon, out of nowhere, let out a high, keening wail, like that of a dog being kicked, or a hyena chased.
Rin watched as blood poured from the demon's face, Mephisto's jaws locked tightly onto his sibling's cheekbone. He pinned the younger demon beneath him with the crushing bite, using his weight to sink his teeth in deeper. Amaimon thrashed once more, enticing a slithering sort of motion to creep up Mephisto's body beginning at the hip, and ending when he shook Amaimon violently to the side like a dog, but only once, eliciting a sharp yelp in the process. He continued to pin the younger down with his fangs, his shake having apparently stunned the younger into motionlessness. A long, intense silence followed as they merely held their positions, Mephisto splattering blood across his sibling's throat when he huffed through the blood pouring into his mouth.
A long, pitiful and downright pained whine slipped from Amaimon's clasped throat, and before Rin could muster the will to say anything, the older demon let him go. Amaimon remained still a moment, his tail tucked close to his thigh. In another instant, the demon scrambled to his feet and tried to bolt away from his older brother, but, forgetting for a moment he was trapped in a steel box, managed to ram himself deafeningly into the hard steel with enough force to dent it.
The humans, unharmed, were largely at a loss for words or comprehension of what happened. Rin got the gyst of it intuitively, but couldn't put it into words if he tried. Yukio could – but wasn't sure if he should explain or not. He wasn't sure it was necessary.
Mephisto sat still a few moments, seemingly panting – but Yukio knew better. He was huffing with his mouth open, the red-tinged points of his ivory fangs still clearly and purposefully visible. He wasn't huffing from tiredness, despite the struggle he'd just had – no, he was huffing from agitation, much like a bear would. And like if he were confronted by an agitated bear, Yukio felt some deep instinct tell him not to move from his spot, lest it take out more of it's ire on him.
The older demon gave a quick, doggish shake of his head, shaking the blood off of him. Blots of red stained his white uniform, some of it from Amaimon, some from himself where the younger had nailed his shoulders. He once more used a crouched position to move about, despite there being room to stand, not really trusting his body to hold him up right now. Amaimon had landed one hell of a blow on his ribcage, and he'd be damned if he was going to let anyone else know he'd actually broken two of his ribs – partly out of instinct, partly out of reason.
Amaimon sat in the corner, licking the flat part of the back of this thumb before rubbing it carefully over his face like a cat. Rin took a look at him, and felt his lip curl in revulsion and, if he was being honest, a little bit of pity for his half-sibling. He also felt a new-found fear of his other, older half-sibling, for the wounds on Amaimon's face were quite severe. Rather than simple puncture wounds, there were instead four long, ragged slash-like wounds, one of which clearly exposed the bone in flashes of striking white as the demon opened and closed his mouth to clean the wound ,the still-living flesh moving over and then retreating from the white skeleton beneath. It was utterly disgusting, but more than that, it was terrifying. It looked like someone had gouged him with scissors and tried to cut him up, and there weren't even knives or blades involved – just teeth. Nothing but teeth.
He was bleeding from the claws that had been raked over his skull earlier, but the wounds were closing up and not nearly as gory. Amaimon didn't appear particularly phased by the outcome of their battle, but then, he also had the instinct to conceal his pain and any other weakness – an instinct Rin himself was becoming more aware of these days, now more than ever.
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WHOO that was one hell of a long chapter. Sorry if it seems choppy at moments – this was a pain to write. But I am glad it is over now. :)
Because someone mentioned pairings in a review, the only ones presently set up to happen are Amaimon x Mephisto, which will be fairly angsty for the humans involved. (hehehehe, I am evil. So is Mephisto.) and, of course, Rin x Shiemi, though that one is more platonic than anything. I thought about a breif-ish Shura x Yukio, but I am not really sure yet. Yukio is open to be paired with just about anyone right now except Rin (in this situation, I don't think I could squeeze it out. Sorry!). Mephisto x Lucifer will be mentioned later on, but not for a while.
Also, YES, Lucifer did, in fact, have sexy times with Amaimon prior to dumping him in there, which is what P.O. -ed Mephisto. The reasons precisely are yet to be discussed, but you'll find out if you keep reading! :)
In the end this wasn't as gory as I intended , but I hope you enjoyed anyway!
Until next time!