Hey guys. Just got back from vacation! :) It was amazing and pretty dang funny. Not only was I mistaken to be my father's wife (blech), i was one of the few on the boat that didn't get sick and a few others and i sang the 'the ring of fire' song pretty much the entire time, my friend kissed a prostitute after winning a bet (it was a game where you have to hammer in a nail into a tree stump with the blade of an ax...harder than it sounds), and I was nearly marooned on an island because the dingy's engine gave out (there was a spider as big as my hand on the beach too . . . not fun).

Anyway, I won't waste your time with any more rants. Enjoy chapter two. :)

(and replies to reviews at the end; there are too many to go through them all, but I'll do the best I can!)

...

Yukio stared at the ceiling, his head on his pillow. A fan gently spun, blowing about the stale air and disturbing the lose paper on his desk. They fluttered to the ground, forgotten.

"Where is my brother?" he had asked. "Where is my brother?"

But Mephisto hadn't replied. Hadn't had the need to. Everyone knew where Rin disappeared to, and everyone knew who put him there.

The Vatican was in uproar, but for a different reason. A betrayal was the worst offense in a world built on trust - trust to guard each other's backs, trust in yourself, trust in the weapons you held - and Mephisto tore the framework down like wet wallpaper. Angel, the Paladin, had been found by the Gate, his body broken with blood dripping from his eyes, mouth, nose. Now he was in the hospital wing, tubes sticking out of him like a twisted octopus as the exorcist healers worked on removing the heavy miasma out of his body and pieced him apart, bone by bone, stitch by stitch. They hadn't believed he would make it; no one had but, twenty-four hours later, the man woke up, alive and kicking. Literally.

Yukio moved his arms to cover his eyes; his glasses rested on the nightstand by his bed. Shura, bruised and beat up, was now beating up everyone around her in verbal warfare. Mephisto, locked up in a cell with holy metal chaining him down, had taken the brunt of it. The first interrogation, she practically had to be dragged out. The second she remained her composure until the now-ex headmaster commented that her boobs were falling out of her bikini top. The third time she stood in the corner beside Yukio, glowering down on Mephisto as someone else took over the post. If looks could kill, the man - no, demon - would only be a pile of ash on the floor.

Yet, during the entire exchange, Mephisto remained utterly silent. It was as if he had decided to sacrifice Rin on a whim, something that Yukio could not forgive.

Could never forgive.

He sat up, groaning when his stiff muscles protested. A week had passed; the crime scene had been cleaned, the Exwires had all begrudgingly gone home under orders, and everyone generally left him alone. Shura had tried to talk to him once but he just walked past her like she didn't even exist. She hadn't like that. Punched him. Yelled at him a bit, but it was like her mouth moved and nothing came out. Then she stalked off.

A headache pulsed in his forehead and Yukio leaned forward, head in his hands, wondering how did everything go so wrong. How could his life, built from hard work, sweat, tears, and buried emotions, could crumble away so quickly? Be reduced to nothing in a few short hours?

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Yukio glanced at it . . . and turned away. Maybe they'll go away if they think that no one -

"Open up, four-eyes," growled a voice. "I know yer in there."

Shura.

Yukio got to his feet and opened the door, more to preserve his dorm room than anything else. He didn't want her breaking down his door again. It was just replaced. "What?" His voice was rough from exhaustion; he couldn't remember the last time he had gotten more than one or two hours of sleep, and that was between running around following order after order, all of which he volunteered for.

She frowned at him. "You look awful."

He wasn't surprised. He was still wearing the same clothes from two days ago; he had gotten his first break minutes ago and that had been forced upon him. Changing clothes seemed like such a waste of time at the moment.

"Go look in the mirror," he replied.

Shura looked upset for a moment, then uncharacteristically sighed and gave up. She looked pretty bad too, now that he noticed; her red hair was a mess in its pony-tail, dark bruises were under her eyes from stress, lack of sleep, or both, and her skin seemed paler than usual. "Look," she said slowly, "I'm going to apologize in advance."

Yukio's eyebrows raised in surprise. "For - ?"

But she held up a hand, cutting him off. "Shut up, don't interrupt me, and listen." Yukio snapped his mouth close. "I got three things to tell you. The first is that school has been shut down until further notice; all of the students are being enrolled into their local schools, including you."

"But - !"

"Shut up," she hissed. Yukio almost took a step back. "I just told you to not interrupt me, so don't. I haven't slept in two days and don't want to commit a felony right now." He nodded in agreement; he didn't want that either. "Anyway, the second thing - and the one I apologized for - is that I hacked into the system for you." Yukio almost asked when she had learned how to hack, but knew better. "I changed your age to twenty-one; a legal adult, and got you a new ID. That means no school for you."

"Why did you do that for me?" he asked, the question slipping out of his mouth before he could stop it.

But Shura, to his surprise, only smiled wickedly. "Why I made you twenty-one years old when eighteen is the age where you're a legal adult? Because you can't drink at eighteen, that's why, and I needed a new buddy. And also," she said, sobering, "is that I need you here, with me. And besides . . . I'm sure you want to find your brother."

Yukio felt his throat tighten. He did. More than anything. "Thank you."

She smiled, a hesitant smile. "Don't thank me yet, scardy four-eyes. I mentioned three things."

He blinked; he had forgotten. That was odd. He usually never forgot stuff like that. "And the third thing?"

Shura's voice held a deadly calm. "Mephisto would like to speak to you. Alone."

...

So. I heard you hate cliff hangers. :D

From now on, the chapters will switch from Yukio's point of view to Rin's. It helps me keep track of what's going on; the details of the story had gotten hazy during the month I had been gone. It'll also help me keep everything in chronological order because keeping track of how much time had passed is hard (not to mention I'm writing a novel right now. It's 275 pages at the moment, looking to be around 500 when finished. My goal is to finish August 30th (since that's when I start college). No worries; I won't abandon this story to get that one done sooner. :) I love you all too much for that.

Stay awesome,

Rand0mSmil3z

ParadigmShift26: No worries; Amaimon will show up eventually. :) And I'll create the demon-kings on a need-basis. I have already created one king, but you'll meet this dude later :)

Ritsu: I didn't plan for this to be a romance-anything, but plans can change and i forgot what the plans were in the first place. We'll see.

Richard: Richard. Oh Richard. Do you mind if I use that quote in later chapters? That's just gold. (and it's Satan. not satin, but the mental image of Rin running away from satin in blind terror just made me love your comment even more)