So...back in a week and two days. Wow. I saw the number of faves, follows, and reviews and I found that they shared one thing in common. They all ended with the number 8 whiiiich just so happens to be my lucky number! I was gonna put this up tomorrow but eh, why not! Hurray for the number 8! xD
Also, I'm surprised that I spotted over 15 ducks in the reviews! For the author that I mentioned, he/she only had one person respond to his/her survey so yeah. Have a cookie, guys! :D Also, should I inform the clueless ones? owo
So as always, credits to my awesome beta-reader Fulminata for beta-reading this chappie! O3O Oh, and one thing that I forgot to include in the last two chapters:
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own -Man nor Ao no Exorcist as they belong to Katsura Hoshino and Kazue Kato respectively!
"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." -1 Peter 5:8
Chapter 3: Unraveling Our Intertwined Fates
Allen decided to return home when the sun began to hide away under the horizon, painting the sky with beautiful oranges, yellows, and pinks. Opening one of the multiple gateways that lead to an alleyway near the monastery, he hoped there wouldn't be someone there.
He exited the city filled with white-washed buildings and entered the dark alleyway illuminated by the light of the Ark's gate. The Ark left a bad taste in his mouth. Not because it had been their enemy's prized possession before Allen had gained ownership over it, but because it encouraged old memories to resurface. Memories of his friends.
Allen shook his head, 'I told myself that I'd move on. I promised them that I'd move on. But it's so hard.'
When he went through the front doors of the monastery, he saw Kyodo, Nagatomo, and Shiro talking amongst themselves in the chancel. They stopped talking and turned their attention towards Allen who closed the large doors behind him.
"Ah! Just in time, Allen! We're planning on holding a send-off party for Yukio before he leaves tomorrow." Shiro informed him with am excited grin on his face.
"Really? Where are the others?" Allen asked him, noticing that Yukio, Rin, Maruta, and Izumi were absent.
"Yukio, Izumi, and Maruta are in the kitchen, preparing the food. As for Rin," if it was possible, Shiro's grin widened, "he's on his way home now. He got the job, Allen."
Allen's eyes brightened. "He did?"
"You heard right, kid. Now the question is whether he'd be able to keep it for more than a day." Shiro joked.
Allen chuckled at this.
Maruta then came running into the chancel. "Food's ready!"
"Great! Come on, Allen!"
Line Break
Everyone sat impatiently on their chairs as they waited for Rin to arrive. The heavenly aroma of the food wafted through the air, causing everyone to be more impatient than ever, especially Allen.
The kitchen was so silent that everyone could hear each other's growling stomachs.
Maruta sighed dejectedly, "Rin sure is late."
'Something must have happened. If Rin was informed, and I'm sure he was, he'd come bolting in without a second thought...'
'So? You gonna go check it out?'
'And escape this hellhole of food aroma making me even more hungry? Heck yeah!'
Allen pushed the chair behind him as he stood up. "I'll go look for him." Maybe that sounded too eager.
"Me too." Yukio said. Everyone else except Shiro followed one by one, probably volunteering to help look for Rin to escape sheer boredom.
Shiro sat there alone, worried that Rin's absence had something to do with his new job. He just sighed uneasily.
Line Break
"I'm so hungry..." Allen complained. It was a testament to the patience of Izumi, Nagatomo, Maruta, and Kyodo that they only glumly nodded and continued to trudge on. The troupe had been searching the area around the church and had seen no sign of either Yukio or Rin. Rumbling stomachs had called them back.
"I looked everywhere I could think of where Rin could be but he's nowhere! And I'm hungry..."
"Well since we didn't come across Yukio, I hope he's got better luck in finding Rin than us."
They reached the church gate, revealing Rin, Yukio, and Shiro standing side by side. All chatter died down when they saw Shiro together with Yukio and Rin.
"Eh? Please don't tell me you were here at home all this time?" Izumi said disbelievingly.
Rin looked down and rubbed the back of his neck with shame.
"No. I found him alone in the park a block from here." Yukio said.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
The five of them moaned.
"I didn't think of that!"
"Hmm...I actually thought of checking the park but..."
Amidst the moaning, Shiro nudged Rin at the ribs causing him to wince.
"Out of all the places...!"
"Seriously?"
"Still hungry..."
"I'm sorry."
Everyone shut up at that and turned to the owner of the voice who was none other than Rin bowing down. "Huh?"
"I...I made everyone worry and you guys even went through the trouble of looking for me so...I'm really sorry!"
"Eh? This isn't like you at all, Rin!"
"Yeah! Let's just go and eat! I'm starving!"
Surprised, Rin straightened himself and stared at them. He smiled with silent laughter. "Thanks, guys."
Shiro smirked. "Well too bad for Rin, I'm taking away his sukiyaki as punishment."
This time, Rin moaned in misery.
And the night was filled with jubilant laughter.
Later...
Shiro, with a candlestick and a key in hand, went to the altar in the chancel and pushed a nearby drawer away, revealing a secret stairway below it.
He went down the steps and walked towards a lone red cabinet in the small dark room, the only source of light being the little flame on the candle that Shiro was bringing.
He pushed the key into the keyhole and twisted it. He opened the cabinet with shaking hands and peered into its contents.
Shiro's breath hitched.
It was a blue sheathed katana, Kurikara, with a seal placed on the sheath crossing over to the handle.
"I thought so." His eyes filled with worry and sorrow as he stared at the katana. The future ahead of Rin was bleak. Something was bound to happen, Shiro knew. Something life shattering. And for as long as he was able, Shiro would protect him.
Next morning...
Rin woke up and sat upright on his bed yawning as he rubbed at his crusty eyes. He scrutinized the room and noticed two things.
One, Allen's futon was empty. (Allen had insisted that Rin should take the bed again since it made Allen feel like he was "imposing". Rin just went along with it since Allen had insisted so much.) Rin didn't even bat an eye, already accustomed to the fact that Allen always woke up early. The guy freaking wakes up at five in the morning like he was a soldier or something!
Two, there was a sheet of paper on top of Yukio's desk and immediately recognizable as a note. Rin slid his legs toward the edge of his bed and stood up, sluggishly walking towards the desk to read the contents of the note.
He picked it up and scanned the paper.
'The moving truck came earlier than expected so I had to leave for the dorm early with my stuff. Take care of yourself, Rin.
P.S: Please don't make Dad worry any more. -Yukio'
Rin huffed aloud with his hand tucked under his shirt, rubbing his stomach. "That heartless bastard. Didn't even wake me up to let me say goodbye."
He returned the note on the desk and walked over to the window to part the curtains and invite the sunlight in.
He sleepily closed his eyes as he ruffled his unruly bedhead, but when he opened his eyes, he saw a strange black thing whiz by across the window.
"Huh?"
He pushed the window open and peered outside, only to see hundreds of thousands of the same black creature meandering across the sky and creating a deafening symphony of incredibly high-pitched squeaks.
"W-What the...?!"
He quickly changed into his normal clothes and neatly folded his pajamas and laid them on his bed. He bolted out the room and made a mad dash for the front doors.
Rin hastily rushed outside, swatting away the flying black creatures that drifted too close for comfort.
'What are these things?! Bugs?!'
Across the road and sidewalks, he saw that the black things were gathering around some people in droves. Rin was disturbed when the people didn't take notice of them. They were right there! Why were they acting like they couldn't see them?!
"O-ku-mu-ra-kun~!" An annoying male voice suddenly called out in a sing-song tone. Rin knew who the guy was so he turned to the owner of the voice with an aggravated look on his face that turned into a shocked one when he saw a horde of black creatures flocking around the boy, as if they were moths and the boy was the flame.
"Can you come with us for a bit? I wanna talk to you."
Shiratori wore a creepy and obviously malicious grin on his face, wearing his usual red long-sleeved and checkered shirt with a blue vest over it and black pants and shoes. Behind him were his three cronies, completing his merry gang of delinquents.
Rin felt a bad feeling settle in his stomach, warning him of danger. His gut told him to decline Shiratori's request but his pride told him that he should.
Yes, he was no coward!
He lifted his foot over the threshold of the gate but paused before it could meet the ground again, remembering that Shiro had grounded him. He didn't want to disobey him, not after last night. But...
'I'm sure that it'll only take a while. They won't even notice that I'm gone. And even if they did...I'm sure I can come up with a believable lie.'
Seeing his hesitation, one of Shiratori's cronies spoke, jolting Rin out of his thoughts.
"What, are you scared, Okumura?" he mocked.
"You wanna hide under your Mommy's skirt? Oh wait, the bitch's not around anymore! My bad~!" They all cackled heartlessly at this, except Shiratori who was too busy still grinning.
Rin looked up at the boy who said that, a look of unbridled fury on his face.
But inside, his heart secretly ached at this comment.
Rin snarled at him, which the boy didn't notice as the fool continued guffawing, and took a few predatory steps toward him with clenched fists, wanting nothing but to mangle and kill the bastards who dared mock his deceased mother even though Rin hadn't met her his whole life. He only ever saw her through pictures that Shiro had.
But remembering Shiro's scolding yesterday afternoon and Yukio's note, he stopped himself mid-step and took a deep breath. He clenched and unclenched his fists in an attempt to rein in his volatile temper.
'I need to do something with my temper if I want to avoid getting into fights, for Dad's sake.'
When Rin finally calmed down, depending on your definition of calm, he finally went towards the four annoying pricks.
"What do you ugly assholes want with me?" Rin said with an annoyed edge to his calm but deadly voice.
Shiratori ignored the insult and his grin grew impossibly wider.
"Before we go into that, we should go someplace else, eh?"
Rin scrunched his face up, not liking this one bit. Still, he complied.
"Lead the way." Rin grumbled unhappily.
"Let's go, then." Shiro turned around and, automatically, his cronies parted to make way for him like he was Moses and they were the Red Sea. Shiratori went ahead and his cronies and Rin followed suit.
Unknown to any of them, an individual had been watching their little exchange from a window in the monastery. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he stared at the silver-haired boy who possessed the appearance of a demon.
He could see the boy's soul behind the body itself and chained to the soul was a grotesque looking demon looming over the boy's body. It had a gigantic pitch black body, white claws grew from its fingers, and a black tufted tail swished from behind it.
'This demon...what does he want with Rin?' As the demon went out of range, his eye deactivated with a whine. Allen frowned as he remembered being told by Shiro that he had grounded Rin.
'I have a bad feeling about this...'
'Well? What are you going to do?'
'Follow them, of course. That demon's up to something and it's nothing good, I can tell.'
Without another word or thought, he sprinted for the front doors. Before he could even pull the doors open, a voice stopped him.
"Where are you going Allen?" His heart jumped up to his throat in surprise as he turned around, only to see that it was Shiro.
Shiro lightly chuckled. "Are you going out for a walk?"
"A-Ah. Yes, I am. Is there something you needed?" Allen asked politely. Secretly, he wanted this to be over with. He was going to lose them at this rate!
Shiro raised his eyebrows in amusement. "No, nothing. Just wanted to ask why you're running out the monastery as if there's a fire." Shiro blinked. "Unless there is a fire, in which case—"
Allen tittered. "Er...umm...I just wanted to go walking before it gets dark."
'Allen?! It's still noon! If you're gonna lie, at least do it right!'
'Ack!'
"What are you talking about? It's twelve in the afternoon. There's plenty of time before evening." Shiro asked with his head tilted to the side in confusion.
"Oh, right! Oops! My sense of time is getting as lousy as my sense of direction, it seems! I'm, ah, gonna go now, Father Fujimoto!"
Without waiting for a response, he pulled the doors open and accidentally slammed it loudly as he closed it behind him. The door opened again and a head poked out.
"Sorry!"
And with that, Allen closed the door again but this time, he made sure to do it as gently as possible.
Shiro was left dumbfounded.
'What just happened?'
Allen sprinted towards the direction he saw the boys had gone. Thankully, it wasn't crowded outside so he could easily make his way around without having to push his way through throngs of people.
He quickened up his pace, fearing that they'd already gone too far.
Rin POV
Not too far ahead from Allen's frantic search, Rin, Shiratori, and the other guys arrived at an alley where there was a barrel that contained a lone metal rod. Fire crackled from within the barrel and cinder floated around like dandelion fluff in a breeze.
"Sorry about what happened a few days ago. We were just playing with the pigeons, but my hand acted on its own and killed them," Shiratori said with an indiffrent expression.
'Pfft, that's the worst bullshit I've heard in my entire life! Is this guy playing with me?!'
"How much should I pay?" he continued.
"Huh?" Rin had a feeling where this was headed to.
Shiratori elaborated. "I don't expect someone like you to know this but, my parents are kinda famous so I'll probably get into True Cross Academy. It'd be a bother if rumors start spreading."
"Man, you'll go to the same school as Yukio? That sucks."
"Exactly. So hold your tongue and in exchange, I'll pay up. Just name the price," Shiratori continued, "So let's just keep this between us, okay?"
"Huh? And here I was wondering why ugly pricks like you were wasting my time. I don't need your cash to keep my mouth shut." Rin said and then turned to leave. He didn't need money from someone like Shiratori. Not only was it wrong, but it also bruised his pride. "I've got more important stuff to do so don't bother me anymore."
He had to come back soon before anyone notices that he was gone. He didn't want to get into any more trouble than he was already in. That, and Shiratori was starting to creep him out.
Shiratori laughed, making Rin stop. "Trying to play the cool guy, eh? Seriously, be honest with yourself! You're so poor you can't even get into a proper school!"
Shiratori then held up a ten-thousand-yen bill and began waving it in a tantalizing manner. "Take it! Your brother, Yukio, worked his ass off and got in with a scholarship, right? I'm surprised, you guys being poor and all! He probably stole the money needed to get into the Academy! Or maybe he hit the casinos?" Shiratori jeered.
Rin turned his head over his shoulder and stared at Shiratori with wide eyes, not because of shock, but because of white hot rage.
"But I suppose desperate times call for desperate-"
He wasn't given the chance to finish his sentence as Rin punched him in the face so hard that he was flung to the side, rendered on one knee and his hand on his cheek where Rin had punched him.
"You fucking bastard, you can talk shit about me all you want, but I don't wanna ever hear you spouting jackshit about Yukio, ya hear me?!" Rin snarled with a deadly fire burning in his eyes. He was mad-no, he was beyond livid!
"That hurt...you really went too far!" Shiratori yelled and stood up. He almost sounded surprised.
Suddenly, his fingernails grew dangerously longer and sharper, a tail sprouted from his backside, his ears became long and pointed and finally, horns resembling a ram's grew on the sides of his head. Rin couldn't believe what he was seeing. He looked like a demon.
Rin froze, unable to think clearly. But one thought really registered in his mind: 'He's not...human?'
Shiratori's guys took Rin's moment of vulnerability and pinned him down on the ground.
'Wha-?! Can't...can't they see him?! Why aren't they afraid?!'
Shiratori stalked towards the barrel and pulled out the metal rod, revealing the bottom part of the rod to be glowing reddish-orange with heat.
"How does that saying go again? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and an evil for an evil, right? Heh, I'm going to enjoy hearing you scream and beg for forgiveness for what you've done to me!" he cackled as he went closer and closer to Rin.
The level of implied brutality to come didn't sit right with Shiratori's cronies. One of the guys spoke nervously, "T-That's enough, Shiratori. If you go any furth-"
"Shut up!" Shiratori interrupted him by kicking him up his chin, causing him to fly backwards. He crouched down in front of Rin and then grabbed a handful of his hair to forcefully bring his head up.
Rin felt immense fear and panic well up in his heart, making it pound wildly against his ribcage.
'He-He's really serious about this...!'
He opened his mouth to call for help but his words all died in his mouth, paralyzed with fear.
"Hm...where should I burn you? Your nose? Your mouth? Or how about your eyes?!" Shiratori cackled once again, his eyes gaining a manic glint as he drew the burning hot rod closer to his face.
"I WANNA HEAR YOU SCREAM!"
The rod was so close to Rin's face that he could feel the searing heat coming off of it. His eyes widened.
Badump. Badump. Badump.
The dread and trepidation was overwhelming him he can hardly breathe!
Badump! Badump!
Rin snapped.
"S-STOP!" he finally screamed, pent up terror evident in his face and voice. This seemed to serve as a trigger as Rin suddenly exploded in blue flames, throwing Shiratori backwards.
The lackeys who had been pinning down Rin were now whimpering as they were burned severely and immediately crawled backwards. The three of them ran away in fear of what they had just witnessed.
Shiratori would have chewed them out for running away like cowards but right now he was staring at Rin in awe as the flames slowly died down into nothing.
Meanwhile, Rin was staring at his hands with wonder and shock. 'What the hell was that? And why am I not hurt?'
"Satan's blue flames...there is no doubt. You are the rumored half-breed offspring of Satan. I wasn't mistaken after all." he muttered to himself as he set down the metal rod that he was still holding on the ground. He slowly walked towards Rin and then crouched down to his level.
"My name is Astaroth, the Demon King of Rot. Come with me to Gehenna, Satan has been waiting for you...brother." Shiratori, or Astaroth, offered him a hand. Rin, on the other hand, was having trouble processing the situation.
'Satan? Brother?!'
"What are...?"
Running footsteps echoed in the alley. The two turned to the direction of the sound but before they could assess who the intruder was, Astaroth got kicked right in the cheek, sending him flying.
It took time, but Rin finally realized who Shiratori's assailant was.
"A-Allen?!"
But Allen, who had his left hand over his left eye for some reason, didn't respond.
'How did Allen find me?'
"Y-You...! That stench! You're an Exorcist who carries the power of God!" Rin could have sworn that he detected fear in Shiratori's shaky voice.
'Allen's an exorcist? And what did he mean by the "power of God"?' He looked up at Allen once again.
"Allen. What's he-?"
"Rin, run! Now!" Allen told him with an air of authority that Rin failed to notice.
Shiratori stood once again. "Ah, I see! You're the one who Father met fifteen years ago! The Exorcist who also hosts a Noah!" he exclaimed with contempt.
Allen tilted his head to the side in fake confusion. "What are you talking about? You must have mistaken me for someone else."
Shiratori bursted in laughter at this. "Oh? Trying to hide the truth, eh? No matter! Father will be pleased when I bring you home along with the young Prince!" he cried in excitement.
"Young Prince?" Rin questioned. Whatever was happening, he was barely following any of it. Allen was an exorcist? He was some kind of prince?
"You don't know? I thought you knew of your heritage!" he exclaimed and then cackled loudly.
"Heritage? What are you talking about?!" Rin angrily demanded.
This made Shiratori laugh harder. He sounded maniac. He sounded insane.
"You are a son of Satan, the only one to inherit his blue flames!" he proclaimed with a grin on his face and his arms outstretched.
Rin's eyes widened considerably. 'W-What did he just say...?'
Hurray for early updates, LOL! Aye so I just remembered that I promised a list of things here that are different from the old version because I had thought that some o' you would be too lazy to reread but I guess that that's not a problem. Thanks for your never-ending support, guys! c;
Oh, just wanted to share. There's really one thing that's stopping me from writing chapters as much as I should. And that one thing...is Elsword. "School" is gonna be the second thing by next month, though. e.e
Alright, don't forget to R&R, guys! :)