Those who Favor Fire

Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

Updated: Rin vs Iblis has been extended a bit.

Chapter Fourteen: Oath Management

Bon and Yuri continued their debate. Rin remained on the ground, the lash of Iblis' whip wrapped around his throat, his eyes glazed. Quietly Angel straightened. "Are you ready?" he murmured to Caliburn, his expression peaceful.

The sword began to vibrate with anticipation.

Angel flipped Caliburn up so the sword rested on his shoulder, the blade against his own throat.

It was only after his talk with Bon during their mission to the States that Rin truly realized just how long Bon had been avoiding him. When Bon stopped his avoidance his fights with Izumo ramped up almost immediately. Rin remembered:

Rin knocked then stood in the hall outside the apartment shifting nervously from one foot to the other.

Angel looked surprised when he answered the door. "Okumura-kun, what bring you here?"

"Well, um, there was something I wanted to ask Lightning?" Rin said uncertainly.

"Come on in," Lightning called from deeper in the apartment. Angel stepped aside, holding the door for Rin. Lightning was seated at their kitchen table, stacks of reports were arrayed around him. Angel moved one stack from a chair to the top of the refrigerator and offered Rin the newly cleared seat.

"What is all this?" Rin asked staring at the masses of paper.

"He's looking for a pattern in Iblis' activity," Angel explained. "He thinks we might be able to figure out his next move and counter it."

"Really?" Rin asked impressed.

"Well, no luck so far," Lightning admitted. "But it's better than sitting around twiddling our thumbs. So what did you need to ask that couldn't wait for your recitation session tomorrow morning?"

"Um, well, the mission in California? One of the snake demons called me 'Pretender to the Throne of Flames'?" Rin stammered. "I don't have a clue what it meant."

"Iblis thinks you're planning a coup," Angel answered before Lightning could and seemed rather pleased with himself to have done so. "You do have a very legitimate claim to his throne."

"But why would I want it?" Rin replied wrinkling his nose. "Why would I want to be king of a bunch of demons?"

"It'd certainly solve our Blessed Ashes shortage," Lightning remarked. "Not to mention putting you in a position to end the Flame Kingdom's war on Assiah with a single decree."

"I want to take Iblis out," Rin shaking his head. "But take his place? No, thanks."

"Anubis is barely seated on his throne and Amaimon is dealing with the territory he reclaimed when Astaroth fell plus the territory Kamiki ceded to him from Azazel's Kingdom last fall. Lucifer has fallen. With no clear successor the Kingdom of Light has become a mass of quarreling duchies and Iblis and Azazel are both gobbling whatever they can at the borders. Neither of them are really the Hell Kings that we of Assiah want gaining more power. If Iblis falls without a successor Beelzebub is the most likely to expand into his territory and he isn't a friend to Assiah either. Now we've added the Thousand Pantheon's revolt to the growing anarchy and there's Gaia's returned and reunification of the Earth and Water kingdoms under her. Those may very well be good things, but it's still engendering more unrest." Lightning shrugged, "Iblis is a problem but if Gehenna gets much more chaotic, there'll be no telling how the chips will fall. If you take Iblis down there won't be much doubt that you're the rightful King of Flames, you could stabilize an eighth of Gehenna, add the Fire Kingdom to Gaia's coalition and nearly half of Gehenna would be at peace with Assiah. Now, I don't want you to go after Iblis or do anything to hurry a confrontation between the two of you along, but it's coming, you know that as well as anyone. So think about what you'll do after you win it, Rin. You saw what Iblis started in California and the other attacks, if you lose it will be disastrous for Assiah."

Rin swallowed and nodded.

Then Lightning cracked a smile, "A little more than you wanted from your transparent excuse for stopping by?" he asked. "Now are you going to tell us why you're really here?"

Rin looked guilty then with a sigh he admitted, "'Cause Bon and Izumo know to look for me at Mephisto's? Then when they find me there that leads right into their follow up fight about which of them's to blame for making me want to hide in the first place."

"I thought they were trying to get along this week," Lightning remarked.

"As long as they think I'm in earshot," Rin replied. "Only I hear way better than they realize and they always forget they're trying not to let me know they're fighting and start shouting at each other... And sometimes I just like hanging out with Mephisto-ni, not that either of them will believe that! Besides he's been telling Egyn and Amaimon that anime's a good way to figure out how to act around humans then he shows them a bunch of shoujo harem stuff. I owe it to Shiemi to tell those two that he's lying through his teeth and she won't like it if they start acting like that."

"Should we speak to them?" Angel offered. "Suguro and Kamiki I mean, not the romantically befuddled demon kings."

"No!" Rin exclaimed, he hopped up to grab Angel's arm as if he were afraid the Paladin was about to do rush off to do just that. "Paku tried it, it was horrible! Bon got all guilty and weird and then I just wanted to do anything to stop making him unhappy about being oath bound to me and that made Izumo mad and she told Bon about how I was feeling which made him even guiltier and round and round we go."

"You should talk with Pheles," Angel said. "An oath shouldn't have so much influence on you."

Rin hunched his shoulders guiltily. "He's just going to lecture me again."

Lightning patted Rin on the head, "Because when you give your word you want to keep it. And not only that, you want to make everyone happy in the keeping of it. You're going to have to get over that tendency Rin-kun, you know that don't you? You'll tear yourself to shreds trying to make everyone happy all the time."

Rin sighed and buried his head in his arms. "Can't I just hide here for a little?"

"You can help me sort reports," Angel said. He handed Rin a tall stack of papers "There is a system to this mess or so I've been told."

The next morning Rin let himself into Mephisto's office. He slipped through the barely open door then stood with his back against the wall, eyes fixed on the edge of the plush rug a few inches in front of his toes. "Mephisto-ni," he said quietly. "I need help dealing with my oath to Bon."

"Excellent, you're ready to begin the next stage of your education as a demon," Mephisto exclaimed. "Or more correctly, you're ready to make up a developmental stage that you missed because you weren't born a fully awakened demon. Until the winter before last your human blood sheltered you from demon oaths. You neither learned nor needed to learn how to cope with them. What took you so long to ask for the help I've been trying to push on you since your first lesson in negotiation?"

Rin looked away.

"Ah, no matter!" Mephisto declared. "We'll need Ryuji-kun for this." He was across the room in a flash,. A key ring appeared out of thin air in his hand and when he used it to open the door Bon's Chemistry class was on the other side, "You don't mind if I borrow Suguro-san for a moment?" He asked the teacher and swept Bon out of the room without waiting for an answer.

"Rin-kun has asked my assistance in learning to manage his bond to you," Mephisto announced grinning madly.

Rin stared at Mephisto with wide, horror stricken eyes.

"Ah… So that's why it took you so long," Mephisto said, putting a hand on Rin's shoulder. "To you, the idea of managing your oath feels like a betrayal of what you promised." He spun around to fix Bon with a laser-like stare. "What do you think of the notion of Rin-kun learning to resist the power over him that his Oath grants you?"

"It would be a relief," Bon told Rin. "I worry all the time about whether or not I'm abusing your Oath."

"There, you see, you have his blessing," Mephisto said. "Now, the first thing the two of you should know: There are certain perks to being the parent of a fully awakened demon. For example, filial piety is a default setting, enforced by Oaths. No one knows exactly what the oath is since infants make it instinctively, without words, but obedience to one's parents is ingrained. Thus it is the parents' duty to teach their children independence, to become consciously aware of the Oath's pull and to learn to counterbalance it."

"How could that be?" Bon demanded. "Satan led a rebellion against God. You and Amaimon are in revolt against Satan, who is your father, and Egyn hates him even more than the two of you. Why would Satan teach you to resist his influence?"

"I said it is a default setting," Mephisto reiterated. "Satan and his followers in the first generation were not born subject to Demon Oaths. Originally they owed obedience only to the Eldest but in overcoming that inclination they unintentionally created the Oaths. The second generation, the Nephilim, were the undeniable proof of their parents' defiance of the Eldest's will. As we Nephilim came of age we discovered what our parents had wrought, much to our horror."

"My knowledge of demon-kind's history is patchy and second hand for the next few dozen generations. I was first consigned to the Void as punishment for the war I waged on the Heavens along with Satan and the rest of his followers. When those few of us who managed to survive returned to the Reflected Worlds I learned the Eldest was less the tyrant than I'd previously believed and returned to the Void as a voluntary exile to properly pay the toll for my willfulness." Mephisto shrugged, "By the time I returned to Assiah from my second exile, Demon Oaths were simply a fact of life not the shock they were to those of my generation. Demon parents teach their children to deal with them just as modern human parents teach their children to look both ways before crossing the street."

Seeing Bon readying another argument, Mephisto gestured for him to hold for a moment longer. "The trick is you initially need a powerful Oath to someone you trust absolutely to practice resistance. Fortunately, those born as fully awakened demons instinctually bind themselves to their parents or in the absence of parents to whomever raises them while they are still infants. And you are correct Ryuji-kun, Satan is not in the running for any best parenting awards. Luckily an acrimonious relationship between mates creates a natural counterbalance for their children's oaths: Amaimon and Egyn think for themselves because they've always had to chose between their bonds to their mothers and their bond to Satan. Astaroth and Iblis were less fortunate but there is little I can do to rectify their poor upbringing."

"I don't think the Myodha will like it when they figure out you're using Bon to teach me how to break Oaths," Rin said looking agitated despite Bon's approval. He couldn't help but worry that he was going to get the other boy in trouble somehow.

Bon shook his head. "My dad planned this. He told me I could be a buffer for you, protect you from other Oaths until you'd figured out how to manage them."

Mephisto grinned, "Yes, you are to act in loco parentis for Rin-kun. The bond between the two of you is very strong. As you've discovered, it works on Rin even in the absence of specific orders from you." The older demon turned to Rin. "You are drawn to please Ryuji-kun, to live up to his expectations. I've been watching you very closely this last year: When your attention is drawn to the fact you can recognized the Oath's influence but when you don't think about it you simply acted in accord with your subconscious interpretation of the Oath's demands."

"It's really okay?" Rin asked Bon.

"Hell yeah," Bon replied. "I never wanted this much power over you. Getting us back on even footing would be great for me."

"Perfect," Mephisto exclaimed clapping his hands. "Now, little brother, you have two conflicting pulls: Ryuji-kun has said he wants less power over you but you and I both know he also wants you to pass the the Exorcist Exam in January... Even if it's not in your nature to be particularly studious, certainly not to the extent of standing up the lovely Izumo-chan four times in twice as many weeks to review your homework instead. Can you feel the tension between those two contradictory desires: Relieve Ryuji-kun of his worries about abusing your Oath of Fealty or his fears that the Grigori may at any moment reinstate their ultimatum that you must pass the Exam or die?"

Rin concentrated, his forehead scrunching up. After several moments he shook his head.

Mephisto crouched in front of Rin. He put his hands on Rin's temples, staring fixedly into Rin's eyes. "You must learn this," he stated. "You've seen the blindings on your soul in moments of extremity, but you have to learn to sense them all the time, every moment of every day."

Rin felt as if he were drowning in emeralds.

"When you can feel bonds pulling at you, shaping you, you can balance one against another. When you are aware and in control you are the spider sitting in the center of a web, the one in control. When the oaths work on you unaware, you are nothing more than clay in a potter's hands. When you look in the mirror and see what you've been shaped into you'll believe that the gargoyle staring back at you was always you. You will learn to manage this."

Rin snapped the whip around his neck, whirled around and grabbed Caliburn's hilt. He forced the sword point first into the ground.

Angel blinked at Rin, his reflexes slowed by blood loss. "I'll be unconscious in a few minutes, useless," he pointed out. He'd never contested Rin's demonic strength and didn't bother to now. "This is the best course."

Rin shook his head. "You'll die."

"Which resolves my dilemma quite neatly." Angel's gaze strayed past Rin's shoulder settling on Iblis. "A Hell King, I'll never have a better chance."

"No." Rin smiled, "I made a deal."

"Oh," As Angel tried to process that, his knees buckled.

Rin caught the Paladin as he fell. For a moment he pressed his hand over the wound on Angel's side, cauterizing it. Then he handed the older knight over to Bon. "When we get back to Assiah, remember to tell me that the promise I made to Ueno distracts me from my Oath to you or something so it doesn't count," Rin said. "But um, wait until we're in front of her okay? I don't actually want to attack her or even Suzuki, so that's the only way she'll know I'm not bound by her stupid Oath anymore."

Bon smiled broadly, "Sounds good to me."

"You're still loyal to them?" Yuri asked as the implications of Rin returning to Assiah with Bon sunk in.

Rin scowled at her. "You could have just asked: My friendships are real, the bonds I've made with them are real."

"So even with their lies laid bare you still cleave to them?" Yuri sounded hurt.

"What lies?" Rin snapped. "Bon and Izumo both worry way more about my Fealty Oath to Bon than I do. I trust them. I trust Bon to do what's right and to look out for me. I trust Izumo to kick his ass if he he can't manage to do both at the same time." He glanced back at Bon. "Don't override Iblis and I's deal okay?" he said. "Me against Iblis, for everything: Our lives and the Flame Kingdom. That's how I understood it. Sound about right to you?" he asked Iblis.

"For your mother's sake, I wanted to leave you an out short of death," Iblis replied, "But if you're too foolish to take it… Let it be on your head."

"No!" Yuri exclaimed, desperation filling her voice. "Rin! The True Cross is out to kill you. Like always, the Paladin is nothing more than their weapon. Give him up and Iblis will allow the other one safe passage out of Gehenna."

"I will not!" Iblis protested.

Yuri turned and stomped her foot angrily as she glared at Iblis, "You will! Your father and I's first priority is bringing Rin home. The Paladin intends to kill my son, I won't allow that to pass but the other boy's fate is incidental. If sparing him will bring my son home-"

"He's the leader of the humans who have been offering refuge to those who've risen up against me!" Iblis snarled. "Beyond that, I won't negotiate with a half-human upstart. Your son will submit to me, unconditionally. Then he can beg me for his companions' lives."

Rin snorted at that. "Mom might have convinced me that Bon's best chance was for me to surrender. That'd really screw with my head because I'm not leaving Angel to die but I'm oath bound to look out for Bon and I still need practice managing Oaths. But you? Every time you open your mouth I just want to punch you that much more."

"What's stopping you?" Iblis asked. He shoved Yuri aside. As he broke contact between the two of them his flames shifted back to orange.

"You've got the barrier?" Rin asked Bon. "They're not supposed to attack you, but I'm not putting it past Iblis to be pulling some sort of word game on me."

The Aria nodded and Rin unsheathed his katana and wakizashi. He stepped through the barrier to face Iblis. The flames forming the lash of Iblis' whip reformed, as he and Rin circled each other warily he set up a complex defensive screen of crisscrossing strikes. The whip-cracks sounded like gunfire rolling across the sulfurous plane. Rin took several moments to analyze the pattern then lunged, attempting to get inside of Iblis' attack-zone. Iblis leapt back, changing the angle of his attack in a heartbeat and Rin was forced to roll under the blow. He flipped upright, narrowly evading the follow-up.

Mephisto, Izumo, Ucchusma and Ryujin arrived. Yuri glared at Mephisto, "Are you happy?" she demanded. "Now that you've set your brothers at one another's throats?"

A look of strain crossed Mephisto's face. "Mother-chan," he acknowledged her with a respectful bow. "I fear I must refuse to recognize Iblis as anything more than Father's catspaw. He's a brainless tool in Father's continued bid to hold power in Assiah without paying the cost demanded of the rest us for the privilege and no brother of mine."

"The Oath you tricked me into breaking still holds power, even though I've died?" Yuri asked as she noted the tension Mephisto couldn't completely hide when speaking with her.

"I'm saving it for something special," Mephisto said with a toothy smiley.

"Your father will never allow you to take anything meaningful from me," Yuri warned. "You know that. I'm no good to you as a trump card, the consequences would be too severe, especially for you."

"You have no idea what my goals are or the costs I'm willing to bare to achieve them," Mephisto replied. "I am the ruler of Entropy. It is my sacred, self-imposed, role to maintain the balance that we call life on the precipice between the frozen death of stasis and the fiery death of chaos."

"You're a dilettante with no true dedication to any cause but your own amusement," Yuri reprimanded him.

"And you trust Father's world view far too blindly," Mephisto said. "Now isn't there a spectacle that we should be watching?"

Rin allowed Iblis' whip to tangle around his raised sword arm. He ignored the burning pain from the lash and, before Iblis could yank him off balance, he charged. Iblis used the handle of his whip to block Rin's wakizashi.

Bound together by the length of the lash, Rin and Iblis were forced into close combat. Even if Kurikara had been free they were too close for Rin to have made effective use of his sword. The handle of Iblis' whip was meant to double as a kosh, but with Rin's weight on the lash it was all Iblis could do to use it to shield himself from Rin's wakizashi. Iblis slammed his free fist into Rin's ribs. Rin grunted with pain but he pivoted on one foot and drove his knee into Iblis' gut in return.

They traded blows for several moments, Rin wondered if his ribs would hold out and hoped his was doing at least as much damage to Iblis. Early in his studies with Angel, Rin had regularly resorted to taking hits to open holes in his opponent's guard but with Iblis he was afraid that he was coming off worse for the exchange. Then it happened, Iblis drew back too far in an effort to hit Rin harder leaving himself off balance. Rin twisted to the right, yanking his sword, and consequently Iblis' whip wide, then followed up driving his wakizashi through the hole he'd created in Iblis' defenses. The blade struck the orange flames cloaking Iblis' body and skidded off them without penetrating.

Iblis laughed as he backhanded Rin, the blow snapped the whip's lash and sent Rin flying backward. "You're simply too weak, too young to defeat me," the Flame King declared as strode over to where Rin had fallen and planted his foot on the center of Rin's back. Rin yelped in pain as Iblis' weight bore down on his spine. "I think I should appease your mother. Human though she was born, she has Father wrapped around her finger. So I won't kill you but it will take at least a few days for you to heal from a broken back. Plenty of time." He knelt to grab Rin's hair and wrenched his head up. "Did you know most people burned at the stake die of suffocation? Either by strangulation before the fire is lit as a mercy or from the smoke. But they got creative during the Inquisition, a nice smokeless fire and you hung above it to roast for the crowd's amusement." Rin squirmed, gasping in pain as his spine was forced to arch backward at an unnatural angle, trapped between Iblis' weight on his back and the Hell King's inextricable pull on his head. "Of course your two humans only breath here because you will it. I wager that they'll suffocate after all... When you can't stand the sound of their screams any longer."

Rin's flames exploded throwing Iblis off him. When he stood his flames had coalesced into massive wings. He snatched up Kurikara, sapphire blue flames licked along the blade as Rin lifted the sword.

Iblis snapped his whip, snaring Rin's legs. Rin cut through the lash before it could tighten then closed with Iblis. At a sword's length a whip was useless but Rin didn't have a hold of the lash this time. Iblis flipped the handle, the base was heavily weighted and there was enough give in the haft to add a significant amount of kinetic energy it's blows.

Rin dodged and the weighted handle whistled past his ear, easily capable of breaking bones or fracturing a skull. There was even a risk of a well placed blow snapping Kurikara if Rin used his sword to block. Rin sidestepped a downward blow, slicing into Iblis' side as he did so. This time a thin line of blue appeared among Iblis' orange flames. As Rin shifted to an attack stance his face lost expression, his fiery wings spread behind him. Repeatedly he wove around Iblis' crude attacks to score small cuts on his opponent. A network of tiny, almost insignificant blue faultlines began to form throughout Iblis' flames.

"You can't hurt me!" Iblis thundered, swinging viciously at Rin. "You're too weak! You've seen that! Just surrender and accept your fate!" Coolly Rin answered Iblis' challenge with a glazing slice the sheared through Iblis' fingers, the whip fell from his mutilated hand. "You can't do this. I am the Flame King! You're a half-human bastard!" he protested.

Looking every inch an avenging angel Rin lunged at Iblis. "Shut up and burn," he commanded, driving Kurikara's point deep into Iblis' chest. Blue flames erupted from the sword linking with network of earlier cuts Rin had inflicted. For several moments the blue and orange flames warred across Iblis' body then he was consumed by a bonfire of iridescent blue. For several minutes afterwards the only sound was Rin's harsh panting as he struggled to pull his flames back in. Then he stood and yanked his sword free of the charred corpse at his feet.

"Iblis, King of Flames is dead!" Ucchusma declared in a ringing voice. "Long live King Rin!" The cheer was quickly picked up by the others who'd aligned themselves with the Myo'o Dhari. Across the battlefield Fire Demons, both those aligned with Rin and those aligned with Iblis fell to their knees.

Mephisto strolled up and took a seat on a boulder slightly below Rin. "As of today, the Kin of Iblis are no more. Those who owe their allegiance to the Flame Kingdom are now the Kin of Rin." He gave Rin a mischievous smile. "You'd best say something so they know what to expect from their new ruler."

For a long time Rin stood there, staring out at the thousands of demons kneeling before him. "Kin of Rin, that means you're my family," he said finally. "To me family means people who you look out for. So I'm swearing that I'll look out for you against people who'd attack you. I'll try to my best ability to sort out fights among you, because being family doesn't mean we'll always agree with each other. I'm not Iblis, I won't tell you that you've gotta like who I like and hate who I hate. I will remind you that I grew up in Assiah and I'm not going to standby while people attack my home, not even if they're my family. You don't have to like humans or help them, but either try to get along with 'em or leave 'em alone. Everybody got that?"