I am actively working on part II of this I swear lol.
What Makes A Horse Race
There are many things in this world that defy explanation.
Mankind will always notice them, no matter what. Such is inevitable.
But the imagination of people, the potential of mankind, the choices made by humanity—these are things far more mysterious than anything else.
"That's a hell of a fever…" Rin frowned down at the thermometer. "And he's dead asleep to boot. He must really be exhausted."
Yukio had been coming down with a cold recently, but when Rin woke up that morning, he discovered his brother in a state much worse than he had been all week. He was starting to get really worried about him.
"I bet he's been overworking himself…" he muttered. "Even though I told him to take it easy until he gets better."
"You know how Yukio gets." Nagatomo let out a sigh. The priest was sitting at Yukio's bedside, changing the damp towel on his forehead with a cooler one. "Entrance exams are right around the corner, and on top of that, he's been extra hard to himself lately, ever since…"
"Yeah…" Rin looked away, unable to bear the sympathetic glance Nagatomo spared for him. Still, he felt it. But he didn't let the stabbing ache in chest keep him down for long. "I know. He's stubborn. He's always been that way." He shook his head and gave Yukio one last worried look before catching Nagatomo's eye. "I'm gonna go out for a bit. Is that okay? I just wanna go get some more medicine. I noticed we were running low. And I'll probably stop by the grocery shop too so I can make something good for him when I come back."
Nagatomo nodded. "Of course, take your time. I'll keep an eye on Yukio in the meantime."
"Thanks."
On his way out, as Rin stopped by the kitchen to take inventory of what he needed to buy, his eyes were drawn to the small safe on top of the refrigerator where the money for the monastery's communal needs was stored. Despite all the time he spent in the kitchen, Rin almost always forgot the safe was there because any time he was sent out to shop for groceries, the other priests usually already had the money he needed ready and pushed it into his hand as they ushered him out with strict instructions to stay on task and not buy unnecessary things. Today though, for some inexplicable reason, Rin didn't forget. Maybe it was the ghost of routine chasing after him, but he had felt wrongfooted and disoriented when he had headed towards the door and then he'd turned around and brought down the safe, using a chair to help him reach for it.
For the most part, the safe was left unlocked. There was a ledger inside of it that kept track of the money being put in and being taken out. Rin didn't spend any time looking at the past entries. Instead, after taking out an estimate of what he would need, he hastily jotted down the amount on the ledger and scribbled his name next to it before shoving it back in and putting the safe back where it belonged. Finally, he headed out. As the big wooden doors of the entrance shut behind him, the temptation to call out an, "I'll be back!" burned on his tongue, but he didn't say it, just stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked off in silence.
The walk to the drug store wasn't far, but Rin took his time getting there, heeding Nagatomo's advice. His head was buzzing with too many thoughts, none of which he could really put together. Not that he really wanted to. He just wanted them to go away. He wished it was as easy as shoving them down and ignoring them, but when he was feeling like this, Rin knew the best way to deal with it was by doing something, anything to distract himself. Hence, the errands. The problem was that while he wanted nothing more than to prepare food and take care of Yukio, he also had little desire to be home.
He'd been staying out all week as it was, and that was probably why Yukio had even gotten this bad in the first place. If he had been around, if he had noticed, he would've probably gotten his brother to settle down and take it easy in time. Guilt mixed in with the anxiety Rin felt over the situation. His brother had always been a sickly kid, but it had been some time since he had seen him so bedridden, and given the timing of it, it made Rin feel as if the world was lining up things to make them both feel like shit. It wasn't fair. All he wanted right now was for them to catch a break. All he wanted was for Yukio to be okay.
What am I doing? Rin thought to himself, biting his lip in a harshly as if to scold himself. Yukio's depending on me, I can't keep him waiting.
With that, he picked up his pace. As he did, he took a closer look at his surroundings in an attempt to relocate himself. Rin was as familiar with his neighborhood as he was with the back of his hand, so usually he just let his feet take him to wherever he needed to be without much thinking. However, after determining he'd taken the long way to the store and calculating he would get there in eight more minutes if he didn't slow down, an unusual sight caught his eye and brought him to a standstill.
Huh. Has this place always been here?
It was a really strange house. Rin was shocked that this was the first time he had noticed it given how much it stuck out. It sat between a pair of perfectly normal residential condos, surrounded by an antiquated wooden fence that looked out of place next to them—though nothing quite topped the bizarre, brightly purple rooftop of the house. And yet, despite its gaudy appearance, there was something quaint about the place, welcoming even.
Inexplicably, he found himself stepping closer to it, almost as if in a daze. Then, after he made it past the fence's entrance, he realized that he had done just that and tried to scramble backward, but his legs would not stop moving forward.
"W-W-W-What?! Wait a sec, what am I doing? I can't just randomly barge into someone's house!" The words came out of him in a panicked hiss, yet even verbalizing how crazy he was acting didn't stop him from continuing to put one foot in front of the other. Before he knew it, he was standing right before the front door of the house, trying his best to resist the urge to pull it open. To his endless mortification, the door was opened by someone else. A man wearing a black, neatly pressed three-piece suit, who looked remarkably like a butler down to the white gloves on his hands.
"Ah, a guest. Welcome."
The man bowed at the waist gracefully, making Rin realize that this was, in fact, a butler.
"Uh," he said, growing wide-eyed when the man straightened up and beckoned him in.
"Please head right in."
Rin shook his head furiously. "A-Ah, sorry!" he stuttered. "I'm not a—I didn't mean to—"
Even as Rin tried to explain the situation, his legs continued to disobey him. He walked right in, past the butler who silently closed the doors after him. "I just wandered in here by accident!" Rin blurted out, throwing backwards glances at the butler while simultaneously kicking off his shoes at the entrance. "I'm not a guest! I was just on my way to the store and—ugh, come on, cut it out!"
He attacked his own legs with clenched fists, growing frustrated at the fact that they would just not listen. This is weird. This is SO weird. "Why can't I stop moving forward?!" he hissed savagely under his breath.
"That is because our meeting is inevitable," a voice answered him.
This time it was not the butler who had spoken. Instead, the voice that curled around him was warm like honey, playful like the wind. Rin looked around him, trying to find the source of it.
"And because there is something you want to inquire about here," the voice continued after a beat. Rin noticed then that his unwilling trek had brought him to another pair of doors. Unlike the gaudy entrance whose frame had been the same shade of purple as the roof of the house, the shoji doors Rin stood in front of now were gorgeously decorated, displaying a pattern of carefully painted bunnies hopping through wisps of smoke.
The butler, who had followed him so silently that Rin had briefly forgotten about him, stepped forward to slide the door open, and immediately, Rin's eyes became clouded by a thick wall of smoke. Strong incense lingered in the air, making his nose wrinkle. It wasn't an unpleasant scent, but it was a bit much to be assaulted with so suddenly. Thankfully, with the door open, it began to disperse, and when it sufficiently faded, Rin's attention was drawn to the lone figure residing within the room.
There was a man reclining across a fancy-looking sofa. He was wearing a light pink kimono that hung loosely on his thin frame, leaving some of the skin of his chest bare. The fabric stretched past his knees, long and flowing, pooling elegantly across the floor. Rin's eyes traced the cherry blossom pattern evenly scattered across the kimono briefly, but he was ultimately drawn to the man's face. Purple hair and a purple goatee, a shade lighter than the one chosen for the house's decor, framed the pale, gaunt face before him.
"Welcome~" the man said in that same smooth, velvety tone of voice. He smiled at Rin with an elusive yet welcoming smile before bringing the long thin pipe held between his fingers to his mouth. A ring of smoke escaped his lips a moment later, slow, transient. In the silence that followed, the man's emerald eyes regarded him carefully. There was an eerie, luminous glow to them that made Rin swallow uneasily, but when he took a step forward this time, it was a decision made of his own will. His genuine curiosity was luring him in.
"Who are you?"
The man blew out another stream of smoke from his mouth.
"The object in your pocket," he said and stretched out his hand. "Please take it out and give it to me. Quickly now."
"Huh?" Rin scowled, annoyed at having his question ignored, but it was such an odd request that he felt inclined to follow it anyway. He didn't have anything in his pocket other than his wallet. Actually, was he about to get robbed? The thought occurred to him just as he was reaching into his hoodie for it, but when he opened his mouth to protest, the man spoke again.
"Not that one." Rin watched as those eyes flickered towards the left pocket of his pants. The motion reminded Rin that there was, in fact, something in that pocket, but the realization made him stiffen.
"Why do you—"
The man's fingers curled in impatiently, cutting Rin off. He had remarkably long nails. Sharp too. Under the weight of that unmoving stare, Rin reached into his pants' pocket and reluctantly took out an old flip phone which he even more reluctantly placed into the man's hand.
"Your name?" the man asked while he gave the phone a cursory look.
"...Okumura Rin."
"Hmm… Written with the kanji for 'phosphorus', isn't it? How curious."
"Uh." Rin faintly recalled that was accurate and was taken aback the other had guessed that so easily. "What's so curious about it?"
"Oh? Don't you know?" The man curled in his legs and sat up, granting Rin a slow, amused smile. "It is a word of Greek origins meaning "bearer of light." Of course, some translations interpret that as a foolish fire, or a false hope. I wonder what type of light you bear, Okumura Rin..."
There was a pensive expression in the man's eyes. He looked at Rin with a gaze that seemed to see right through him.
"Your birthday?"
After that thorough speech, Rin's curiosity pushed him to answer again. He wondered what type of response he would get this time.
"It's on December 27," he said.
To his disappointment, instead of revealing what might be unique or special about the date of his birth, the man only snickered.
"To think that you would tell a stranger these things... Rather careless of you, don't you think~?"
The teasing words had Rin's cheeks flushing at once. "You're the one that asked!" he spluttered. "What's so important about it anyway! It's not like you can figure out where I live or something with just that."
"Are you sure about that?" The man's lips twisted into a smirk. "When you give someone your name, you offer them a way to capture your soul. Your birthday, on the other hand, gives them a way to capture the path of your past and your future." He paused for a beat and tilted his head. "Are you interested in my name?"
Unamused, Rin shot the man an irritated glare. "I asked you for it earlier," he groused, but the complaint went ignored.
"You may call me Mephisto Pheles," the man revealed with a grandiose bow without rising from his seat. When he straightened up, he gave Rin a small wink. "Of course, this is only an alias," he continued with a light snicker.
"What's the point of telling me that!" Rin snapped. His mounting irritation reminded him that he was wasting his time here. "Anyway, give me back that phone! As I was saying when I got here, I'm not a guest or whatever. I just wandered in here by accident and I've gotta get going!"
As soon as the words finished coming out of his mouth, the doors behind Rin closed shut with an audible snap that made him jump. When he looked behind him though, he saw there was no one there who could have done it. A shiver ran down the length of his spine, at least until he remembered the butler who had led him inside the house.
It must have just been him… he told himself, pushing away his unease. His heart jumped again, however, when he turned back to Mephisto and saw the butler in question standing next to the sofa now.
"Don't be in such a hurry. I told you already, didn't I?" Mephisto offered him a toothy grin this time, as if he had no idea how flustered Rin was despite how visible it was. "Our meeting was inevitable. There are no such things as coincidences in this world after all... Though given by the look on your face, it doesn't seem like you believe me yet."
Indeed, Rin felt like his head was spinning. There was way too much going on and he didn't understand any of it. The only thing that broke him out of his daze was the sight of Mephisto slipping the phone Rin had given him into his pocket.
"Hey!"
Bristling, Rin made a swiping motion, intending to grab the man by the front of his kimono, but Mephisto smoothly moved back and out of the way. A snap of his fingers caused a change of scene that was so sudden and so inexplicable that it took Rin several seconds for his mind to catch up with his eyes.
"How the hell…?" Rin gaped. Somehow, the room around them had changed. The lone sofa Mephisto had been sitting on was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a round table sat in the middle of the room with two chairs on opposing sides of it. Rin and Mephisto sat on them, facing each other. The man's green eyes twinkled with rising amusement the longer Rin's mouth hung open.
"Are... you a magician or something?"
It was the only thing he could think of to say. Mephisto chuckled in response and did not confirm nor deny it. Instead, he made a light gesture towards his butler who was rolling a thin silver cart towards them.
"This is Belial, by the way. He's my most loyal servant," he explained as Belial slowed to a stop beside them. On the cart, there was a large, silver bowl filled with water. Beside it, there was an odd ornate object that looked like a compass, though one unlike any Rin had ever seen before. Belial set both of them on the table and Mephisto carefully picked up the compass and placed it on the water. It floated quietly, its weight causing the surface to momentarily ripple.
"Now, let's see…" Mephisto cupped his hands on either side of the bowl and peered into it. "Okumura Rin," he said, enunciating the name with a clear but quiet murmur. As his voice rang in the air, the compass floating on the water began to move with purpose, first slowly rotating towards the left, then towards the right. Mephisto stared at the compass with none of the levity he'd displayed moments ago. His expression had become as aloof and mysterious as it had been when Rin had first stepped into this room.
"The place you were born is different from where you live now. In fact, you have no knowledge regarding the matters behind your birth. You always suspected your adoptive father knew more than he was letting on about it, but you never wanted to ask him. And now, you cannot, since he recently passed away."
Rin's eyes widened and his face rapidly lost color as this strange man listed the details of his personal life as if he were reading them off a paper. No, as if he was reading them from the depths of the water itself. Rin felt the urge to lean over the table to peer at the bowl himself, but at the same time, the fear of what he might see there held him back.
"Ah," Mephisto continued. "It seems you have a younger brother you are worried about as well." His eyes slid up to meet Rin's shocked gaze. "Your twin, is it?"
"How... do you know all of that?"
Mephisto's playful smile returned. "Like I said, your name and birthday give much away."
"Just that?" Rin didn't understand it.
"Just that. That being said, I'll be keeping the phone~" Mephisto continued coyly, leaning back on his chair, which reminded Rin of how exactly he had ended up in this situation. He stood up abruptly and slammed his hands down on the table, glaring at Mephisto.
"Wait a minute! Like hell you are! What does that have to do with anything?!"
"You're very quick to lose your temper, aren't you?" Mephisto remarked, shaking his head. "In any case, I'll be keeping the phone as your form of payment. In response to being given something, compensation of equal value is necessary as payment. Too much or too little just won't do~ It must be without excess or deficiency. If not, there will be injury."
Injury?
Something about the explanation had Rin's unease returning all over again, but he shoved it down. He couldn't afford to continue to get lost in the other man's pace. It was already hard enough keeping up.
"I don't get what you're going on about, but I didn't ask for anything and didn't get anything back either!"
"Didn't you? Have your eyes not been opened a little more now than they were before~?"
To what? Before Rin could finish wrapping his head around that statement, Belial was taking the bowl of water away. The phone too, which Mephisto had handed over. Rin nearly tripped over himself trying to chase the butler before he left the room, but his legs were being uncooperative again. An invisible force was keeping him in place. Rin let out a low growl.
"Tell him to bring it back." Rin's fists were clenched tightly at his sides. "What kind of shop is this anyway?!"
Unfazed by this display of anger, Mephisto merely picked up his pipe from the table and took a slow drag from it before breathing out a trail of smoke. Rin had already gotten accustomed to the permeating scent of incense in the room, but the smoke curling around his face was far more pungent and made him wrinkle his nose.
"It took you long enough to ask that." Mephisto smirked. He made a gesture with his hand, inviting Rin to sit down again, but when Rin remained in place, glaring at him, he merely shrugged. "To put it simply, this is a wish granting shop. In exchange for granting a wish, I take what I see fit as payment. That's all."
"That's all?! What's so simple about it?!" Rin's scowl deepened. "Not to mention, how is that fair at all?!"
"Don't say that now." Mephisto let out a scolding tut. "I've already explained this, haven't I? Naturally, to grant something so precious as a heartfelt wish, the payment I take in return must be equally as precious to the person. This is just that sort of shop. Now, how about you go ahead and tell me what your wish is."
"I wish you'd give me my phone back," Rin growled darkly.
"Oh, but that wasn't your phone, was it? Not to mention, I'm afraid there's no refund offers here. Final sales only~" Mephisto said in a sing-song voice and an accompanying cheshire-like grin. It was infuriating.
"Well I don't have any other wish other than that!"
Mephisto raised one thin eyebrow. He cast Rin a doubtful look. "The fact that you were able to enter this shop means you have a wish. Think over it carefully," he advised.
"I already said I came here by accident! Originally, I was just on my way to the drug... store…" Rin trailed off. As he began his rant again, he was struck this time by the thoughts that had been weighing on his mind ever since he left the monastery. He had been thinking about how everything seemed to be spiraling out of control lately. His dad dying, Yukio getting sick—these were things Rin was powerless against. There was nothing he could do to prevent either of them. All he could do, at least in terms of his brother, was try to help him get better, and Rin had been slacking even on that lately, so he had scolded himself and renewed his determination to act like a proper big brother and help Yukio recover. That was when he had noticed this shop. Was that… a coincidence?
Or maybe, like this weird wish-granting guy had said, maybe Rin wandering in here was something like fate.
"Hey, can you help people get better? Like if they're sick? My brother… He's been getting sicker and sicker all week. He hasn't been this sick in forever and I'm really worried about him."
Mephisto hardly waited a beat. "I can," he confirmed with an approving smile.
"Really?" And just like that, with that answer, Rin felt like he could breathe a little easier. It was as if a weight had lifted off his shoulders and he lowered himself down on the chair with relief. Though he was still mad about the way this guy had swindled his dad's old phone out of him, a device that wasn't even working properly but that he'd been holding onto sentimentally, Rin felt okay with letting it go, if it was for Yukio's sake.
"Great! So, do you have some sort of magic potion for me to take to him? Or do you just snap your fingers and he'll be all better?" Rin leaned forward eagerly, having already accepted that this shop worked in mysterious ways, even if he didn't really get it.
"Before we get to that," Mephisto cut in smoothly, "let's talk about payment."
"Huh?! Wait, what about the phone?!"
"Ah, well, that was that and this is this. Now tell me about this sickness. When exactly did it start? What are the symptoms? And what has been done so far to remedy them?" Mephisto shot these questions back to back, and then fired off a few more in that same brisk tone, preventing Rin from doing anything other than provide an answer for each one.
"I see…" Mephisto hummed thoughtfully after Rin finished stammering out the last answer. "Last question then. Tell me, do you have any bad habits?"
The change of topic was so random that it took Rin by surprise. His brow creased with confusion. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Nothing comes to mind?" Mephisto pressed, looking at Rin with that piercing gaze of his. It made Rin shift uncomfortably again.
"No?" he said unsurely.
"Is that so…? Hmm, very well then. It's settled!" Mephisto nodded to himself before thrusting his pipe forward until it was pointed directly to Rin's face. "The price for this consultation will be a hefty serving of nikujaga! Please go out and purchase the ingredients for it. I will expense it. And you may use the kitchen here to prepare it when you return."
"Huh?" Rin pushed the pipe away from his face. The wrinkles in his brow grew more pronounced as he stared at Mephisto, baffled. "What's with that all of the sudden? You want me to cook for you, of all things?"
"Don't dismiss it as if it's such a paltry thing. A meal made with care is definitely a worthy price. Especially from such a skilled cook as yourself."
The compliment was so unexpected that it had Rin's face turning a bright pink despite the fact that he took pride in his cooking.
"I mean… I guess, if that's all you really want, I don't have a problem with it..."
"Excellent~ " A snap of Mephisto's fingers had the room shifting back to how it originally was. The sofa was back, the table was gone; Rin was standing in the middle of the room while Mephisto sprawled back comfortably against his cushions.
"Before you leave," he said, "allow me to introduce you to my younger brother. His name is Amaimon."
Mephisto gestured towards the door with a lazy wave of his hand and when Rin looked over his shoulder, the shoji doors were being opened again by Belial, revealing whom he assumed was Mephisto's brother.
The guy seemed to be around Rin's age. Like his older brother, his hair was dyed in an unusual color—a green so dark that it reminded Rin of a swamp he'd once fallen into when he'd been younger. It was his eyes that held Rin's attention though. They were an unnatural shade of gold, and they shared the same curious glow Mephisto's eyes did despite the dull, bored expression on his face.
"Yo," Amaimon said with any sort of inflection in his voice. He did not seem particularly interested in being present given the way he was slouching, his hands deep in the pockets of the tattered, maroon coat he was wearing.
"Amaimon. Please greet our esteemed guest appropriately," Mephisto said with a disapproving tone.
The rebuke did little to correct Amaimon's posture, but he did incline his head briefly as he met Rin's eyes. "It's nice to meet you."
"Ah. Yeah. Nice to meet you too…"
With the introductions out of the way, Mephisto continued on with a much more pleasant tone. "Amaimon has been feeling a little cooped up lately, so I'd like for you to take him along with you on your trip. He's a rather quiet fellow, so you don't need to pay him much mind~" he told Rin, before sliding his gaze over to meet Amaimon's.
"Do behave while you're out there, little brother. Don't cause too much trouble," he warned with a smile that seemed lighthearted but his strict tone had even Rin shifting uncomfortably.
Amaimon's expression, in comparison, did not so much as twitch. "Understood," he said with a rather indifferent tone.
Rin had so many questions about this weird exchange, but given everything that had happened since he had arrived at this place, he thought it might be more prudent for him to keep his mouth shut this time. He had a task to complete, and company or no company, he was going to complete it. For Yukio's sake.
"Right. Can I go now?" Rin asked, cutting in before Mephisto came up with any more weird requests for him. Thankfully, he didn't.
"Go right ahead! I will see you both soon. Take care out there~ "
And so, with those parting words and Belial leading them back towards the front door, Rin and Amaimon left the strange wish granting shop in absolute silence.
Rin didn't mind it at first. Mostly because he had little experience in making small talk. He was more or less an outcast at school and didn't really have any friends. But being this close to a stranger—a stranger that was related to Mephisto, more importantly—had him sneaking glances at Amaimon frequently. He couldn't help it. He was curious about him.
"So…" Rin began with an awkward smile that he hoped looked at least a little bit friendly. "Do you also have weird magic powers?"
Silence. Amaimon didn't so much as glance at him, making Rin wonder if he had even heard him. He had to have, right? They were only standing a couple of feet apart from each other and walking at the same pace. Maybe that had been a rude question? What if Amaimon didn't have any magic powers? Rin bit his lip anxiously, feeling the silence between them begin to weigh on him.
"I-I was really surprised, you know. I mean, I'm still kinda surprised. Something like a wish granting shop just sounds crazy, right? Haha… I still don't really get how I ended up in there, it was super weird. Though I guess I'm fine with it as long as I can help Yukio. Ah, that's my brother by the way. My little brother, though just by a few minutes apart. Oh yeah, how much older than you is that guy anyway? Mephisto, I mean."
Rin's nervous chatter came to a stop when he saw Amaimon finally spare him a glance from the corner of his eye. Rin wouldn't have noticed the slight movement if he hadn't been actively looking at him. The relief he felt upon being acknowledged was short lived however.
"You like to talk a lot, don't you?" Amaimon said bluntly.
The callous remark stung and Rin shot the other a harsh glare, taken aback by it.
"That a problem?" he snapped. "Sorry about that!"
Unfazed by Rin's anger, Amaimon's expressionless face remained in place. "You're kind of loud, too, huh?" he added, tilting his head to look at him more clearly. Given by the monotone inflection in his voice, he seemed to hold little regard for how his words would be received. He acted as if he was merely pointing out the facts as he observed them.
"Yeah?! Well, you're just rude!" Rin shot back, bristling. "Didn't anyone teach you not to ignore people when they're talking to you?!"
"Does that matter?" There was a hint of curiosity in Amaimon's question, though mostly, it was dismissive. "If I'm not interested in you, I don't feel like wasting my time talking to you."
"You're wasting your time now, aren't you?" Rin growled.
"Well, you were being annoying."
The flippant response had Rin's temper simmering to a boil and it was only the fact that this guy was Mephisto's brother—Mephisto, who had promised him to cure Yukio's illness—that had Rin gritting his teeth and forcing himself to resist picking a fight with Amaimon.
He fumed quietly all the way to the store. He fumed as he piled up his cart with carrots and potatoes, onions and daikon, sliced beef and noodles. His bad mood was still lingering when they passed by the seasoning aisle, though he was distracted by the sudden realization that he was going to be cooking in a stranger's kitchen. He should have taken a look around before they left to see what kind of ingredients were on hand already. The idea of heading back and finding out they were low on soy sauce of all things had Rin grimacing.
Guess I can always pay him back if I buy something they don't need… I oughta get our groceries too while I'm at it, Rin thought. The reminder caused the undercurrent of anxiety he was trying to ignore to surface. Even though he was doing all this for Yukio's sake, he couldn't help but to feel guilty for staying away from home for this long when he had promised to come back quickly. He wondered how Yukio was doing. Had he woken up at all? Had Nagatomo managed to feed him the last of the medicine at least? He hoped so. Even though Rin was working on curing Yukio through other means, he didn't like the fact that his brother was suffering in the meantime.
Why couldn't I have gotten sick instead? The frustrated thought drifted through Rin's mind and his lips twisted into an unhappy frown. It had always been like this ever since they were kids. Yukio was always the one who got bullied more easily, the one who got sick all the time, even though he was smarter, kinder, and a better person than Rin was. He didn't deserve it, so Rin constantly tried to look out for him in whatever capacity was necessary. It was his duty as the big brother after all.
Just you wait, Yukio…! Rin pushed down his anxiety again and focused on finishing gathering all the ingredients he needed. As he moved to drop off a bottle of mirin into his cart, however, he finally noticed that it was almost filled to the brim with a ton of other junk.
"What the—"
He didn't even finish that sentence before Amaimon showed up to drop off another armful of snacks. Rin hadn't even noticed the guy had left his side. As soon as Amaimon released his haul into the cart, he turned around with the clear intention of picking up more items.
"Hey! What's with all this?" When Amaimon continued to walk off without looking back, Rin chased after him with quick steps, pushing the cart as he followed him. "Don't ignore me! And quit filling up the cart with all this crap!"
"Why?" Amaimon asked blandly as he picked up a few boxes of chocolate chip cookies and placed them in the cart without looking at Rin. "I'm the one paying for this."
Rin gritted his teeth. "Even so, you're going way overboard with all this and— are you opening that?! You can't just do that without paying for it first!"
Amaimon paid no heed to Rin's protest and opened up the bag of lollipops in his hands. Within seconds, he was absently twirling one inside of his mouth and moving on. At least he had dropped that into the cart too, indicating his intention to pay for it, but Rin gaped after him nonetheless.
What's wrong with this guy? Belatedly, he noticed that Amaimon was sporting the same bizarre manicure that his brother had—long, claw-like nails that had been coated with black nail polish.
They're both just weirdos. Ugh. Though this guy's way worse somehow.
Rin was looking forward to never seeing either of them again.
In the meantime, however, he resigned himself to the fact that this was becoming a more time-consuming trip than what he wanted it to be. Thankfully, Amaimon didn't seem to care whether Rin was following him or not, so Rin decided to just let him be and switched his focus back to his personal shopping list. He had intended to make Yukio some ojiya in the first place, so he made his way back to the vegetable aisle to pick up the mushrooms he'd unthinkingly neglected earlier and as well as some extra carrots to take home.
"Look out!"
He had barely taken three steps towards his chosen destination when a loud crash attracted Rin's attention. The sound was so sudden and unexpected that it made him flinch, but it was when he turned towards it that his heart really jumped up to his throat. Sprawled across the floor, surrounded by a sea of plastic tea bottles, there was a pair of kids. It didn't take more than a second for Rin to realize what had happened.
"Hey! Are you two okay?!" There were a few other people in the area who also stopped to watch the commotion, but Rin was the only one who rushed over immediately, being the nearest. He knelt right next to the two kids and flusteredly hovered over them as he tried to gauge if they were hurt in any way. The taller one of the two kids seemed to have been the one to have given the warning shout, because he was laying on top of the other one. Rin was relieved to see him pull back, seemingly uninjured, and heartwarmed when instead of answering Rin the first thing he did was check up on the younger one.
It was a nostalgic sight.
"Hey, you're okay, right?" the boy said in a worried tone.
It was obvious now that Rin could see both of their faces that the two kids were clearly siblings, if not related in some other way. They were definitely a few years apart though. When the taller boy finished helping the younger one up, this only became more obvious. The younger boy only reached up to his older brother's shoulder. Rin was glad to see him uninjured as well.
"That was a hell of a shock…" Rin said, letting out a huge, relieved sigh. The kids seemed to finally notice him then.
"Ah... we're okay! Sorry to bother you, mister," the taller boy told him after he finished giving his brother one last onceover, seemingly satisfied with the results that he found.
"Are you sure? You didn't get hurt?" It was the younger boy who spoke this time, looking over his brother with just as much worry. Guilt was painted all over his expression as well and it didn't fade, even as his brother patted his head reassuringly.
"Yup! Don't you worry about me, Kazuya! I'm just fine!"
"But…" Kazuya protested.
Neither of them nor Rin could get into it further, however.
"Kazuya! Yuu?!"
The cry, this time, came from a woman who was very clearly their mother. She rushed over with wide eyes and once she reached her kids, Rin couldn't help but to feel like an unnecessary bystander as he watched her examine each one in then with a panicked sort of worry. The urge to back away and leave them be was very high, but it felt awkward to retreat when he was in the very midst of it all.
"What on earth happened?" she asked.
"I—"
The older boy, Yuu, cut his younger brother mid-sentence, taking a hurried step forward to hide Kazuya from his mom's line of sight. "Sorry mom! I didn't mean to bump into it!" he said in his most earnest tone.
The mother's worried expression shifted at once.
"Oh, for heaven's sake, I can't leave you alone for even one second! Were you running around the store again? What kind of example are you setting for your brother? You're going to stick right by my side until we get home, understood? But first you're going to apologize for the mess you've caused!"
Yuu hardly quivered at the sight of his mom's anger; Rin, on the other hand, almost jumped out of his skin when the woman turned to address him.
"I hope my kids didn't inconvenience you in any way," she said in a troubled voice.
"A-Ah, no, I'm good! I just ran over to check on them when I heard all that…" Rin trailed, feeling incredibly awkward. That heated lecture had made him feel scolded too, it caused a raw ache to surface in his chest. He pushed it down and clung to the thread of relief that rose when the woman's attention drifted away from him.
"I'm sorry again. Come on, Yuu. You too, Kazuya. Be careful not to trip!" Having said that, the woman led Yuu away with purpose, holding him by the hand. Rin imagined she was taking him straight to the nearest store attendant to apologize. (His dad had made him do the same in the past.)
"...He's always like that."
"Huh?" Rin noticed that the younger kid had not moved a muscle; rather, he was staring at the retreating backs of his family with a frustrated look on his face.
"Every time," Kazuya whispered. "I hate it."
Rin's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
The boy's eyes darted over to look at him. It seemed if he had forgotten that Rin was still present. But maybe it was because he finally had someone to listen to him that he continued on. "Taking the blame for things, even when he didn't do anything to deserve it, putting himself in danger to protect me…! He's always doing things like that!"
Rin was taken aback by the vehemence behind those words. He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"Ah, that, well... he's your big brother, isn't he? He's gonna wanna watch out for you," he said in what he hoped was a placating voice.
It didn't seem to do the trick. Instead, the boy glared at Rin. Anger radiated from his body all the way from his clenched fists to his shaking shoulders. "But I didn't ask him too! I don't want him to! Even if he's my older brother… I want him to rely on me too, but he never listens to me! He always just does whatever he wants!"
"Kazuya!"
The mother seemed to have finally noticed that her younger son had not followed her.
"Ah, I'm going!" Some of his anger seemed to deflate just then, though the bitter expression on his face remained. "Sorry," the boy muttered, and he ran off before Rin could say anything more.
Not that he had much to say. The sight of that unhappy expression had rendered Rin speechless.
Why…?
The echo of a memory rose within the depths of his mind. It was the memory of a time soon after Yukio and Rin had turned ten. That day, Rin had been held back by a teacher afterschool, so he had told Yukio to head home ahead of him. When he had caught up to him afterwards, however, he'd come across a pair of boys bullying his brother. He had chased them off at once, but when he'd gone to help Yukio stand up again, for some reason, they had gotten into an argument. Yukio had said something like that then too, hadn't he?
"I didn't ask for you to help me!"
They didn't fight often, not for real. It wasn't like Yukio to get angry at him easily, so Rin had forgotten about that incident soon after it happened. It wasn't something that had come up again either. In fact, since then, the amount of times that Rin had come to his brother's rescue had gone down to the point that he couldn't recall the last time anything like that had occurred.
It made sense. After all, Yukio wasn't the same weak, sickly crybaby that Rin often did his best to protect anymore. As the years went by, Yukio had grown into someone responsible and independent. Even now he was doing his best to pass his entrance exam with flying colors so that his tuition could fully be covered by the scholarship he had applied for. Rin knew it was a little unrealistic to wish for it, but a part of him missed the way things used to be. He yearned for Yukio to reach out to him for help. If it was for his brother's sake, if Yukio were to ask him, Rin would put his best foot forward and work as many part time jobs as necessary to support him, no matter how difficult that would be for someone like him.
When was the last time Yukio had relied on him for anything? Seeing Yukio succeed without looking back at him made Rin feel as if he was getting left behind.
Well, that just means I've gotta do what I can for him anyway, right? Even if he doesn't ask me, he thought to himself, frowning.
"Hmm, you're pretty thick, aren't you?"
The unwelcome and entirely uncalled for comment came from none other than Amaimon. He was leaning over the front of the cart Rin had left abandoned, staring at him with a blank look on his face.
That continuously bored expression of his really pissed Rin off. "N-Nobody asked you!"
Amaimon cocked his head. "So? How much longer are you gonna sit around there for? Are you ready to go?"
"Ah, no! Wait, I still gotta get a few more things!"
The rush to finish his shopping put the matter out of Rin's mind for a while, but he wasn't fully distracted from it, not even later when he was gaping at the sight of Amaimon's wallet, bulging with cash which he handed over to an equally stunned cashier.
The walk back to the wish shop went by even more silently than the walk to the store. Rin's thoughts continued to spiral around his unexpected encounter with those kids. Despite the determination he had arrived at when Amaimon had interrupted him, a part of him felt that he hadn't reached the right conclusion.
"Tell me, do you have any bad habits?"
It really wasn't like Rin thought it was a bad habit but… He couldn't get Kazuya's expression off his mind.
Does Yukio ever look at me like that?
When his teachers used to scold him from getting into fights with other students, when his dad had scolded him for doing the same, Rin had always taken the brunt of it, never bringing Yukio into the picture. Even for things like sneaking stray animals into the monastery despite not being allowed to keep them, Rin always told Yukio, "It's fine! There's no need for both of us to get in trouble," and he'd give his brother his brightest smile. It didn't matter if doing so would mean facing the worst of lectures; as long as his brother was fine, Rin was happy.
Was that sort of thing… wrong?
Rin thought about it deeply as he settled into the wish shop's kitchen. He chopped the ingredients without giving much thought to the task, allowing the experiences carved in his body take over. Time passed by in a haze, and before he knew it, he was back in that mysterious room, serving Mephisto his requested nikujaga.
"Oho…! I've been eagerly anticipating this!" Mephisto rubbed his hands together in front of him with excitement before picking up his chopsticks and digging right in. The moment he did—
"Ah, this truly is marvelous! A taste unlike any other in this world. You have absolutely outdone yourself, Okumura Rin!" he exclaimed.
That type of high praise typically had Rin blushing with embarrassment and pleasure alike. Today, though, it had little effect on the mood that had taken hold of him.
"...You sent me out shopping on purpose, didn't you?"
"Whatever do you mean~?"
"It just feels like… what you said before I left, what happened after… The timing of it is weird. But I guess that doesn't matter. I figured it out, I think."
"Oh? Did you~? And what exactly is it that you have figured out?" Mephisto asked with an interested grin.
"Yukio's… probably pretty unhappy with me." Rin hated to admit it, but he couldn't deny the truth anymore. He couldn't deny that as Yukio had become more independent, they had become more distant from each other. "I'm not sure when it started... Maybe he's always been mad and I just wasn't paying any attention to it. Not when he was trying to tell me at least."
"Ah, but it is not just the act of not listening that's the problem, is it?" Mephisto said, and Rin, holding back a wince at those pointed words, reluctantly nodded.
"But what does it have to do with anything?" he asked. He didn't understand why Mephisto wanted him to figure this out.
"Why, it has to do with everything, of course! Think about it clearly. There are things that you don't like to say out loud yourself, things you would rather swallow down, wanting to burden no one, especially those close to you, isn't that right?" The man grinned as Rin squirmed in place as a result of having the words actually said out loud, but he barely waited more than a beat to continue.
"I'm sure you are aware that twins have a special connection, a bond unlike any other. Tell me, if you are holding back for his sake, if you are taking on more than you ought to for the same reason, is it not plausible to think that your younger brother might be doing the same?"
That...
Rin had never considered it. The brother that used to wake up at night in tears, that used to crawl into his bed and tell him he'd had a nightmare; the brother who'd grown up into someone confident, who scolded him freely and reminded him not to skip school or cause any trouble to others; Yukio may have changed, but he had always been honest with him, right?
Right?
Rin was suddenly taken by the frightening realization that that may not be the case at all. The distance he'd become aware of suddenly felt like such a chasm. When did it start? Had it all begun with that fight that Rin had brushed aside? Had it built since then?
When his brother had once offered to tutor him, Rin, feeling like such a hopeless cause, had turned him down, not wanting to bother him—had that been the wrong choice then, too?
That was the pattern, wasn't it? Rin had not listened to Yukio, so Yukio had decided not to listen to him too. Rin never relied on Yukio, so Yukio had decided not to rely on him in return. If this kept up… With Yukio planning to leave for boarding school, with the distance between them becoming physical as well, Rin had no doubt that their relationship would continue to grow more and more strained. He didn't want that. He had to… He had to…!
Rin couldn't remember rushing out of Mephisto's house, but he must have run fast because it didn't feel like much time passed at all by the time he was pushing the door of their bedroom open. The only thought in his mind was confronting Yukio—fixing things. Though, the sight of his sick little brother stumbling as he tried to get out of bed proved to be a distraction.
"Yukio!"
"N-Nii-san...!"
Where was Nagatomo? Rin's jaw set stubbornly as he stalked forward and pushed Yukio back down on the bed. "There's no way you're getting up yet, looking like that. Don't even think about it!"
"It's just a cold."
Yukio's voice croaked as he spoke, and though he tried to clear his throat, the sound did not improve in the slightest. "I'm fine, Nii-san, really. I've rested enough. You're overreacting."
He'd managed to school his expression already, but Rin had not forgotten the flash of guilt he'd caught on his brother's face when Rin had burst in. That, in combination with Yukio's protest, in combination with the frustration Rin already felt towards himself, had him exploding.
"Overreacting?! Every day you get worse and worse, and you keep pretending it's all fine! We already lost dad! I don't want to lose you too!"
The stark vehemence behind Rin's words shut Yukio up at once. He stared at Rin wide-eyed, speechless. This was the first time either of them had broached the subject of their dad's death since the funeral. This was just another one of those things, Rin realized. Another thing they didn't talk about. Being aware of it hurt, but because it hurt, Rin knew he needed to do something about it now.
"I... I want to talk to you about something. So at least stay there and don't move until I finish saying everything I've gotta say, got it?!" Rin pinned Yukio down with a stubborn glare, or tried to anyway.
"You're acting weird today..." Yukio sat back up on the bed, but at least he didn't try to stand up again. The way his face was still flushed with fever reminded Rin that in his rush to get back here, he had forgotten to settle things with Mephisto, but he didn't let himself get distracted by the thought. This was far more important right now.
"You've been hiding things from me, haven't you?"
"W-What…?"
Ah, that hadn't been the way Rin had wanted to begin this conversation. But nonetheless, the way Yukio had flinched at his words was all the confirmation he needed. It was a painful truth to swallow.
"I just mean, we haven't had a proper conversation in the longest time. You've been holding back, right? I get it now. So I wanna change things. I wanted to tell you I'm ready to listen!" Rin told him earnestly.
"What are you talking about, Nii-san?" Yukio pressed his lips together. He looked at him with a bewildered expression, trying to figure out where all of this was coming from.
"Won't you start trusting me again?" Rin leaned in with a serious, sincere look in his eyes. "I'm right, aren't I? I know I am. You can't possibly be happy with the way things are between us right now."
The sight of that determined expression had Yukio swallowing hard and drawing back into himself. His shoulders curled in defensively and he looked away, unable to bear the weight of Rin's words, nor his intent stare.
"I know that I've brushed you off before, okay?" Rin continued despite Yukio's silence. No, because of it. "I've been thinking about it and thinking about it, and I want things to change. I've always wanted you to rely on me, I always took care of everything that I could, but that's not what you wanted, right? I get that now. But you know, it wasn't because I didn't think I could count on you! I just... I wanted to do what I could." Rin didn't know how to begin to explain that bit to his brother, but he knew he had to for them to move forward. "It's just... getting along with others, minding my temper, studying, I know I'm no good at any of it. But looking out for you, that, I understand, you know?" It was embarrassing to admit it out loud, but it was worth it, to see that look on Yukio's face.
It had finally opened up. The anxious tension in his shoulders had loosened and he was meeting Rin's gaze again, eyes wide with attentiveness and surprise.
"But like I said, I get that I messed up there," Rin told him, rubbing the back of his neck. "So I'll start doing better, okay? I'll start relying on you more. With school, with all the things I'm not great at doing that I know you can do. So please, Yukio, don't hold back with me. Whatever it is that you are, I want you to tell me."
"Nii-san..." Finally, Yukio properly found his voice again. "Why are you bringing all of this up all of the sudden...?"
"I already told you that, didn't I?" Rin's expression faltered slightly as he allowed himself to dwell on the grief he'd been ignoring, the isolating loneliness in his chest that had been expanding ever since their dad had died. "We only have each other, and I don't want to lose that. I don't want to let things be as they are now. You feel the same way too, don't you?"
For a few long seconds which seemed to stretch for far longer than that, Yukio didn't say anything again. They just stared at each other, and Rin saw the layers of conflict darkening the depths of his brother's green eyes.
"Even now, in the end, you're the one trying to fix things... I hate that," Yukio finally said with a bitter smile on his lips. The exhaustion on his face, accentuated by his sick pallor, seemed to weigh on him more with this admittance. "I just can't win against you, can I?"
"Sorry." Rin winced a little and offered his brother a helpless smile. "But if you hate it that much, then it's your turn next, yeah?"
"Nii-san..." Yukio sighed. It was a defeated sound, but not an unhappy one. A beat later, he continued, visibly straining to speak from his heart after keeping his thoughts to himself for so long. "You're right... These past few years, I have wanted to get stronger... I didn't want to rely on you. I wanted to solve everything myself... so I could be like you," he confessed quietly. "I wanted you to be the one to look up to me for once."
"Hey, I'm the one that's gotta start getting it together. You're miles ahead of me already," Rin said, pride in his voice. After a beat, he added, "I'm a disaster, you know." The self-deprecating grin on his face was somewhat apologetic.
Yukio's lips twitched briefly. "Well, you're not wrong there," he acknowledged with a small chuckle that turned into a coughing fit. Rin leaned in closer at once and began rubbing his back to help him through it, and Yukio leaned into the touch a little easier than he otherwise would have. At that moment, both thought back on simpler times, when it was easier to talk to each other and not hold anything back.
Finally, when his coughing subsided, Yukio let out another long sigh. "I guess we could both start to be a little more truthful, huh...?" he murmured. "Actually... There is something that I should have told you about before. Something that I have been keeping from you..."
"What is it?" Rin said encouragingly.
"Well..."
"Big bro, why did you let him go, just like that?"
Mephisto grinned widely at the question. He gestured for Amaimon to sit down, and his younger brother obliged him, taking the chair opposite of him. Belial quickly produced another bowl and served the nikujaga Rin had prepared into it before placing it in front of Amaimon.
"He will be back. They both will, one day soon," Mephisto said confidently as between joyful bites of the prized meal he had received.
"Oh?" Amaimon stared at his brother with a mildly interested expression on his face. "Both of them?"
"Oh, yes~ " Mephisto confirmed with a happy hum. "A bond has already formed between them and us, and the ties that have bound us will not easily disappear."
"He seemed pretty dim," Amaimon pointed out, picking up a piece of beef from the plate between his chopsticks. "Will he be of any use at all?"
"Well, he has grown up with a disadvantage, as was Shiro's heartfelt wish. But now that it's come to this, that boy's eyes will be opened for sure. To the beings that trouble his younger brother. To the troubles that he's endured arduously in silence for so long. To the stress that he has never been able to bear alone."
"So that's why you let him go…"
"That's right~ There is no better medicine for this sort of thing than the simple and honest truth," Mephisto said with a snicker.
"But do you really think they'll be able resolve their differences?" Amaimon said, examining the beef closely.
"More aptly put, do I believe that they will be able to see past their striking similarities?" Mephisto corrected before nodding. "Oh, yes. The real challenge will come next, during their next visit. Once Rin becomes aware of the world that he's been blind to, it will be Yukio's turn to accept that even though his circumstances have brought him much misfortune, Rin's desire to share it along within will bring them both genuine happiness. Ah, and from then on, we will be witnesses to some truly interesting developments..."
"Sounds fun," Amaimon said, but it was hard to tell whether he was being genuine with his words. As he finally took a bite of his food, however, a glimmer of delighted surprise brightened his eyes. "Huh, this is pretty good."
"Isn't it?"
As the two brothers continued to eat their meal, Mephisto silently reflected on the future. Those two would be back very soon indeed. To this shop that existed to grant wishes. To this shop that Mephisto watched over in order to observe humanity.
Humans were truly fascinating creatures. That was Mephisto's heartfelt belief. And to witness their choices, whether they be good or bad—that was the duty he had taken upon himself. Yes, after all, what better entertainment could he get than that...?