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CHAPTER TWO
Shiro had felt it when the seal on the demon slaying sword, Kurikara, started to break. He immediately halted, almost getting taken out by a low-level hobgoblin in the process. "Dad! What are you doing!?" Yukio yelled, taking care of the goblin and turning to face his father. Really, he was the Paladin. This kind of stuff should be a cake walk for him. What could possibly distract him so much during a simple exorcism?
"Yukio. We must find Rin. NOW." Shiro rushed out, his voice a deadly low and his eyes burning with determination. Yukio could see how serious this was, simply nodding and running to the motorcycle they had borrowed for this mission. Reaching it just after his father, he jumped behind Fujimoto just as the vehicle sprang to life. The entire drive back to the city, the paladin was silent. Yukio started to honestly fear for Rin. What was going on? Was he safe?
After driving in what seemed to Yukio a random direction inside the city for ten minutes, he was suddenly hit by an extremely strong demonic aura. Startled, Yukio leaned forward to try and catch a glimpse of his father's expression. His efforts were only rewarded by the back of a head, sitting on unusually stiff shoulders attached to an unnaturally straight back. His dad, the most powerful exorcist around, looked like he was afraid. And Yukio remembered his father's initial statement that they needed to find Rin. His brother was somehow caught up in this. And Yukio started to drown in his own fear.
Shiro was trying to stay calm, but as wave after wave of evil auras hit him he felt his entire body stiffening. It was far too early for Rin to awaken any demonic power. This past year, Rin had been getting into less fights and his academic average, while still pitiful, was a passing grade. It seemed as if his tendencies to be a bit… Wild had started to recede as time passed. The senior exorcist thought that Rin had gained control. He supposed that would have been far too good to be true. Turning a corner, Fujimoto almost drove right past his son standing with two demons.
Quickly halting to a stop, he sprang from the motorcycle and took in the scene. Rin was there, feeling off the seal to the demon sword. Two humanoid demons surrounded him, one of them looking up at him with a sneer. The sneering demon had rather large horns, and was obviously too powerful for his vessel, which appeared to be breaking down. Clumps of mousy brown hair separated from an oozing scalp, and the left hand appeared longer than the right. The disgusting, misshapen mess of its vessel proved the power of the beast. The demon standing close to Rin was tall, slender, with white greasy looking hair and an extremely pale complexion. As soon as Shiro was the red eyes, his thoughts turned to albinism. Was that even possible in demons? Father Fujimoto forced his mental train to get back on the rails, and continued his hasty assessment. The seal of the demon slaying blade, Kurikara, had just fully been removed by Rin. Knowing he was moments from being too late, Shiro cried out in desperation to his eldest son.
"Rin! Do not open that sword! Stop, Rin!" He cried, hoping it was enough.
Rin looked up, shocked to hear his father's voice. He saw Yukio running alongside his father, both looking panicked and out of breath. Rin looked down, he had just finished feeling off a surprisingly sticky piece of paper with an odd symbol from the sword when he had heard his father. Why couldn't he unsheathe the sword? Was something dangerous inside? But his tutor, Saradon, wouldn't have told him to retrieve the katana if it was dangerous, right? Rin hesitantly started putting the sword to the ground, believing he was simply in trouble for taking it from the hidden room.
Saradon suddenly grabbed his wrist, with a force that would surely leave a bruise. "What are you doing!?" Rin demanded, before attempting to pull away. He trusted his tutor, after all he had stuck with Rin for over a year. Saradon had never shown fear of Rin either, mocking him or calling him a demon. Rin had finally found someone outside the family that had accepted him, but his father would always come first. Rin knew if he had to make a choice of following his dad or his tutor, Rin would go with his father. With the resistance, Saradon clamped his hand down on Rin's wrist. Rin faintly registered a crunching sound before a wave of pain hit him. "Saradon?" He cried, confused. He lost his grasp of the sword, and the other man (Asgoroth? Asserath?) Caught it with lightning reflexes before it could fall to the ground.
Shiro knew what was going to happen, knew these demons were here to take Rin to his real father. To stop them, he went for the biggest threat and jumped into battle with the demon who appeared to be Asaroth, king of rot. He started chanting, twisting the demon's punch until the crazed being was on the ground underneath him. He was just about to finish his exorcism when the demon's shaky hands pulled the Koma sword out of its sheath.
And Asaroth laughed, holding a flaming sword in his deformed hands, before being banished back to Gehenna.
Yukio witnessed his older brother burst into blue flames, crying out in fear.
"Dad!? Yukio!? What is this? It doesn't burn!" Rin was yelling, holding his broken wrist close to his body and edging away from the second demon. The bone of Rin's arm was poking through the skin, and large drops of blood leaked out of the wound and onto the pavement. Before Yukio could pull out a gun to separate the tall demon from his brother, the second demon pulled a familiar sheet of paper from his pocket and pressed it to Rin's bloody arm. Almost immediately, Rin's cries of confusion turned into cries of pain. Blood poured out from his aggravated gash, forming a rectangle shape. By the time Shiro had reached Yukio, a Gehenna gate had been called forth. Yukio then realised what the paper was, it was some form of summoning circle. Not one Yukio had ever seen before, but similar enough to be recognisable.
"Good. I was worried your blood would not be strong enough, my dear Rin." The demon spoke, seeming to be far more familiar with Rin than what would have expected.
"What are you doing?" Rin gasped out, moments before being pushed into the disgusting creating that had been called forth from hell, using his blood and a circle on a piece of paper. He thrashed, trying to get away from the grasping hands. Saradon, his trusted tutor and friend, simply laughed and pushed his head down, before tossing the sword into the gate. "Father!" Rin managed to choke out, "help me! Dad! Please, I'm sorry! Help"! Rin's eyes darted around in fear, before landing on his father and brother, who were running towards the gate. He was up to his nose in the bodies, the blood, and was sure he could not get himself out of it alone. Unable to call out anymore, he stared into his father's panicked orbs. He looked at his father, trying to convince himself it would be okay, as he sunk farther, vision filling with dark.
"Rin! NO!" Cried his father, and he brought out a large shotgun and blasted Saradon in the stomach. The demon simply laughed, coughing out blood.
"Sending me back to Gehenna? That's fine. Rin still needs his tutor while he casts his human identity from himself and becomes a true prince". The demon finished, before he disappeared from Assiah, leaving an unrecognisable body behind. Yukio had run ahead of Shiro, and was reaching for the tips of his brother's fingers, still flickering with blue flames. All that remained of Rin above the gate were him fiery digits. Shiro ran to help his youngest son, just as the last of Rin sank under the rolling door to Gehenna. As soon as Rin was gone, the gate faded, leaving a completely shocked Paladin and a screaming Yukio behind it.
"No. his wasn't supposed to happen. No!" Fujimoto muttered to himself, before kneeling down beside his youngest, placing his arms around a crying Yukio and feeling slow tears leaking from his own murky eyes. Rin had been taken, they had failed in keeping him safe.
Rin woke up, wondering when exactly he had fallen asleep. He felt warm, but a little uncomfortable. He realised he wasn't in his bed, and cracked his eyes open to survey his surroundings. First looking down at his body, he noticed he was no longer on fire. However he felt… Off. Everything seemed to be overly bright, despite the room not having any visible lighting fixtures. His teeth dug in when he chewed his lip, and he tasted a small amount of blood. His teeth were sharp? Moving on, Rin looked around the room more. He was alone, and sitting propped up against a whitewash wall. He sat upon dark, ash toned wood, unfamiliar with anything he had ever seen before. A large window dominated the wall opposite to him, and he could see the top of a tree outside and a hazy, reddish-orange sky.
It must have been around sunset then. Or sunrise? Just how long had he been out? Rin questioned himself.
He continued his survey of his room, ignoring the panic he felt rising in his chest. There were four walls, the window, a ceiling, a wooden door the same dark colour that lacked warmth, chains, and a celling. Rin wanted to stand up and look outside the window, to see if he could recognise anything. He couldn't though, and that was due to the chains present in the room being wrapped securely around him. His hands and feet were manacled, and his waist was encircled and weighed down with heavy metal. It was then Rin decided maybe he should pay a little more attention to the fear he had dismissed earlier, and Rin started freaking out.
"Yukio"? He whispered out, hoping maybe, somehow, there was an explanation to this that didn't involve his friend and tutor shoving him into a malevolent, writhing thing created from his blood. He didn't want his unmovable, unshakable father to ever look that scared in reality. It must have been some sort of misunderstanding? "Dad?" He called, knowing it was useless but desperately clinging on to some strange hope I would be fine.
At the last call, heavy footsteps could be heard approaching the room. He door swung open, as Rin held his breath. A smiling woman with the coldest eyes Rin had ever seen looked down at him, eyes crinkled from her large grin.
"Hello, you must be our new addition. I will be taking care of certain… Physical aspects of your education. Please, if you ever need anything, just call out. Someone is always listening." She spoke, voice soft. Everything about her appeared to be soft and pleasant, with her softly waving auburn hair and her loose, calf length yellow dress. Everything about her was soft, and light, and Rin started to feel comfort in her presence. That is, until her eyes widened. Those eyes contradicted everything her body said, promising pain for her pleasure. A shudder ran down Rin's back, and he felt his stomach drop. Yes, he concluded, people like he could definitely be found be sinking through a gate of bodies.
Suddenly, the woman looked up from Rin and sharply glanced towards the door. She backed away from the older twin, and stalked to the window.
"Rin. I hope to see you and work with you soon. Don't worry, the one you called is approaching." She stated, eyes closing once more and a friendly smile on her face, before she waved her hand in front of her body and disappeared. A few minutes past before anything else happened. Then, something odd stepped through the door.
The man that entered next had pale skin, dark blue/black hair, and was tall. He wore a black suit, with a black tie and a shirt with thin vertical stripes. He regarded Rin with absolutely no emotion at all showing, his face blank and his eyes uncaring. He didn't appear cold or angry, as the last woman, but there was something about the pure nothingness that bothered him. It was as if the striking figure could suddenly murder Rin without remorse, or walk out the door without ever seeing him again. He had an aura around him that was utterly void, feeling like it was sucking all the happiness, fear, joy, and panic that Rin held in his body. That was the moment Rin knew to never fuck with this guy. He would utterly destroy Him in an instant.
The most unnerving thing about the man was how absolutely still he was. His eyes flickered across Rin, but other than that he could have been made of stone. As the demon, for he could not be anything else, flicked his eyes over Rin, his mouth turned slightly. It could have been a frown, or a smile, there was no telling. The man almost looked pained as he considered the boy, before turning around and ambling back to the door. He moved with a graze that made it seem like he was gliding, before he turned his head back towards Rin.
"Soon you will begin your training. If you do well, you will gain incredible powers. If you fail to gain power, you will die. Work hard, Rin". He spoke, voice soft and low. Rin's eyes widened as he turned around, through the door, shutting it behind him. The boy was left to wonder what the woman meant when she said 'the one he called' would be coming, and to consider what the odd man meant by training. Did the scary woman mean his brother, or the father, He wondered. Somehow, Rin suspected that was not the case. Rin wondered if he would be able to get home, to walk home from school with Yukio and help cook for his family with his father. Yes, somehow Rin knew he wouldn't be seeing his family for some time.
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