Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING

I KNOW this is a day late, but I was working extra hard. Plus, I had a real-life stuff to do. having a life always seems to get in the way, huh? Well, i hope this was worth waiting an extra day:

'Rin, you can't just run away from your problems' Kuro tried to reason with the boy, but it didn't really work.

"And why not? It's easier than..." facing them. He finished mentally.

'Besides, unless you plan on jumping out a window, there is only the front entrance. They'll see you for sure' Kuro said. Rin pondered this for a bit, before remembering the key to cram school. All the others were coming here (except Takara, but he probably wouldn't care of Rin showed up. Creepy puppet dude), so no one would be in the classroom. Kuro seemed to figure out what he was thinking about doing, so there was a mad dash between demon and half-demon to reach the key. Kuro managed to get them before Rin. Holding the key in his mouth, he said 'You can't just run away from your problems, Rin!' Before ignoring the advice he just gave and running away. 'Talk to them!' he called from the hall. Rin knew someone was a hypocrite, but he was back to planning. Maybe he could make the jump from up here? Demons healed pretty fast, so in theory... But he realized, while looking out the window and trying to judge wether or not he could make the jump and land in one piece, that could hear what the Exwores were talking about now. He caught things like "Shiro" and "night" and "death" and "what happened?" They apparently wanted to know what had happened the night of Shiro's death. Now Rin knew his suspicions on why they were here were confirmed, He thought, hoped actually, that they were maybe just here to cheer him up from the encounter with the Culpa. But no, they were in fact here to shake the secret of Shiro's death out of him. They would probably think he was a monster again, Rin realized. Someone had died because of him. He didn't want them to be scared of him again, and he certainly didn't want them to know any of that. This was something he would prefer to take to the grave. But if he didn't figure out a way out now, then his friends would find out everything and probably hate him and be scared of him and Yukio would probably blame him and be mad at him and soon he'd be alone. Again.

No, Rin needed to escape.

"Come on guys, walk faster. Everyone knows the plan?" Yukio asked. A chorus of 'yes' answered his question. They'd decided to just go in and badger him and question him until he finally told them what happened. And they weren't going to leave him until he did. If all else failed, Yukio would remind his brother he had a right to know how their father died, and he'd probably tell them. So the Exwires walked to the room shared by the twins. When they weren't far from the door, Rin walked out, then saw the group and panicked.

"Rin, calm down, we just wanna talk to ya" Ryuji said. This only seemed to make the demon's panic worse, as he began scanning the hallway as though looking for something. Probably an escape route. Yukio realized this first and told his brother there was no avoiding this talk.

"Nii-san, we really need to talk about this. Go back into the room and sit down." Rin realized there was no escape, and nodded glumly. The group walked into the room, each sitting in various places. Rin sat on his own bed.

"So, Rin, what happened the night Father died?" Yukio asked. Rin took a deep breathe.

"I guess I should start with the day before..."

And Rin started explaining. (AN: for anyone who watched the anime, I'm using the manga for this. I wasn't totally clear on which I was using. In the manga things in the days before True Cross and Shiro's death are a little different than in the anime, but it's not like they're completely different. Just remember that if you get confused)

"I was on my way to a job interview for some job at the shopping mall near where we lived." He started, before he was interupted

"What does that have to do with anything?" Shima asked

"Please hold your questions until the end of the story" he said, imitating a teacher. "it's relevant, I'm just getting there. Anyway, I was on my way to the interview when I ran into these guys I had..." he stopped. He forgot that these guys didn't know he used to get into fights a lot. His voice quieted a little as he finished the sentence "I had fought with before. The head one, Reiji Shiratori, asked to speak with me. I noticed he had horns and a tail, but I figured he was, I dunno, doing cosplay or something." He said

"Wait... fought with?" Ryuji asked.

"Cosplay? Didn't you know he was like, a demon?" Izumo asked. Rin just nervously laughed.

"I used to, ummm..." he tried to explain, but he was spared having to when Yukio cut in.

"Nii-san used to get into fights a lot. Also, at that time, he didn't know about demons"

"But... you're..." Konekomaru tried to put a sentence together, but failed and so said "Nevermind, keep going"

"Yeah, well, Shiratori informed me that he was going to go to True Cross, and he didn't want any 'unsavory rumors'" he said, with air quotes, "spreading about him getting into fights, and losing, spreading around. Since Yukio was going, and he was my brother and all, well... Anyway, he..." Rin didn't want to say how Shiratori had insulted Yukio and that's how he had managed to piss him off, so he just said "...he and I started yelling at each other, and one thing led to another and then before I knew it I was pinned to the ground by his friends and he had a knife and was offering to give me a 'haircut'" He said, air quotes on haircut. "Well, I kind of flipped the hell out and..." he trailed off.

"and what?"

"Ikindasortofmaybeburstintoflames" Rin said quickly.

"You did what?" Ryuji asked

"burst into... flames..."

"You did what?" Ryuji asked again

"Well he was gonna cut me... with a knife... so... I panicked" Rin said. Yukio was shaking his head in the background.

"But wait, I thought you said you didn't know about demons. So how did you, um, spontaneously combust?" Konekomaru asked.

"I told you. I freaked the hell out and I guess instincts just kicked in or something" he said. Nervous glances went around the room. They all silently agreed to never, ever throw Rin a surprise party "Which had never happened before then" he added.

"Wait, how did you not know about demons when you have a tail" Izumo asked

"I didn't always have a tail"

"How does that make any sense?" Izumo asked, though it was mostly to herself.

"So did you, like, grow a tail right then when you burst into flames, or did it come out later or something?" Shima asked

"It came out later. Can I finish now?" Rin asked. The others nodded, even if they were still mildly confused.

"Well, after that the other guys he had there also panicked and fled. So it was just me and the demon-guy. Also, I was still on fire. Then he offered to take me 'home' " air quotes "to Gehenna. That's when Shiro showed up. He chanted something and the demon left the possession, and then Shiro explained very briefly that demons exist and I was the Son of Satan and what the blue fire was and then we fled and ran home"

"So then, you didn't know?" Konekomaru asked.

"Didn't know what?" Rin asked

"Who your dad is?" Konekomaru asked

"Nope. Not until that moment. Up until then I thought I was human, and that there were no such thing as demons"

There was silence, until Shima asked "And then what happened?"

For the Record, only in the anime is the demon named Astaroth. In the manga I don't think he even gets a name...

Soooo finally got to the explanations and, by extension, the reactions.

Someone informed me the chapters all seemed to be getting shorter and shorter, and I am sorry. This one is longer though, so is that okay?

- Lew-chan :D