Chapter 6

"Keep trying, boy; I am training you because I want to, not because I have to. Your stubbornness may make me change my mind," Ucchusma said, watching as the young teen before him burned through yet another set of seven candles. The traditional and more widely known method for training young fire-based demons was to get them to ignite the wick, only the wick, of one or two candles at first, depending on their level of control previously shown.

Ucchusma had given Rin seven, not because of his control, but because he didn't know the standard that demons taught themselves to and the boy absolutely needed better control, the ancient demon had done what was needed.

He wasn't that surprised when the boy continuously lost his temper and burst himself and the seven candles around him into flames, but Ucchusma was surprised that he had managed to figure out how to light the three candles directly in front of him simultaneously and on the wick, while the other four wear melted. Not that Rin would ever know.

"I am trying," Rin retorted as he watched the magic candle wax reform itself into the shape it previously was. At least there wasn't a messy clean up, Rin consoled himself. What he had said was true, he was trying, only his impatient nature always got the better of him. "Only these three I can get, and then the rest are behind me. How can I set something on fire that I can't see?"

"Expand your senses; while you may look like a human, you have demon blood in you, meaning you should be able to sense something behind you," the owl explained as his student looked confusedly up at him. Ucchusma sighed. "Even normal humans can usually sense what is behind them even when not looking,"

"Really? Then let's try this again..." Rin said, before closing his eyes and trying to tap into the awareness all living things had of their environment.

Three candles behind Rin lit at the same time, while the fourth was a little lagging. Turning around to see if he had completed his task, the teen gave a whoop of excitement when he saw the four burning candles.

Tuning out the noiret's boastful cheers, Ucchusma thought carefully on how fast the teen had gotten the skill down after he had explained what to do. Had the boy just been trying to use the wrong senses, or was it just beginners luck? It really didn't matter to the great fire demon, as he would expand on the teen's training, and just as he was close to reaching the goal Ucchusma set for him, the fire entity would raise the bar.

A week after Rin managed to lite the four candles behind him (and after Ucchusma had changed the training regime), Rin noticed he had someone other than his teacher watching him.

Looking out of the corner of his eye, Rin noticed a patch of reddish-brown fur and two twin tails that was pretty well camouflaged against the rocks surrounding them stationed at the top of the canyon lip.

Aki had come to check on them again.

Rin knew that Aki hated fire demons, and Aki now knew that Rin was a fire demon. Though the cat hadn't said anything to Rin about not being her friend anymore (and Aki would definitely say it bluntly), so at night they still slept in the same cave, only there were no more good-natured arguments about food, or laughing at the other for snoring loudly. Instead it was usually quiet, Aki curled up in a corner of her cave with her back to Rin and the entrance.

So a few days ago when Ucchusma had said that the cat sidhe was watching them, Rin had been surprised. He hadn't seen her, but he believed the older fire demon mainly be cause he had no reason to lie about a demon watching them. Ucchusma had even forced Rin into several of the fissures and niches that surrounded them when the deity had felt a demon that was too powerful for either of them before disappearing in flames.

While it was annoying not to be allowed to fight, Ucchusma's reason had always struck sense into the teen.

You want to see your friends again, right?

Rin did want to see them again. So he listened and trained with Ucchusma.

But now one of his friends was unsure of Rin and was wary of his training. And of course Aki was; she was only a few weeks old (A/N: Aki's demon type means that she was formerly a normal cat; according to folklore, if a cat lives to a hundred, it will grow a second tail and become a demon,) when the bad Humans had brought fire down on Aki's home, parents, and siblings. The only reason Aki had escaped was because she had been in field chasing butterflies that day, only to return and find everything up in smoke and the humans throwing aside those precious feline corpses.

Watching Rin ignite the targets the Fire-Owl-Demon had set up was setting off every instinct the cat had to run away, even if most of the time he couldn't burn the mark.

But Rin was Rin... a human, and a fire demon... but also Aki's friend...? Aki had never had felt so conflicted before, so she watched Rin instead, trying desperately trying to gauge his actions and make a decision.

Rin himself was at the limits of his patients with the sidhe watching him all the time like this, having gotten the same looks his whole life from complete strangers, and Ucchusma could see the exact moment the teens' temper got the better of him.

"Oi, Aki! Why do you keep hovering!? If you got somethin' to say then say it dammit!" the noiret rounded on the cat, who flinched at the suddenness of the human yelling at her.

Never the less, the cat gathered her courage, frustrated at her emotions. "Aki wants to know if Aki can trust Rin!"

"Trust...me?"

"Rin is a fire demon, but he also looks human! Aki hates Humans and fire! But...but Aki likes Rin!" the cat demon yowled, tears streaming from her tightly shut blue eyes. "Aki finally finds a friend since Aki was a kit, and now...now..."

She cut off with, her head bowed, hiccupping and sniffling.

"Aki..." Rin said in a quiet voice, understanding filling his eyes. With the drama unfolding before them, no one was able to sense the large demon slithering towards the bawling cat. "I..."

Before Rin could completely form the right words to say, the Serpent reared over the helpless Aki, fangs bared, and scales glowing a ghastly white (A/N: picture Shura's familiar, only WAAAAAAYYYYYY bigger). Even quicker, the snake demon constricted itself around the she-cat, her startled yowls and hissing re sounding off the canyon walls.

"AKI!" Rin's voice turned more urgent, and he took a step forward.

"RIIIIIIIIINNNNNN!" she managed to yelled back as she was twisted and tumbled by the snake.

"This is bad," Ucchusma stating, wordlessly watching the scene unfold. "If it continues like this, she will die."

The unattached way in which he said this, like he was stating a simple fact, only served to further piss off the son of Satan.

"Can't you do something!?" he sputtered furiously, knowing the other demon had a mega-load of power under his belt.

"No, my powers are for cleansing impurities, and that snake is not impure enough to qualify," the ancient deity responded, looking down at the human, and ignoring the sounds of fight the snake and cat were giving off. "If you want to save her, then use your flames,"

"But that would burn her as well!" Rin pointed out the obvious, growing increasingly anxious because Aki couldn't manage what little fight she was able to put up forever.

Ucchusma now fully turned to his student, knowing what lesson the kid needed to learn as quickly as possible. "They're your flames aren't they? If you couldn't use them to save her, then that means you really didn't want her saved in the first place,"

Rin staggered back, and for one horrifying moment, thought he didn't want to save Aki. That thought was thoroughly crushed however the next second when Aki screamed out her lungs again, tears falling from her eyes.

Aki was now fully resigned to death, knowing it was right that she had some-what severed her friendship with Rin if he wasn't going to try and save her. Closing her eyes, Aki expected the next time she opened them she would be in the endlessness of death...and then the pressure she had felt from the snake lift, and a gentle warmth surround her.

Opening her eyes again, the first thing she saw was a dazzelingbluevibrance that while it stuck to her reddish fur did not harm her. The snake around her, however, was openly is large amounts of pain, the flames already penetrating its scale and burning the flesh and bone until the snake gave up and the fire fully consumed it, leaving not even ash behind.

Slowly, Aki turned her head down to look into the canyon.

Meeting her were two blue eyes, only just darker than the flames, full of resolve, belonging to Rin. His horns were blazing atop his head, and the end of his tail that laid near the front of his feet also was aflame. Giving her his signature grin, Rin called out "Aki! You okay?"

Visibly shaking, Aki attempted to hold it in, but she was completely unable. With a loud cry, she rushed down the cliff wall, more tears escaping her eyes as she tackled the human teen, successfully knocking him to the ground.

"Wha-!"

"Aki sorry Aki doubted Rin!" the cat cried into Rin's chest as she unconsciously shrunk herself down to the size of a normal cat. Knowing on instinct that Aki needed comfort, Rin stroked her ears like he usually did with Kuro when the cat had the occasional relapse of grief from his father's death.

"Once she has calmed down enough, put her off to the side so we can continue; I am changing your training again boy," Ucchusma said, staring at the two younger demons, his student of his gave him an annoyed look but he obeyed anyway.

It was time for Rin to start the physical part of his training.

Yeah...that was definitely easier to write then the last chapter...

I hope that clears up some of Aki's past, but that should do it for the patch in their relationship. By the end of his training, Rin is going to hate Ucchusma X)

And incase anyone is curious, I'm making it so that the time in Gehenna flows a few days faster than in Assiah. For every six hours in Assiah, four days pass in Gehenna.

I ask until the next chapter that you wait patiently, but until then please review for me.