His sore lids, puffy and irritated, cracked open, and a distinct yellow crust made prying them apart hard, like his eyelids were slowly popping stitches. That feeling left him trying desperately to wipe the stickiness off with his shirt, recognizing the smell of cough medicine and a lemon astringent instead. Walls around him pained his eyeballs, a stark white, the blanket covering him, thin and woven, felt as soft as cotton balls. Unnatural lights and brightness he grumbled at, and around through his haze, the only scenery that graced him was a solid mesh-like curtain, which half covered his left and right side, and a beeping sound; a heart machine.
His assumption was right: He was in a hospital.
"Uhrmmmp." He prodded for the button on the side of the bed and found it, and began slowly making his way to a sitting-up position. The very sound of the gears turning was sickening, that low murmur, just another infirmary sound added to the other noises in the room. Shivers of wincing pain shot through his arm as he reached down haphazardly to grab a remote control near the screen of the monitor, causing an IV to wobble one of his hands' large veins.
"Glad to see you awake there kiddo." A familiar voice chidded.
Rin groggily looked over to the visitor in the chair by the wall in front of him. He felt stitches pulling the skin by his stomach. The person was absolutely, unmistakably... "Mephisto?"
"Aw yes." His silly 'hee hee' chuckle chimed. "Well... Sir Pheles. I'm your dean, remember that."
"Wha? What day is it?" He struggled to push himself further up to sit more properly, a fizzle in his voice.
Sir Pheles chuckled again at Rin. "(hee hee) Zwanzig... Mai."
"English please?" Rin scoffed. He didn't like Mephisto. So many things about him seemed... strange. His Harijuku attire paired with running a private school, which of course housed the secret Cram School, the sole purpose of True Cross to begin with, boggled his mind, more-less confused him. Rin had learned last semester, True Cross was Japan's only Cram School, and it had been that way for centuries, but a demon like Mephisto running it? Obviously there was something he didn't know, but he came to accept it, as Mephisto had proved his loyalty to The Vatican, for he was an exorcist even, a high ranking one at that. Killing and exorcising his own kind, there had to be a reason why. He had always questioned, but isn't that what he had been doing for awhile now also?
"The twentieth of May." Sir Pheles uncrossed and recrossed his legs. His deep fuchsia leggings were just as ridiculous as his character. "Really, you should try learning another language Rin... it's fun." His responses were so kiddish at times.
"Not interested." He was just about to turn on the tv.
"You are one amusing kid. You know that?" Mephisto stood in front of it, his ivory cape and top hat made him look like some sort of weird prince.
"Why are you here Mephisto?" He groaned.
"Getting annoyed already are we?" He took five steps and was where he was, the room incredibly small. Standing by the bed, he turned the tv on for him with a touch of a single button. "...oh, have you forgotten what happened within the past couple of days?"
On the television it looked as if some sort of press conference was about to start, and Rin sighed, as he realized Mephisto was also on the tv, waltzing up to the press box with the True Cross Academy heart logo pasted to it. So like Mephisto, observing his own press conference on television. It was like he got a high out of watching himself; vain.
"Sir Pheles!" A reporter shrieked out above the others. Mephisto pointed, setting down his cane lengthwise across the box, also with True Cross's heart logo fashioned on the top handle. "What have you decided to do for classes this upcoming year?"
A mic'ed voice rang, amplifying the suaveness that Rin disliked the most, he frowned.
"We are offering online classes to our students this next year. True Cross isn't going 'out-of-business', just the physical campus will be off limits, a electronic campus will be working full force instead."
"S..Sir Pheles!" "Sir Pheles!" Hands waving. He pointed. A lady reporter in a blue blouse.
"Why has True Cross's owner decided to remodel?"
The response prompt, "Some of the buildings are just... old. The better ones we are going to keep in tact, the ones that need work done are the more primary buildings. Don't worry, True Cross won't lose it's charm, it's just getting an updated look. Frankly, it's overdue." Sir Pheles moved his hand from left to right in a very showy manner, smiling and then winking, which drove the reporters mad with shouting and yelling. He pointed at another.
"Did they get inspected by a licensed surveyor?"
Mephisto chuckled at his own response on the video, which was an eyebrow raise.
He smiled and stroked his thin, kinked beard. "Of course we did. The roofing needs to be replaced on five buildings." He smirked. "Mostly the library. As well as some of the dormitories need their air conditioning systems fixed, and the Student Union needs new flooring, as well as the largest cafeteria we have on campus needs a huge kitchen and interior remodel."
Mephisto clicked the tv off and chuckled. "You have to be careful with the press, that one would of gotten the school in trouble had I said we didn't file for building inspections." He had a gloved index finger pointing. He tried sitting on the bed with Rin. "Can you scooch over a bit?"
Rin sighed, Mephisto wasn't leaving anytime soon. Wiggling as best he could to allow for the dean to plop himself, and his ballooned britches down into a comfortable spot on the bedside, he sat his cane down across Rin's chest, Rin responded with an eye-roll, his cape covered him like another blanket, the filigree pattern on the underside of it the same fuchsia color as his skin tight leggings. He was practically lounging, as if he was in his own house on Rin's bed, lazily sitting upright like he was on a sofa.
"Hang onto that for me, would you?" His gloved fingers swam around in his beard, twisting and untwisting it into knots. "You were wondering why I was here."
Rin grunted.
"The nurse did say that you would have some short term memory loss, and seeing that's the case, I'm here to fill you in. Oh goodie! The's doors shut." He turned back around to be comfortable again, and not looking at Rin, he swished the curtain open, unsheathing the window beyond the heart monitor, staring into the abyss of blue sky, with a few puffy clouds.
"You see kiddo..." He took his hat off and sat it on top the heart monitor. Surprisingly he didn't have 'hat-hair', but his shaggy dark head was styled very nicely. "You fought against a demon on top the library. In the garden."
Rin's mind whisked a few moments. Mostly of rain.
"It was raining."
"Yes, yes, it had been... the demon's loss that day has echoed on our walls here at True Cross, because of you two. On our walls, literally." His eyebrows raised.
Rin listened.
"I'm glad the students left for summer break... just in time. You see, it was Satan himself you fought against up there."
Rin remembered now. Rain... and blue fire. A distinct hatred swarmed through his blood. Why was everything always on fire, always? Around him, near him, he had embraced it finally, but once he had been afraid. This was his uncanny life.
"And Satan losing isn't something a demon of his stature can deal with very well, especially losing to two teenage children. You two tricked him in a way." Mephisto chuckled, "And now he's certainly in a rage. He's been sending demons, all sorts of them, mostly un-bodied ones, spirits, all cannon fodder of course, to scatter across the walls here, to find the leaks that blessings couldn't cover, to scourge the entire school grounds... to invade."
The door opened and closed shut behind them. And Mephisto immediately shut his mouth. "Oh it's you." Was his response.
"That's right it's me! Who else would it be?" The woman had surprised look on her face. "I've been here every damn day since he's been in here clown."
"Shura." Rin stated.
"That's right, amidst all this chaos, a woman's gotta do, what a woman's gotta do to keep herself lookin' good you know?" She fluffed her long hair, which obviously she had gotten trimmed, it was the same colors as always, mostly a bright stop sign red, with a crayon yellow ombre effect towards the ends.
Her voice boomed, that's Shura; boisterous, and her look, attention grabbing. Rin winced, another person who was vain in his room. He hated it when these two were around one another. Since they had similar personalities, they literally fought like dogs. He had only witnessed it a few times, but he considered himself lucky, seeing as it was only a few times. Now he was stuck in the hospital bed, and couldn't escape easily, he couldn't just leave Mephisto's office like last time to let them battle it out word-wise.
"Here's a coffee." Shura sat it down on his bedside table. "I figured you'd be up today. It's been like four days."
"Four days?"
"Oh yeh, like a burned out bulb amigo!" She sucked her coffee down. Standing with her arms crossed loosely, staring at Mephisto casually lounging on the bedside.
Rin grabbed the coffee and began drinking it too, it wasn't too hot, just right, and loaded with cream and sugar. How he liked it, it must of been how Shura made her coffee also, seeing as he had never had coffee with Shura before.
"Anyway." Mephisto grinded his teeth, annoyed. "The demons broke through the walls here at True Cross. And they are after any and every person involved in the supposed travesty committed against the Lord of the Otherworld."
"Then we've gotta stop them!" Rin tried sitting up, shouting. He coffee slightly sloshed.
"Oh, no no." Mephisto pushed, using his own cane like a emergency-bar on an amusement ride to force him down.
"That makes jobs for us exorcists Rin, not you, or your friends. Ex-wires have no place in this." Shura stated resolutely, tugged up on her bandeau bra. That's all she wore, a bra with those teensy daisy-duke shorts and combat boots, tall socks. She looked stupid to him, he admitted the first time he seen her, her big chest, her appearance almost gave him a nosebleed, but after awhile, once he got to know her better, her personality flat-out ruined her looks.
He rolled his eyes at her pulling herself together on top. He swore she'd probably get along better if she wore something else.
Mephisto continued in a very 'as a matter of fact' tone, "True Cross an absolute disaster, a completely unlivable, unmanageable, and chaotic environment, and it's going to be that way for nearly the whole next year. It takes a lot for me to admit that." He crunched in the corner of his mouth. "But, the demons are slowly one by one being exorcised, holes in the barriers are being found, restored, repaired, and re-blessed. But! As of right now... It's a war out there!"
"So, where is everyone?" He blandly stated, listening to Mephisto's showy tone.
He had gotten so used to living on campus. Living in the dormitory, going back and forth to class, running at the gym, flame-training. His life was uprooted after his unexpected dad's death, and forced onto the campus of True Cross, living spontaneously between classes, his clothes jammed in a tiny section of closet, being yelled at to do work, to study. But he had gotten used to it, it was... home, with his Cram School buddies, and Yukio.
"Bring main targets of the demon masses, the ex-wires had to leave Rin, they had no other choice, it was no longer safe. They all returned to their respective places to hide from danger until it's cleared, your small group are Japan's future exorcists, your lives are valued." Shura stated.
Mephisto nodded. Rin noted how strange it was that they were complementing each other's conversation, all the while angry that he didn't get to say even a simple 'goodbye'. He frowned.
Mephisto chimed, trying to lighten the mood, "No worries! The one you call ugh...Bon, Konekumaru, and Shima returned to their temple, far away in the northern Japanese highlands. Bon did return bandaged up, he received some stitches, but all is well. Izumo returned to her hometown with her best gal pal," he chuckled at his choice of words, his hands speaking with him, "Sheimi returned to her home, outside Tokyo and far enough away from the academy that she could still see the buildings. It was quite a scenery, the mountains to the north, and Tokyo to the left, the small dots off in the distance, our own school. Boy her mother makes the best tea, and they also had this ti..."
As the dean droned on about the countryside, Rin recalled himself how beautiful it was there, a look just outside the garden gate one could see the city. It was where Yukio had taken him multiple times to get herbs for his Doctor Exorcist ailments.
"... and she made these lemon cookies, they had this sort of filling in them that wa.."
"HEY!" Shura shut him up. "Before Sir Lancelot goes further into his ever-so interesting story of plundered lands... we have to tell you some things." Sarcasm.
Rin crinked in the corners of his mouth, there it was. These two. He sipped the coffee.
"Yes, yes (cough)" Mephisto snapped out of it. "I needed an alibi for the fact that my academy is completely unstable. So... I lied to the press, all the students, the press conference made it official, releasing that the old buildings were under construction... well, it was more of an 'ultimate deception' on the general public, not necessarily a 'lie', well... maybe just a white one (hee hee)." He continued, so animated. "Like I told the press, classes will be all online."
Rin's face squinted in.
Mephisto seen his face, his green eyes probing, taking apart Rin's response, "Oh come now! It's not that bad! But, you do have to go home."
No change in Rin's expression. He was feeling homesick already having to leave his campus.
"And what about the demon gateway in the sky there, haha ho ho, hah, what about that?" Shura exploded out of nowhere, laughing in her typical manner: like Santa. She literally sounded like Santa when she laughed, jolly ho ho's, it irked Rin. She was mocking Mephisto.
Mephisto stood, slamming his top-hat back on his head. Rin wanted to cover his ears.
"Well, I thought it was a great idea!" Mephisto grinned at his accomplishment, another lie. Had to be.
"What's a great idea?" Rin felt left out.
"Why a theme park of course!"
Rin just quirked his eyebrows. The only theme park at True Cross was a Harijuku themed park, which of course, upon entering classes and speaking with Mephisto the first few times at the private high school, Mephisto made clear, was one of his favorite parts of the school.
Rin's facial expressions filtered in and out, as thoughts came randomly both good and bad: Rin had fought Amaimon there once. That Amaimon got on his nerves; bodied demons if anything; were mostly annoying to him. Rin could see why the Harijuku park was a favorite of Mephisto's, as that was how he dressed himself, to match the ever so popular fantasy culture. Why did he dress himself like that? Boy, Sheimi looked pretty that day.
Shura choked on her coffee, she was laughing so loudly it cut his trance.
"Oh yes, the gate, was simply a malfunction of several of the ride's flood lights." Mephisto was adding onto his lie that he had told, a hand on his hip.
"I... ha ha... can't believe... hoho. What a joke!" Shura continued. Amused.
"As far as the public knows, it was a new ride in the Halloween theme park, it's quite easy to manipulate to your advantage, you know." He winked at Rin.
Manipulate. Rin felt sick to his stomach. That comment. One word that triggered something current to probe back into his head.
I never thought I'd feel the rain again... so sensual.
He knew... test tubes turning black. He heard the sarcasm in his head. That sick, icy voice.
A demon! Himself! It had gotten in his brother's body! He put his coffee down on the parson table to his left and pushed it away angrily.
"Where's my brother!?"
The hysterical laughing died down. It wasn't the response he wanted.
"Well, where is he? I need to talk to him."
A certain chord in his voice struck Shura, she knew he was remembering, slowly, leaking back into his mind. Only a few minutes more, and it would all come back.
Rin looked at Mephisto staring out the window, Shura staring at him. She put her styrofoam cup down, cleared her throat and un-crossed her arms, re-crossed them. Mephisto sighed.
"This is..." Mephisto trailed.
"What?" Something inside his gut, wasn't sitting right. The ceiling fan rocked. He cleared his throat. Wheels squeaking in the hallway.
"Rin." Shura's voice.
His confusion watched her brown eyes, which looked in every direction except at him. "Yukio... well..." She ran her tongue across her lips wetting them and swallowed.
His face began getting flush, a knot in his throat formed as he recalled Yukio's voice: The Vat... would take me.
"Yukio is gone."
Rin's heart stopped in his chest. No.
"WHAT!" He piped. Shura rushed to his side and held him down as he made an attempt to jolt out of the bed. Mephisto turned to hold the other side. He jerked and writhed, his tail snapped out. His fangs bared. "NO! He gained the power to heal like me! NO!"
He fought them with word and as much logic as he could muster. Demon blood makes you heal faster, therefore he must be alive. MUST BE!
"HELP MeeEEEEE! YUKIO!" He wailed so loud it brought nurses swarming into his room, some of them running out again at the sight of the teen acting like a neanderthal. Had he a club, he would of been swinging it.
In his mind, for a brief instance he morphed into an unknowing, wild state, screaming for Yukio's assistance. With vision blurred, all he felt was them holding him, like in a mental hospital, like being put down to be chained to a bed. He shouted for his brother, to come assist him.
"YES RIN! Yes!" Shura shouted at him above his wails.
"NO!" Tears flared from his eyes, and a bright blue began to be seen. "You're a liar!" He began ripping at the blankets, trying desperately to get loose, to run.
"Turn the heat off Rin! TURN IT OFF!" His wrists turned inside her palms. The fifteen year old had an ungodly strength, and his temper whipped with a sharp tongue: a true example of how bipolar and uncontrollable it really was. He began shrieking as if mad, attempting to throw punches and wail on Mephisto.
Mephisto pressed down on his chest so hard that he couldn't breathe properly, (using his own demon strength), demon on demon, gaining Rin's gnashing teeth in his face, and the attention of his crazed eyes. "We tried to save him Rin! But..." Amongst Mephisto's power he shouted to him, "you stabbed him! You killed him!" It was working, Rin couldn't breathe, but the flames were becoming invisible once again, the heat going back down as his temper/emotions were changing.
"You killed him... you had to."
Rin's mind fluttered with thoughts of the last sight of his brother's face; lips ghost white, veined eyes, red leaking from his ears, nose clogged with clots, streams of tears trickling down over his lighted freckled cheeks, pale.
Anger was replaced with fleeting thoughts, boiling up. He babbled, bringing the ripped blanket to cover his face. He mourned into it openly, so hard that as Mephisto let his strength off his chest and picked his cane back up, that the weight still felt the same.
Death was all being a demon brought him; memories, memories of good times, but at a price: the fire, the fire bringing a reaper. So gravitational, so strikingly abrupt, horrific, good memories just... ruined. Inside, his stomach shriveled, swam, tingles running through his blank face. A salted sea, endless, rounded down his cheeks, tears ebbing over, like a river of smooth bedrock, his mind so numb, not a single drop he could feel caressing him.
They would play tag in between the pews, Yukio's childish laughter; Satan's sick, icy 'WHA haha!'
Looking at Yukio cleaning his glasses, buttoning his stark white shirt, snapping the exorcist trench; Satan's ugly features morphing Yukio's sharp face, his torn clothes exposing nasty, ripped flesh.
Watching his brother effortlessly firing those guns, with the ivy etching on the sides, once Shiro's, so perfectly into paper targets, so exact; A sword slamming through his torso, and a squirt of blood, a choke, a puff of red mist, like a small cloud out of his mouth and across Rin's shirt, little perfect circles, like red ink.
He cried.
All... ruined.
Forever- Away... from you.
The Okumura twins, they weren't as lucky, as just to return 'home' as the others.
After simply awakening in the infirmary, after being under in the hospital, Rin, a demon, a son of Satan, and an ex-wire, was bought a bus ticket home, back to the damaged monastery that he and Yukio were raised in by the monks and his adopted father, the priest, the late, Shiro Fugimoto, with his and Yukio's clothing and belongings.
That was a long bus ride home. A bus ride he thought he would be taking with Yukio, but instead, he took alone, with Yukio's rosary in his hand, clinching it, so tight that the beads left pressed round marks. He watched the marks fade, then he'd do it again. Over and over. The marks fading, much like Yukio's life, in the palms of his hands.
White light.
Siren.
"Scalpel, now!"
Flash.
Shaking.
Rin's face, a scream.
His eyes slammed open. At least they felt like the were open, and what graced him was nothing. Darkness.
Where am I?
No response.
He began moving, and pain rushed to him, immobilizing him, the jutting, zig-zagging feeling absolutely horrid. At least he thought he had moved, where did the pain come from?
He seen light from somewhere, the side of his eye. But it was just a simple, light, little fog, like on a trail in the early morning. The fog was slowly clearing, ever so slowly he began recognizing things: Bricks, ceiling fan, a round wall clock.
Then he did the one thing that made him aware, he hacked. Coughed so loudly that he realized: he was alive.
What? Confused.
He shuffled quickly in the bed, realizing that the pain wasn't allowing him to move much. He threw the blanket off of him, as much as he could, and his torso was wrapped completely. So were his legs in some places, his right arm, and his right wrist. What felt like a brown rope constricting his waist he tugged and tugged on, trying to get it off of him, only to send a searing pain up his spine. He winced, trying to sit up unsuccessfully.
"What... what are you doing?"
He heard a voice. A soft one, pleasant, but odd it sounded.
"Don't pull on that, silly, that's your tail."
His eyes probbed around for the visitor. He seen a cat sitting on the edge of his bed, yawning. It looked like it had just awoke, stretching.
He looked to his left and to his right. No one was there.
"Hey Yukio."
His eyes widened and just stared at the cat, who was now sitting on it's haunches, staring at him. He swore the voice came from that general direction. He looked behind the cat, there were vase of white roses on a table, a wall. He looked around through his peripherals. Cautious.
"Yo! Yukio. You are so funny!" The cat sat up and slowly began walking on the blanket closer to Yukio's torso, rather than at his feet. It's mouth had moved.
He just stared. He knew now, the cat was talking to him. Cat's can't talk. He must be dead.
"I'm dead, because cat's can't talk." Was his bland response. Obviously he must be dead, this is nuts.
"Nope." Was all the cat said.
"Nope? What's that mean?" He was trying to be calm about this.
"You've never been a demon before, but you are now. So... you can hear the familiar's speak."
Familiar. Cat. Black and white fur. "Kuro?"
"That's right, winner winner, chicken dinner. I know I'd like that."
It was his brother's familiar. Not one that he summoned of course, because like always, it was another thing his brother failed at doing, summoning a lesser demon that he could control. Kuro was once Shiro's familiar. It migrated onto Rin after finding out about Shiro's death. They all had a special gift too, and Kuro's was making himself larger, he could grow from the size of a normal cat to the size of a giant Godzilla cat.
"So put your tail down, if you keep tugging on it like that... you're gunna hurt yourself."
Yukio let it go, and watched it spasm around under the covers. It had looked like a brown rope at first, completely cutting his air off around his diaphragm, but upon closer inspection he realized it was covered in short, sleek fur, with a fluff on the end. The same as his brother's, except it matched his hair color instead: a sandy ashen brown; his brother's a shale black.
A small tear slithered down over his cheek. "I'm supposed to be dead."
He knew what this meant. Satan's true vessel... himself... was still alive. Satan could take form then, something he never wanted his brother to have to fight. He made his brother stab him so he would die, so Rin could continue, to make it harder for Satan. His plan... failed. His brother even though solid in his execution, which surprised him, gave him hope, but now... ?
"Who is responsible for this?" He asked among teary eyes. He was angry, absolutely bitter.
"The Vatican." Kuro stated, he was blinking his green eyes slowly.
"They know that Satan can use me to take form right? Are they stupid? Why did they save my life?" He spit it out.
"I don't know. I'm sorry Yukio." Kuro tried sympathizing with him. His little paw touched Yukio's forearm. It was warm, like a little paw of beans, the pads on it round. "That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Yukio was beginning to realize more and more, that the Vatican, this religious organization that the exorcists operated under, was ran more like a government, if the counsel voted on something, that's what they would do. Again, he felt more like Shiro day in and day out, no wonder Shiro, his father, truly didn't follow the Vatican's principles 100% of the time.
If they didn't let him die, and didn't realize that that was the best way, then, they really were out of their right minds. What interest could they possibly have in keeping him alive?
"Yo, Yukio. I know your thoughts are running wild right now." Kuro's words emanated the intonations Rin had in his voice, obviously Kuro had picked up on Rin's excessive usage of the word 'yo' within the year that he's been Rin's familiar, "But Satan can't posses you right now at least. You're injured still. No gates are open currently that he can hop, and he also has to find you too. He doesn't just have a Yukio 'radar'."
He tried to point out the positive, if being injured could be a positive thing.
"So then, is that why you are here Kuro?" Yukio rubbed his eyes, forcing himself to sit upright, using his left arm as a prop, wincing painfully. His voice choking, and puffing on a round of coughs.
"You're forgetting some things. I'm not loyal to the Vatican." Kuro rubbed the side of his head on Yukio's arm, "I'm loyal to Rin."
"So, Rin sent you?"
"No. I came on my own." Kuro sat, his tail moving similar to Yukio's, patting on the bed in thought, "I think it's in Rin's best interest that I'm here, rather than there with him right now."
"Well. I need to get up, so I can go to the dorm and find him. We need to come up with an alternative plan." A distinct chord of frustration fluttered in the last sentence.
"There might be a problem with that."
Yukio turned and quirked his eyebrows, "What? Why?" There was no way anything was holding him back, not even a little cat. Maybe a big cat.
"This isn't Japan."
Nevermind. Yukio didn't move listening to Kuro's words, that had stopped him.
"You and Rin have been divided up, you were sent to the other side of the world, to London."
"Hmm." Yukio groaned.
"So far, from what I could hear among the upper-class English exorcists, even though the Vatican knows you are a middle-class exorcist, they wanted to surveillance you for quite awhile. They needed a place to put you, so your wounds could heal, but you are the son of Satan. The fact that Satan himself 'unlocked' your demonic powers, turning you into a demon, and that this was all new to you, raised their concern. it wasn't exactly how your brother's powers got unlocked, not natural."
The Vatican had shuffled Yukio off, and he didn't even get the chance to say a small word of goodbye to Rin. They must of moved him while he was out.
Yukio was here, but where were all of his things? He at least spied his glasses, next to his bedside on a table, opened the hinges angrily and placed them on his face, pushing them up with a slight flick on the bridge of his nose. He was still healing too, worse than Rin was probably, much worse.
"I don't know where my things are." Yukio gawked around, his neck loosely rolling to the sides like he had just got done with an extremely strenuous workout, but instead it was due to him still feeling rather weak.
"They left all of it with Rin, except your glasses, and a few other momentos in the drawer there." Kuro stated wiggling himself onto Yukio's lap, motioning his head to the bedside table's drawer.
"Are you serious Kuro? My guns, I need them, and my trench-coat." Yukio's words were deathly, never did he like being separated from his guns. They were once his father's. The gift his father gave him once he gained his title of 'Exorcist'. He could give a shit less about his trench coat, if he had his guns, but he was missing both. As a matter of fact, he was missing everything. His white collared shirts, his black pants, his everyday attire, sleep pants, sweats, socks, dress shoes... everything. Where the hell was his duffel bag? Surely whoever packed his stuff, Rin had instructed them to put it in his black duffel bag.
"I'm sure Rin wasn't very happy about them not giving me my things." He knows that Rin would of told them that that would make him mad. However, Rin had been known to be a push-over. A soft-hearted, loving one at that. He smirked. His brother: the more caring one.
"Well, Rin wasn't there." Kuro said.
Yukio stopped thinking, and looked down in his lap, and could see that if a cat could frown, that was the human expression he would of been making.
"What do you mean?"
"When we left, I mean 'we' because I stowed away on the plane they brought you here in, Rin was in a coma, like you." He tail wrapped tight around the side of his body, flicking on the end. Yukio's tail stopped moving, listening. "When it got to the point where bandages were being changed on Rin twice daily, and after Vatican officials got permission to exit you from the infirmary at the school, you had just had surgery and was still damaged with stitches. That's when they moved you, immediately after."
Yukio's face looked absolutely foul at that knowledge.
"Rin was healing a lot faster than you. He's also been a demon longer than you. I'm sure he is probably awake by now."
Yukio knew this, he knew demon blood had a chemical embedded in it that healed faster. Obviously being a demon was going to change things for him in his life. He could hear Kuro for one thing. He moved his tongue around in his mouth, over the fangs that had grown.
"You've got pointier ears too." Kuro concluded for him, observing him. "Don't worry, you'll get used to eating around those fangs. Rin told me once it took him about a month to get used to them." He readjusted himself on Yukio's lap.
He pet Kuro, and the cat rolled onto it's back and bent his paws over in response. He scratched it's tummy.
"So, the Vatican doesn't know you're here?"
"Exactly." Kuro stated. "I'm sure, I'm hoping, once the Vatican realizes that inherently you train much more accelerated than Rin, and with permission, you can return to exorcising demons, after you learn to control the flames, since it's new to you, of course."
"Something doesn't seem right. You aren't telling me everything." Yukio was trying to read between the lines. "You can't just be here because you want to be here, because you're simply 'loyal' to Rin." Yukio was wondering. "I want to know loyal how, and why."
Kuro's green eyes opened from being closed, as Yukio stopped scratching his tummy. He sat up and stretched once again.
"Hmm, you are a lot more intuitive than Rin, that's for sure. I'm being loyal to Rin, because I purely am, but also because he doesn't need me right now." He licked his paw. "I think you need me more, but being here is loyal to Rin because it is in Rin's best interest that I am here instead. You need someone to teach you how to use those flames of yours. See, they already put a seal on you to keep the appearance of the flames invisible."
Yukio rolled his head down to gawk at a ring around his left index finger. That he's never seen before, as he was petting Kuro with his bandaged right appendage. He didn't even realize anything was there, that's how numb his body was still. Rin had an enchanted sword, Yukio had an enchanted ring. He took it off and instantly, the flames he realized were around them, not flaring, just simply a light misty aura of blue. Kuro just yawned. He put the ring back on, made of sapphire and silver.
"They didn't consume your being yet either, that's what you had been afraid of with Rin, isn't that right? Shiro told me years ago, supposedly what would happen if Rin's mind and heart would get taken over by the flame. Just keep that in mind, you don't want to be a human killer."
Yukio nodded. He was now both in Rin and Shiro's shoes. Forever on fire, and not 100 percent taking a liking the Vatican, or listening to them.
"Okay, so why now did you decide to help me learn to control my flames?"
"You have to learn how, same as Rin. It's the only way you two can come back together, as force to be reckoned with against Satan, and just so you two can be around one another again. You aren't aware, but security is tight on you at the moment."
"I'm Satan's vessel though."
"I'm here to figure that out too. We will figure something out, so that he can't possess you."
"Does Rin know about any of this?" Yukio wants to know, "Is my brother okay with this... me being here in London? You know how he is Kuro. He depends on me for everything. He's not going to take this well."
Kuro put a paw over his eyes and batted his tail, if a human he would of been running his hand over his face, a gesture done by stress.
"Before I stowed away on the helicopter to go to the airport with you Yukio, I was in the hall of the hospital, and I heard some voices in Rin's room." He shook his head, "I wanted to say goodbye to Rin before I left, I knew that day would be the day he would awake, seeing as his vitals were getting better, but the voices in the room stopped me. I didn't want anyone to know I was stowing away with you, instead of staying with Rin, so I just sat quietly outside the door and listened."
Yukio was intrigued.
"I heard a bunch of screaming all of a sudden, and above all of the shouting, I heard someone telling Rin that you..." Kuro trailed off, his face becoming sour, "that you were dead."
"WHAT?" Yukio stated.
Kuro frowned up at him, and hopped down to the floor. Yukio swung his feet over the side of the bed. The vinyl flooring was chilly.
"How is that logical at all? Do they know what that is going to do to him?!" Yukio felt twisting explosions of wrath inside, he wiped a few escaping tears from his eyes.
"I heard a few higher-up exorcists talking also here about how that will be good for the 'short brother', Vatican loyalists no doubt. They think that will push him to train harder, which is what the Vatican wants. Like I said- a force against Satan. That's the 'why' you were looking for. That's why I'm here. As soon as I heard my master yelping for you to come save him, I took off, ran down the hall and sprinted to your copter. Hiding before they had even loaded your metal bed onto it."
"A church organization of liars it sounds to me." Another realization hit him, "Rin was screaming for me?"
"Yes... for you to... help him."
His brother, Rin. That cheek he had held only for a second it seemed, those blue eyes, then darkness.
Skin a soft chiffon.
Devastated.
