Yukio and Kuro weren't out searching for answers. They were taking a much needed break instead. All of June they had been moving non stop around the city trying to figure out ways to acquire a means out, a bus ticket, a flight they could stow away on, a train ticket, something without gaining the attention of the Vatican. To get to Rome, to sneak in. It was harder than they had originally thought, and simply walking wouldn't get them there, period. It was across countries, how were they supposed to get across the English Channel? They couldn't just walk across it, the Vatican counsel, ever so smart in their planning, in their placement of him here, on an island. He spat at it.
They still hadn't left London.
Needless to say, Yukio was beginning to feel like a failure, and that never happened. He always achieved what he wanted, by the time he wanted, and that left him aggravated, red-faced.
"This would be easier if the Vatican hadn't confiscated my blessed keys." Yukio's frustrated thoughts became words. He thought, of the past month, hiding in different places, sleeping inside empty hotel rooms, space hopping, he had been forced to let go of some pieces of who he was in order to keep hidden.
With Yukio realizing his newly gained strength, the hospitalization only a past memory, a long scar on his stomach, not even red, but only a long white mark, he and Kuro could easily hop up stories high onto balconies of buildings, break latches on doors without making too loud of noise and sleep inside for a few evenings at a time. And just as easily, with a quick bend of the stainless steel, Yukio could mould the latch back into form as if it had never been bent/broken. The staff at the hotels would never know. Never in his life would he ever of wanted to do this, would of resulted in this: a fugitive.
He felt like a bum, a street rat; they had no money. Of course the Vatican paid, being an Exorcist wasn't just a 'charitable' title, but his funds had been cut off. He didn't even have access to his bank account, his wallet gone, no cell phone, no accessories to help him, to help them. Stealing was all they had, going to a homeless shelter would get them noticed.
"That's true enough." Kuro laid on one of the beds, stretching, licking, straightening a patch of white fur on his arm. They had turned in early this time, ten o'clock at night, and they had already found a room, Yukio was just laying on his back on the other bed in sweats. He had stolen more clothes as the month had went by, clothing that before he wouldn't bothered wearing. He figured that would be the best way to hide. He knew that the Vatican knew he was meticulous in his clothing and appearance; another thing he had to let go of.
For most of his life, he wore clothing of strictness, of a trained exorcist, a professor, a professional, and if not that, clothing similar to school uniforms in his relax-time: khakis, sweater vests and pristine, clean, spotless white long-sleeved collared shirts. He had never owned a single pair of sweatpants in his life.
Rin wore them all the time, walked around with no shirt and clunky looking sweatpants. His lazy brother. He smirked, his thoughts moving onto the ex-wires.
"I had a key to every place my ex-wires lived." He went on, trailing about the magically blessed keys, keys that only Exorcists of certain titles and jobs were allowed to possess. Keys unique enough in shape, small enough, much like skeleton keys, that once you put them into any lock, in any door, anywhere, and gave it a quick turn, that the door would open to the door the key was blessed at, like a portal. A person could put the key in any door lock at True Cross Academy, turn it, open the door, and the door would/could open into a different place, anywhere in the world. "I had four for True Cross's school grounds; one to go back to the monastery. One to the Vatican."
"Like 'magic' as they call it in the demon world, 'blessings' you call it here." Kuro stated, now sitting up and staring at Yukio. His face was tense.
"Each world has it's own form of supernatural 'ness' to it. I studied that when I was becoming an Exorcist." It had been at least seven years ago when he learned that, about eight years old, it was written in some of the first text books he had studied in Cram School as a boy. "I know that already."
"But do you?" Kuro stated, his tail whacking on the bed.
"What?" Yukio sat up partially on the bed, rolling to his side, the lights on the city across his body. He could see Kuro's eyes sort of glowing in the night, how all feline's eyes are, reflective. Except instead of glowing white, as cats of Assiah's do, their reflective color was red, that of a demon, of a Gehenna native. What was this cat speaking about?
"Do you really understand what that means?" He made himself a little bit larger, about the size of a panther and laid on his side, and pulled the blankets over him, so that he could stare at Yukio, look at him, the same size bodies, like equals, from bed to bed.
There were 'human-like' gestures the cat did sometimes, which helped Yukio realize, he really wasn't just a 'cat'. He in fact was a living, breathing demon, a non-animal. Intelligent.
"When you made your first jump, out of the hospital window, I told you that I had a secret to share with you." Yukio hadn't brought it up to him since. Kuro figured maybe the jump itself was too much of an exhilaration that he forgot all about his words.
Yukio fummed with the ring on his left hand, moving it around his finger in circles with his thumb, listening, his body uncovered. They collectively had been doing so many things to acquire a means out, he just didn't have the time to ask. He figured it could wait. He was more interested in finding a way to the Vatican.
"Shiro, your father, my old master, he was a great Exorcist. He also bore different meisters like you do. You have a Doctor and Dragoon Title, he had all five, years of hard work and stamina it took him." He blinked, the red eyes looking left and right at Yukio's moving eyes in the dark, watching him, watching each other. For now Yukio could see in the dark as well, and his eyes, even though in the daylight, a seagreen teal, in the night they glowed just as Kuro's from the reflecting cityscape: a blood red. "He bore so many titles that it was only natural that he was the one who re-wrote the Cram School textbooks."
"My father was very intelligent, and to him I owe much of my knowledge."
"Yes true. It was only a couple years before you began going to Cram School that Shiro finished rewriting the texts, placing in new information, new techniques, geological, health, sexuality issues. Shiro wasn't just an multi-meister exorcist, he was a scientist, and someone who always sought for a better understanding. Which is another reason as to why he was so liberal in his everyday ways, it wasn't just due to him not taking a liking to the Vatican's rulings and principles, it was because he WAS finding out better understandings of things than any other exorcists had known before about demons."
Yukio nodded his head.
"And that was because of me."
Yukio squinted his eyes, taking it all in, listening.
"You don't know much about this cat." Kuro chuckled an odd, husky chuckle. "You know how old I am?"
"No." Prompt.
"I'm 176 years old. You know, Mephisto is going to be 200 here in a couple years. Shiro was in fact my first human conjurer. He opened a portal, and by surprise, he sucked me through. Shiro also hid the fact he had a familiar, on purpose. There's a reason for that, you didn't even know I had been his familiar until about a year ago. You see, that's how it is with familiars, all animal-kind of Gehenna are familiars, either to another demon or to a human, being a human's familiar is much much more rare, you have to be 'portaled' in order to be so. Unlike animal-kind here in Assiah, where they are simply 'just animals'. There is a difference in worlds."
"Are you saying that I should view demons and Gehenna creatures, floral and fauna alike, as... aliens?" He was raised under Catholic terms, under Vatican principles, under the assumption that there is a good and an evil world.
"There is no up and down Yukio." Kuro's voice tremored. "Shiro understood it as such, but he couldn't teach it that way, he couldn't write it that way." He cleared his throat. "Shiro knew so much about demon kind because of me. That I told you already. But it was through my loyalty, the loyalty a familiar vows to their owners, that I told him these things. But you see, it wasn't just Shiro re-writing the texts then, it was also me. For years of Shiro's life we prepared texts together to rewrite the ways in which exorcists would view the demon-kind. To evolve the exorcists to become more men and women of understanding, not of medieval theories of 'heaven and hell'. That was why I was so broken over Shiro's death, he and I shared common views."
"I'm guessing then that you didn't succeed in some cases."
"No. The funding of the texts for Cram Schools... is the Vatican. Which means they can copy, paste, and erase, whatever amounts of it they wanted. Much like how King James edited pieces of the Bible... called it the 'New King James version'."
"So much of what you learned, even though some of it was left from what we had written, was edited. That's the secret Yukio."
"I always felt like in some cases with the texts I had to read between the lines to make some sense of things." Yukio remembered quite a few times when he was stumped over something and Shiro would simply say 'think about it' or 'read between the lines Yuki-boy'. That was why. Shiro wanted him to know, but he couldn't teach him because of the Vatican.
"Shiro hoped that you were adept enough to understand, to question, to find the truth, the true meaning, in some cases you were. Shiro and I would have discussions about your learning. I have to say I'm quite impressed, with how far you've come along."
"Just as Shiro, you've been there our whole lives?"
"Yes, I've known both you and Rin since you were little babies. I was Shiro's familiar for nearly 60 years, until his... untimely death." A hint of sadness made itself known in Kuro's voice. "Just the same we would have discussions about Rin, not necessarily based around his learning and skill as our chats were about you, but more so ideas on how to handle him. I wasn't just Shiro's familiar Yuki, I was his best friend."
"A cat. His best friend." Yukio blew air out of his nose, huffing. "Makes sense, he never seemed lonely. Answers my question on why he never married."
"He was too busy." Kuro rolled over in bed more. "Yukio, I know you have the mental stamina it takes to conjure a familiar. Why have you not done it?"
"It would just be in the way, it also doesn't fit my meisters." He stretched his arms above his head to relax, but instead his tail flicked out, and he started whacking it back, as if a fly. It wrapped itself around his wrist. Yukio growled, "I don't know how to make it obey." He felt his whole spine twitching as it moved, the sensation was awkward. He would just tape it down around his torso like a belt, it was the only way he could concentrate on anything without it flailing around, tape it down, pretend it didn't exist.
"I can teach you. I can also teach the information from the real re-written textbooks, the ones before the Vatican altered them, that is, if you want to know what it's really about... being a demon."
Yukio was silent. Thinking.
"As a professor, I was teaching from these books, I had learned from these texts myself. So the whole time, even though bearing a more truthful take on demon-kind, the Vatican lied."
The cat ran a paw over his face. Yukio was really seeing, and bearing the weight.
"I was teaching lies Kuro, and I didn't know any better."
"Well, not all the texts were lies. The books that remained unchanged were a few. The ailments books they left, so all the ailments you know for your Doctor Exorcist title are true, and are real, as you've seen on missions, it's like a medic in the military what you are, you can heal others with then knowledge you've gained from demon-given illnesses and injuries."
"And everything else?"
"Yukio honestly, you taught the ex-wire primary classes. The core books were mostly unchanged."
He breathed out a sigh, sort of content that he was about it, "But then what of my ex-wires this upcoming year?"
"There are things that are changed, that aren't true, that only a truly unique-study of a pupil would be able to figure out or question."
Yukio felt sick, his insides turn.
"I know you feel the same way about knowledge that Shiro felt, and how I still feel." Kuro sighed looking at the ill look on Yukio's face, his eyes becoming heated under his glasses, a light blue aura around his, just a light mist, formed. He was angry. "I'm placing my hope in you Yuki. If I teach you things the texts can't about demon kind, vow to me that you will teach it openly to the ex-wires. Start a revolution. I'm not asking you to be Jesus, I'm asking you to help them. Gehenna isn't what it is. It's not as it seems, and with the backwards teachings of the Vatican and religions in Assiah, there is no other way for them to know."
"Why are you so adamant about this? Is it just because you and Shiro's will didn't get implemented and now your livid?"
"Yes, irritated, but also upset. We both were disappointed. Demons aren't all bad. We aren't... we just have a vicious dictator ruling us."
"Satan."
Kuro nodded.
Shura was sitting on the ground of the monastery, literally on the ground, as floorboards had been blown completely out, drinking a beer while the monks wore tank tops and shorts, slaving in the summer heat repairing the floors, walls, and some alter areas. Hammers were being pounded and nails could be heard dropped on the floor occasionally, the monks chatting with one another about where things should go.
Shiro Fugimoto's death had rocked the place, and not just in an emotional standpoint, the monastery was completely destroyed in some places still on the inside. The twins had helped put things together quite awhile back, but they didn't have much time because they had to go to school, and so there still was so much work that needed to be done. Satan's attempt to take over Shiro's body, but in turn killing him, had warped the monastery into something similar looking to a tornado's aftermath, a deathly and cold reminder of the bastard and it's power.
For Rin it was worse. He wanted no reminders of Satan, and with his bloody memories of Yukio an everyday, all day stringing, series of occurrences, he was doing what he could to numb himself, and in turn, it was actually making him numb.
He was purposefully erasing. Keeping his mind occupied on other things.
He had painted his bedroom upstairs a color Shura never thought he would choose: yellow. And he completely rearranged all the furniture. And the books on the bookshelves. Planted purple pansies in pots, which were sitting in the windowsills, and he was actually taking care of them, watering them. He transformed Yukio's old room into an entertainment room for the monks. Painted it an ashy green. It was a library. And he had convinced the monks that 'television' was okay, and even though they swore to keep the 'devil's light box' upstairs in his own room, Rin put it in the new entertainment room anyway. He even threw out the drapes with little 'toy cars' on them Yukio had still had from his childhood, and replaced them with just a simple sheer white curtain.
Rin walked by then shirtless and sweating, double teaming carrying a pew with one of the monks, one on one end and one on the other. Everything on the inside was ashen; building the monastery was just another step in Rin 'fixing' himself as he called it when Shura had questioned.
Shura took another sip of beer.
Rin and the monk stopped and they abruptly slammed the pew down, dropping it right in front of her.
"Hey, what's da big idea? I'm sitting here!"
"You gunna help or what?" Rin put his hands on his hips. His voice bland. She had been here for nearly a week, showed up at the front door. She was one of the bearers of bad news.
"Hmm. Construction isn't my cup of (she shook her can of beer) tea."
Rin rolled his eyes and dead-eye stared at her. "Well the Vatican ordered you to be here, and whether you wanna be here or not, you're here, and you're officially a part of this house. Contribute... or leave." Solid words for Rin.
Shura chuckled, he was doing what he could to preoccupy his mind off of Yukio's loss over the summer. At least that's what he told her.
"Temporary member there, horns." She struck a pun at Rin's blue flames, when they came out on the crest of his head they indeed looked like horns. She really didn't want to do anything except enjoy the sun the blown-off roof provided, and sip her cold one. She yawned, and stretched and put her hands behind her head leisurely to get the point across.
A very tiny amount of Rin's flames sparked up, and his eyes flashed for only a split second, the smallest few seconds he knew he could control their variation to get the point across. He was mad, not just at her right now, but her in general. "Get your ass up."
Shura twitched her face abruptly, surprised.
"You don't know how long you're gunna be here Red." Rin frowned "You're my live-in 'sister' for as long as the Vatican wants you here."
She irked then at the word 'sister'. He was already figuring out how to press her buttons.
"And, since I'm the only one that cooks around here... help out or no food. Or you can go spend whatever money you might have left on beer. I don't give a shit what you do. No help, no bed, no food." He shoved his one talent in her face, cooking, and followed it with his temper.
Nobody in that monastery could cook except him, and Shura was the worst out of all of them. She shrunk in dismay. She burnt hard boiled eggs. Rin didn't even know how it came to be entirely. He woke up about 2 in the morning and she was asleep on the floor, and she had left a pot of water and eggs boiling, probably for hours. If Rin hadn't of woken up, they would of had yet another disaster on their hands, one involving fire trucks and a burning building.
"Fine." She chugged the last of her beer and stood to slap dirt off her tiny jean shorts that she liked to wear.
That was the only way to get the lazy woman to do anything, make sure she knew where she stood. She needed to eat, right?
Rin pulled his shirt off of a neighboring pew and threw it at her. "Put it on."
"What? What's wrong with my clothes now?" Shura was attractive, distracting to most, and she knew it. She made a cute kissy face.
"You'll get cut up carrying things Miss." The blushing monk that was helping Rin chimed in, nicely smiling.
Shura thought about it as Rin took off his gloves and threw them for her to catch and put on, the crosses on his necklaces jangling slightly.
"Fine, fine. You men just can't handle having a woman like me around! Oh ho ho ho!"
She admitted, she liked the smiley, loving, stupid Rin better than this new persona he was taking on. He was always so blunt now... and... empty.
She had only been here a week. What else was going to come of him? She squinted her eyes at him, watching him effortlessly pick the pew up himself, leaving the monk behind to grab a bucket of nails and follow.
His strength was back from being injured. She swore she'd never seen someone carry something of that size themselves before.
"I miss him mom." Sheimi said over her lemonade. Her pink flowered Kimono shimmered in the sunlight. They were sitting outside having a nice luncheon. Cookies, lemonade and sandwiches. "I'm so used to Yuki-chan coming the most through June and July. He needed the herbs we sold the most during this time, the summer, when he would go on the most exorcist missions."
"I'm still missing Shiro." Her mom said putting another cookie on her plate.
Her mom had had such a huge crush on Shiro Fugimoto.
"I still wish I'd see his face come through that door." Her mom smiled. "Yukio too." She nodded at her daughter. "He was such a cute boy. It's so sad what happened."
"I just wish I could of had the chance to say something to him." Shiemi had became good friends with Rin, Yukio's brother, and as for 'Yuki-chan': "I just wish I could of told him how I felt."
"Hmm?" Her mom stopped drinking lemonade and looked at her questionably. "Oh... Sheimi." She cooed as her daughters eyes welled with a few tears. She rushed to her side and on her knees began wiping her face dry with a napkin. "You liked him didn't you?"
She squeaked out a small 'yes' under her breath.
"Well." Her mom gave her a sad look. "That's something we both have in common." She could sympathize, "That Shiro, what a woman wouldn't of gave to have a man like that on her arm."
Shiemi nodded, "Yuki-chan was so... perfect."
Her mom sat beside her on the blanket listening to her.
"He was so tall, compared to me at least, and I thought he was so handsome with those few freckles on his cheeks. I had known him for so long."
Her mom nodded her head, admitting that the adopted boys of Shiro were definitely 'lookers'.
"He seemed so grown-up in everything he did, and every time I seen him I felt so embarrassed."
"Is that why you never told him that you liked him?" Her mom asked.
Sheimi took a sip of lemonade, "Yeah. I always felt like such a girl around him. I was... shy."
"Well, that was my problem too. Shiro was a great man. When I lost your father years ago, I was so sad Sheimi, you were just a little toddler, and if it wasn't for your dad's mom, your grandma, I wouldn't have had anyone to help raise you. But I really fell for Shiro, he was always so kind, and funny!" She chuckled, remembering an old joke he had told her years back. "Sometimes in my head I can still hear his laughter."
"Yukio never laughed." Shiemi said bluntly, "Not unless he was around Rin."
Her mom listened once again.
"I knew Yukio and Rin had a tough relationship, Yukio was very dominant, and Rin is very... well... sort of... ugh." She couldn't place it.
"Daft?"
"That's probably the best way to say it." Sheimi frowned, she didn't like saying that about Rin. "Rin's so sweet, but yet, he's not very bright. Yukio was so intelligent. But yet, even though they had such a hard time getting along, Rin was the only one that could make Yukio laugh, and it wasn't even laughs. He would just chuckle at Rin's silly nature. It was like Rin falling asleep in class would make him mad, but then Rin would say something kind of dumb, or trip over something, and that he would chuckle at."
"Did that bother you?"
"I wanted to make Yuki-chan laugh." She rung her fingers nervously, "I was kinda jealous, because all he'd ever do is simply... smile at something I'd say. He was always so put-together, his appearance spotless, and... mysterious. Quiet."
"Hun, it's terrible what happened, but Yukio and his father are both gone now." She put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Boy, I would of given anything to make Yuki-chan laugh, just once... before he left us."
"You have such a sweet heart dear. Just be glad that someone on this planet, even if it was his brother that he barely got along with, made him smirk and chuckle a few times."
"You're right mom, I'm glad in those few moments... Yuki-chan seemed happy." A small tear ran down her pale cheek, her big blue eyes soft, but smiling.
