A/N:

Hails: Sorry if the beginning is choppy, guys. Things are happening at a much faster pace as we're approaching the battle scenes.

I disregard any claims to the characters, setting, or plot of Blue Exorcist/青の祓魔師, which are a property of the mangaka Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.

"He who cannot put his thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of dispute."
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human

The terror of the Blightseed befell all of Assiah like the darkness of night. It skirted into Japan on it's massive, spindly legs, approaching the Academy with vigor and wrath. It's towering and shelled figure stood menacingly above all. Red, beady eyes could just be seen underneath the shadow it cast upon itself. From its legs to its body to its grated hole of a mouth that swallowed everything like a black hole. It unleashed a terrible roar, vibrating the earth beneath all.

"What is that?!" A student hollered from inside the school. Teachers and teenagers alike crowded around the windows as the beast rampaged outside. The glass in front of them suddenly tore apart with a sharp crack. They scattered from the area, unable to look at the creature. It was too large to take it all in at once and the pure trepidation they felt would haunt the campus grounds for decades after this attack.

"Hang on a second, a way to defeat it?" Shura asked, staring at the exwires. "You know what that thing is?"

Izumo made hand gestures and an expression in an awkward manner to describe her iffiness. "Kinda..." She said. "We know it's a high-level demon and in ancient times it was known as the Devourer of Life. We also know it was a creature forged by the three weakest Demon Kings in an attempt to end an age-old war with Egyn and Iblis. It had to be sealed by three powerful beings, two of which lost their lives and returned to conceptual energies. Their names and location are unknown."

"Well, that's something." Shura pursed her lips and shifted her weight from one leg to the other. Her vision swept past each of the fledglings with curiosity. They were haggard but not in the way most could see. They were exhausted, drained, and looked like they had barely slept. She was sure the unknown whereabouts of the Okumura Twins weren't making things much better. "And how do we defeat it?"

"Apparently it's got a super soft underbelly but it's super hard to reach, much less hang onto for more than few seconds," Izumo explained. She couldn't quite bring herself to go into the gruesome details, not without a guarantee that one could get up there first. "But it's weak spot is its head, which it chooses to hide underneath its shell unless you can get it to come out."

"How do ya that?"

"You have to majorly piss it off."

"Oh, great!" Shura exclaimed, slapping her hands to her eyes and throwing her head back. "That's just wonderful."

"I don't like it either, none of us do," Izumo said. Her eyes flicked to Shiemi, who looked somewhere in her own little word of dread. Izumo couldn't say she blamed the gardener, after all, she had a mother to worry about her. Izumo suspected their next encounter with the owner of the supply shop would have a lot of words. "I feel like it'd be a lot easier if we had more assets."

"My God, to think such a creature exists..."

Konekomaru was pretty sure he spoke for everyone when he said that.

"Is there a way it can be stopped?" Izumo asked. While she had been vexed at Lilith about ten minutes ago, she couldn't bring herself to be now. The elder woman had disappeared in the middle of the Illuminati skirmish, leaving Izumo to fend for herself until back up arrived. Even then, that hope of back up had been fleeting as it seemed no one could handle the terrifying power of Karura backed by a militia of both Demon Eaters and yet to become as such soldiers.

"Yes, there is a way," Lilith murmured quietly as she worked quickly to untie their bindings. Her voice was so soft as she dwelt in her memories that it almost passed by the exwires unheard. "But it requires the knowledge that many of you have learned tonight." Her head turned in a gesture to each of the exwires. "From your ancestors, loved ones, and mentors. Should that be how to separate demons from humans, how to summon creatures of great level, or how to have courage, you must act. Your teamwork will save you above all."

"And what of the Okumuras?" Suguro inquired. He couldn't help the question, he was genuinely curious. And also, awfully frightened for Rin and Yukio. Though he made no move to show it.

"They will be fine. My faith is not ill placed, I promise. Your friends will come out of this just fine."

Lilith's gaze turned to a determined Shiemi, whose eyes burned with an unseen fire that had not previously been there. It blazed intensely, determination began to bubble and fizz beneath her skin as hotly as her own blood, her heart pounded in the cavity of her chest with a newfound ferocity.

"And it seems you're ready to learn what it is I have to teach you." Lilith moved over to Shiemi with slow, lithe movements. Shiemi closed her eyes and ducked her head, feeling the light tingling of Lilith's lips against her forehead. "You'll know what to do when the time comes. Don't falter, your courage could be the difference between life and death."

Shiemi nodded her head in understanding.

'Fear nothing,' Shiemi told herself. She felt Izumo's gaze on her and absently reached up to brush her bangs over the glowing, golden dot on her forehead. Somehow Izumo's questioning look made a stone drop in the pit of her stomach like a rock sinking to the bottom of a lake. 'You are stronger than you know.'

Shura didn't say anything. Rather she could only bother to think of solutions. She knew Mephisto probably had countless and at least sixty percent of them involved making the exwires into exorcists. Which she wouldn't be averse to doing but the Order during the aftermath would be a whole other matter. She pressed plump lips together again, tighter this time, as she pondered everything that had happened in the past couple weeks or so. Between the Gehenna Gate gorging everything, the Blightseed making things just that much worse, and now the Illuminati becoming a more and more prominent threat by the day, Shura really was stuck between a rock and a hard place. If Mephisto didn't return soon—

"Guten Tag, all!"

Ah, there he is. Speak of that tool.

"Mephisto," Shura snapped with a glare. "Nice to see you were able to join us back in the land of the living. Care to tell me what brings you here?"

"I simply wanted to see my favorite exwires back and in safe condition, is that so wrong of me?" Mephisto asked with a sly grin.

"Cut the crap," Shura said sharply, placing her hands on her hips. "We've got a massive problem ragin' outside your precious academy. Care to help us out?"

"Oh, yes, my poor academy," Mephisto said in a sad tone. "Being destroyed all because of Lucifer. The nerve of him. How about I destroy his headquarters and see how he likes it?" Shura hissed out an annoyed breath between her gritted teeth yet Mephisto proceeded to ignore her. "Anyway, I do have some important measures to take so cooperate with me here. Ein, Zwei, Drei!"

Each of the exwires was suddenly engulfed in their own individual puffs of pink smoke and confetti. As soon as they came out of it, each of them donned a glorious black overcoat draping down to their ankles. To accompany it, they became clad in simple button-downs, slacks, and sturdy boots, each of which was shaped to their builds respectively.

"As of tonight, you are all officially exorcists!" Mephisto exclaimed gleefully. "And you all are going to need your gear to protect the campus grounds."

Shura gaped. Of course, she had been thinking of such less than a minute ago but the fact that Mephisto went ahead and did it? Unbelievable. "Hang on a second, Mephisto! Are you going to dispatch them against that monster? They're juniors! Evacuating survivors I would understand but pitting them against a high-level demon?! What are you thinking?!"

"You know I find it amusing that you preach about how opposition shouldn't underestimate these brand new fledglings," Mephisto said in that velvety sing-song voice of his. It made Shura grimace when Mephisto got up close and personal. She felt an unruly need to stab him through one of his eyes with one the kunai she hid underneath her cassock. "And then proceed to make yourself out to be a hypocrite."

"There's a difference between protecting people and fighting demons, Mephisto," Shura ground out. "That is a beast that even the most senior class of exorcists couldn't defeat!"

"Oh, please, I have no time to argue about the details with you right now," Mephisto waved her off, turning with a flare to saunter out of the room. "I need you to start evacuating my students, please AND thank you!"

"Yer shitting me, right?!"

Mephisto did his best to ignore Shura but grimaced at the vulgar language nonetheless.

"Wait, headmaster!" Mephisto paused at the sound of Suguro calling him. He tried to keep more than a glance trained on the young Buddhist priest though his disinterest was obvious.

"What is it, Suguro?"

"Lilith says 'hi.'"

This was a bad idea. Like, if there ever was a bad idea in the extremely long running history of bad ideas, then this idea was it's and every other bad idea's mother incarnate. Maybe even grandmother. The base rule for being a member of the Illuminati was to basically refrain from pissing off Lucifer. Which mind you was just a horrible idea in general and could be achieved by simply tripping over one of his IV's.

And the Koma sword was literally right there. Just two feet away.

Kuro's gait was smooth and strangely relaxing. His frame hummed pleasantly against Rin's front, lulling his body into slumber. His eyes barely caught a vision of Yukio, draped over Kuro's monstrous back and secured in placed by one of two tails. A small trail of drool dribbled down his chin and Rin smiled fondly. Though his heart was being wrenched in two different directions and tearing at the seams, a part of Rin was at peace, knowing he and his brother were the same. Even if it was in small ways.

"He's just like you now," a tiny piece of Rin's mind tugged at the threads of his sanity. "Whatever chance he had at a semblance of a normal life has vanished. And it's all. Your. Fault."

Rin winced, throwing his hands over his ears instinctively, as if that would block out the furious, thrumming in his head. "It's all your fault," repeated like a mantra, pounding against the inside of his skull like a bass drum. And the pain was so, so—

"Rin." Kuro came to an easy, slow stop. "It's getting late and watching you and Yukio sleep is making me tired. I have to rest too, you know."

"He had to blink a few times whilst registering Kuro's words but once he did, Rin made a soft, understanding noise in the back of his throat. He flipped his legs over Kuro's side, gave Yukio a gentle, waking shove, and slid down to the earthy ground. The pine needles shuffled underneath his boots. A matching thud resounded next to him, joined by an exhausted yawn.

"I guess this is as good of a place to rest as anywhere," Rin said, examining the area. Fortunately, it didn't seem to be too dark out. The sun was just disappearing behind the horizon, leaving the sky a lavender hue. Although it didn't seem Rin's attributed night vision was helping much with the trees' dusky shade; he could just make out the dark outlines of a handful of greenery and shrubs. "Should we start a fire or-"

"Not here," Yukio interrupted. His eyes swept the surroundings in a repeat of Rin's actions. "We've been relying on the cover of the trees and nightfall for the past hour. Lighting a fire would give our position away. We haven't seen an Illuminati official since this afternoon and would like to keep it that way."

Truth be told, lighting a fire was like setting up a massive neon sign that said, SONS OF SATAN, THIS WAY. COME GET US. In that respect, the results didn't sound very appetizing. Or wanted, for that matter. While normally Rin would have flippantly disregarded his brother and started a fire anyway, there were somethings Rin had been thinking about since the Illuminati showed up in the Garden of Amahara. Such as things he may have needed to take responsibility for.

"Like the fact that he's not human anymore." Rin pushed that thought from his mind with gritted teeth. He knew he couldn't pin this on himself but he had to acknowledge what he did, or rather what he didn't do. So just this once, he'd listen to his brother.

"I wouldn't be too worried about keeping warm," Yukio said with a smile. Rin looked at him. For a single second, he wholeheartedly believed Yukio was talking about their flames. Then Kuro dragged his long, wet tongue up Rin's back and it actually clicked. He really needed to think of alternatives that didn't involve burning something.

Yukio smiled, nearly laughing as Kuro picked Rin up by the collar of his shirt as if he were a kitten being carried by its mother. Rin wriggled around a bit but overall surrendered to his familiar's weird grooming tendencies. It wasn't the first time this had happened, even with Yukio watching, and Rin suspected it wouldn't be the last. It wasn't long until Yukio had been dragged by the metaphorical tail into the Cuddly Demon Pile of Doom. He, unfortunately, did not escape Kuro's attempts at grooming either.

"Why... does he do that?" Yukio inquired. He had toned down considerably as soon as he was caught in the action.

"Just because he's a demon doesn't mean he's any less of a cat," Rin replied. There was a tight grouse trying to climb out of his throat but he choked it down. He rolled over, nestling into the warmth Kuro's fur and mumbled something incoherent.

Then the misery seeped past his barriers again.

Everything that had happened in the past several days resumed in a playback of his memories. The attempt on Mephisto's life, seeing the truck where Yukio was imprisoned, Shura telling him to go home (perhaps she didn't want him to see Yukio as he was, so broken), the jailbreak, the garden, meeting Lilith, the Spirit World, speaking to his own mother, the Illuminati's interference, Yukio's Awakening. Jumping off the side of Lucifer's massive, flying ship was only a little more than a few hours ago. Every single scene was accompanied by the painful throb of blame.

If he had just... seen his brother sooner, seen who he really was, saw that he was hurting... then maybe none of this would have happened in the first place. The one time Yukio reached back rolled across Rin's mind and he tensed, curling into a ball.

"I want to know, don't you?"

There was a quiet shifting right next to Rin. Then he remembered where he was, what was happening in the present. Yukio, who seemed to have fallen asleep rather swiftly, had rolled over in an attempt to nestle closer to the heat Rin gave off. Rin squirmed just a bit before relaxing into a comfortable position, thoughts now turned elsewhere with this new act.

'He hasn't done that in a while,' Rin said to himself. If he tried to remember, the last time he and Yukio had been this close physically was when they were twelve, when they both had been unable to sleep, and comforted each other until slumber pulled them under the dark. If for a moment, this was enough to distract Rin from his mind and push him to rest his eyes.

Then finally fall asleep.

Worst. Idea. Ever. Really, it was. Shima knew this more than anyone else and the fact that the security cameras were still being repaired was encouraging him to take the damn sword. He hated himself, he hated the True Cross Order, and Oh, did he hate Takezō so much. The bastard's words were coming back to haunt him and in the most unpleasant way possible. Damn Lilith and the Garden of Amahara to hell. He didn't deserve this. He didn't deserve any of this. He'd rather be decapitated by the Paladin.

"Suit up, brats," Shura ordered, chucking supplies their way. Belts, holsters, sheaths, chalk, bundles of summoning paper, first-aid vials filled with medicinal substances. Straps were clicked, resources gathered rapidly and jammed into their respective holders, skilled exorcists aiding in quick tutorials for firearms and standard machetes. "Do not falter in the middle of battle, a split second decision can mean the difference between life and death. He who hesitates dies."

Shura yanked a blade from a fumbling Shiemi, forced it into the sheath, and shoved her forward. "Let's move, people! Go, go, go! We need to be out there, now!"

She tightened the forearm armor, a new addition to the exorcist uniform, Koneko struggled with and tied it with precision and ease. "In a hustle, if you have to choose between a sword or a shield, take the shield!" Shura whirled on Izumo who was securing a bottle of holy water to her belt. She scoffed, rolled her eyes, and strode over. With a yank and twist of the cap, she rudely shoved the bottle in Izumo's face.

"Always drink a swallow or two of holy water, not only does it hydrate you but it makes it harder for demons to get in close proximity! Especially when you start to sweat."

There was only one more thing to do.

The sharp tip of the pin poked into the palm of her hand. She reached up, fingers deftly working it into the lapels of Ryūji's jacket. The fabric had a downy feel to it; the pin reflected the light in the room, giving off a glint that had unnameable characteristics. 'I'm ready,' it seemed to declare. It spoke a thousand words more than any oath or curse and it brought memories of when she fastened a particularly comparable pin to Yukio's chest. The way he stood, tall and proud, with his back and broad shoulders brass rod straight... Ryūji stood in a way awfully similar to that.

"Most importantly," Shura said. She pressed for a reassuring smile. If only to cover up her own fears. "Don't die."

The sirens hadn't gone off yet so that was a good sign. Though he suspected that sometime in the next few minutes that someone was going to figure out that the sword was gone and he'd be first in the line of suspects. He was already on the flight deck, had a request for a pilot because he owed a visit to Mephisto—a clever lie because God knows you don't ignore Mephisto. There'd be hell to pay if he did.

Even Lucifer was aware of that.

So, he'd back soon. Maybe.

Hopefully.

Or not.

Shiemi sensed the coming threat before she heard it.

"Shiemi!" Her mother's voice reverberated over the entire room yet it did nothing to stop the bustling or Shura barking orders at all of her juniors. Rather, Shiemi had to lithely weave through the crowd in order to reach her overly concerned mother.

"Mom!" She dashed to her mother and slammed into her with a bear hug. Her mother's warm arms were firm and comforting, rubbing soothing circles into her back as if to make sure her daughter was actually there. Her figure was masked in the sharp tang of medicine, the scents of multiple types of flowers, and the bittersweet odor of homemade tobacco; flavored with elderberries.

"Shiemi, are you okay?"

"Yes, of course," Shiemi answered. She felt safe in Mayu's hold but something else was beginning to creep up Shiemi's back. It sent unwanted shivers down her spine. There was a sort of anger emanating from her mother now that she knew Shiemi was no longer in mortal danger.

"Good, then we're going home." The words pierced the air with a kind of sting much stronger than Shiemi expected. Mayu didn't yank on Shiemi's arm or drag her away by the collar of her coat but her words had enough pull that Shiemi began to follow. "It's much too dangerous here."

"I want to stay," Shiemi said intently. Her fingers curled in on themselves until her nails dug into the palm of her hand. "I want to help. I want to be an exorcist."

Mayu didn't so much as hesitate. "Now, Shiemi."

Her protests fell on deaf ears. Shiemi turned, sending a solemn gaze into the crowd. Her eyes met Suguro's for a second, then met Izumo's. 'Stay,' their eyes pleaded with her. 'Come with us. We need you.' The heartbreak was evident in their features. Heartbreak. If someone had taken a bright red marker and wrote the word across their faces it'd still be less noticeable than their melancholy eyes. A painful ache began to swell in Shiemi's chest.

"Shiemi!" Izumo exclaimed, taking a few steps forward.

"Don't dawdle, girl," Mayu snapped. "You have better things to do than commit yourself to this."

The solemn gardener brushed her bangs over her forehead again. Then she followed her mother, dolorously homebound.

A faint rumbling of thunder arose in the distance. It rolled with the clouds until it roared above. Droplets of rain fell from the sky, one by one in light sprinkles.

Rin stirred, feeling the slight sting of a raindrop that had pelted his cheek. He worked his eyes open with a yawn and stretched and found himself glancing upward, blinking a few times to clear his vision. There were no stars in sight, just a misty, dark sky, clouded over in a thick veil. A tear of lightning flashed across it and the rolling of thunder followed shortly after. It wasn't too awfully loud, fortunately.

The firstborn reached over, nudging Yukio with his hand. "Hey, wake up. Yukio. Kuro."

Yukio grumbled, his face scrunching up in irritation. He sat up, sending a squinty look at Rin. Despite his most recent awakening, it seemed Yukio still had a bit of trouble with his sight. Rin smiled something small at the realization. "Rin, what the hell? It's got to be-" Yukio cut himself off, suddenly more awake now than before. He touched the tip of his nose, feeling for the drop of rain that had just hit him.

"Oh, it's raining-"

A crack of thunder and lightning interrupted him and the downpour began. Oh, what excellent timing.

Rin shouted indignantly (no, he did not sound like a little girl). He bolted for thicker trees, taking shelter where the rain was less heavy with Kuro following close behind. It helped about as much as Kuro shaking off the rainwater but it was better than being in a clear spot. He shielded himself with his arms, trying with little success to cover his head from the onslaught and grumbling when he found that despite his best efforts, he was still soaked through. He grumped, wringing out and flapping off what he could.

There was another split of lightning when Rin finally realized what was wrong with the scenario.

Yukio was still standing out in the open as icy sheets of rain pelted him. His breath billowed around him in a spacious, translucent cloud. His skin prickled as the sheer iciness of the rain came down. His newfound sensitivity made it feel like the rain was seeping past his pores and into his blood and bones. It chilled him to the deepest parts of his core, filled him a welcome frigidness, a feeling that was usually undesired.

Before he knew it, a feral scream had worked its way out of his mouth and entered the air with a nearly unmatchable ferocity. He was left panting heavily and trying to regain his breath and composure.

A great big grin had spread across Rin's face. He clutched his stomach, cackling at the vision of his brother hollering like a madman in the rain. He started forward, first in a walk, then in a run, and tackled his brother in a tight embrace. He couldn't help his laughter and Yukio certainly couldn't help his own. Rin grasped Yukio by the shoulders, looking him straight in the eyes, pressing his forehead against his brother's.

"It feels amazing, doesn't it?" Rin asked. He couldn't help the fiery passion in his eyes.

Yukio nodded, smiling from ear to ear and revealing his dimples. Rin had only seen them once or twice as Yukio had only smiled very rarely and hardly like this.

"I haven't felt this good in such a long time," Yukio only had one word to describe it. Freedom. He didn't know why but this experience was rather liberating. He felt less tied down than ever in his life. A layer of blue flames began to cover his form like a blanket, igniting an even more adrenalized feeling. He couldn't control himself, how the flames welled up inside him and were propelled through his figure.

He got halfway through another scream when-

"Aagh!"

Rin hissed, clutching his shoulder. The fabric smoldered, letting off a narrow stream of smoke that was barely visible through the thinning rain. Yukio's eyes widened as Rin pulled his hand away, examining a circular burn mark about the size of an apple, one which Yukio had left.

"That was weird..." Rin murmured, trying to process the information. "That's never happened before." He caught Yukio's wide, startled eyes. Thoughts were beginning to enter his head and none were all too pleasant. "Hey, what's with the face? I'm fine, see? I'm already beginning to heal."

Rin was true to his words. The flesh had already turned a shade of baby pink but that didn't ease Yukio's fears. He had burned his brother. A feat Yukio didn't think possible concerning their heritage. This was a cruel world they lived in. Believing he wouldn't have to worry about keeping it under control as long as Rin was there because Rin couldn't get hurt, right? But how wrong was he?

He couldn't help the trembling in his limbs. Yukio wanted to reach out and look at the searing wound but he was frozen in place. His knees began to feel like jelly and every muscle in his body tensed like the winding down of a spring toy about to pop. A new darkness, not unlike the one that had finally dissipated after years of hanging over his head, crept up his back. But this time, the fear wasn't directed at everything around him but rather, himself.

"Rin..."

"I'm fiiiine, four-eyes!" Rin said gleefully. He brushed Yukio's worries aside like he always had. Always minimizing them and pretending they didn't matter because that always worked out. From his own execution to his family history, Rin had made it a bad habit and he always found his thoughts drifting back to how he should have said something different. "Really, it's not that bad. Come on, keep shouting with me!"

"Rin-"

"WHOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Rin, please, listen to me-"

"What's there to listen to, I- WhoaaAAAH!" Rin, in all his clumsy, gawky glory, tumbled backward over a muddy, soft ledge and into a large, canal-like dig in. He did multiple somersaults, rebounding off the muddy slope like a demonic bouncy ball until he rolled unceremoniously across the ground. He laid in an awkward rendition of spread eagle on the ground. He was joined a few seconds later by Yukio, who, in every way, was far more graceful than his brother.

Yukio sprinted forward as soon as his boots met the bottom of the pit. His hand was out in a helping gesture. Rin took it gratefully, getting on his feet with ease. He would have brushed off his clothes but found that the lingering rain, which was now tapering off into a light sprinkle, would hinder his ability. Talk about a flash rainstorm.

"Are you okay?" Yukio asked. He held onto his brother's forearms, instinctively searching him for injuries like he had done all his life. Bloody knuckles, bruised jawline, anything that might tell him about Rin's physical state. But there was nothing, not even a light scratch.

"Yeah, I'm- I'm okay," Rin said, a little woozy. He pressed a palm against the side of his head, willing the oncoming headache away. Then, like always, he put on that fake smile he loved to wear so much. "But nothing I can't handle. After all, I'm tougher than nails! I wouldn't be here if I couldn't-"

"STOP THAT!"

Yukio's sudden outburst made silence fall. Rin stared with wide, scared eyes, now submissive to the deafening voice his brother used. The grip he had on Rin's arms tightened, sending a minor jolt of pain through him. His eyes began to glow a fiery, ethereal blue and carried a wrath Rin had never seen in his brother.

"Stop pretending! You can't keep going around, picking yourself up on your own, and saying you're fine. You pretend that nothing matters, that everything you say and do will have no impact on the people around you! It's the one thing that has pissed me off above everything else about you! Not only..." Yukio gritted his teeth, gripping tighter despite Rin's pained expression. "...does it affect people you care about... it hurts them! Your words have meaning dammit. They always have! To say that they don't is a childish and ignorant notion!"

Rin bowed his head, trying to find a response or better yet, something on the ground that might interest him. But there was no wriggling out of it this time, no walking away or brushing it off. This time, the confrontation was very real and it couldn't be ignored. Rin took a shaky breath, pulled out of Yukio's hold, and placed them on his twin's shoulder in a distant hug.

"I know..." He trailed off. Rin was no good with words and he certainly didn't possess the skills to put them together in eloquent sentences. He didn't have a great vocabulary with excellent rhetoric, a perfect control over his tone of voice or facial expressions, and he was so used to letting his emotions guide him. "It's something I keep doing that I shouldn't. I keep forgetting that this... this is exactly what drove you away from me in the first place."

Rin's voice was quiet, so unlike his usual self. Yukio was surprised by it, he didn't expect his brother to say something so sensitive or thoughtful. It was nice, almost endearing and it should have merited a return to the tender affection.

"I'm sorry. We kinda suck at being each other's support, huh?" The phrase struck Yukio with a stinging blow. It ricocheted through his entire body, threatening to break out of his chest. 'We' had always followed him around, 'we' had an impression that stuck like glue. "Promise to do better?"

Yukio started at the question. He met Rin's eyes with a curious feeling. In the end, he nodded and yanked his brother into a firm embrace. The warmth radiated outward and around their frame. It tingled pleasantly and brought content, nostalgic memories with it; memories of days that used to be forgotten.

"Yeah, I promise."

"I promise too."

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARR!

Rin flinched, pulled away, and stared up at the sky. He looked around him, spinning in a circle, searching for the source of the noise until he noticed Yukio staring down the canal. The whole ditch was about a five-yard slope from top to bottom and at the long end of it, one could make out the silhouette of a monstrous beast.

"What the hell is that?" Rin asked. Without much thought, he raised his fingers to his mouth and whistled for Kuro to come.

"I don't know," Yukio answered. He could hear Kuro's landing behind him and Rin's huff as he climbed up onto the Cat Sith's back. He turned, grabbing for Rin's hand so he could hoist himself up. "But we're going to find out."

Lilith's hand brushed along the juncture of a massive tree, one that stood taller than every other tree in the area. It sat snuggly in the center of the Garden of Amahara, branches reaching up to drink in the remaining sunlight that shattered across the green leaves. Lilith poured her magic through the bark, where it seeped up the limbs, through the rings, the roots, and the trunk. A golden glow enveloped the entire tree and a glowing barrier began to form around the entire garden. The protective dome glimmered in the sunlight, giving off its own life-giving rays.

The witch found herself staring at the sunset, reaching out to catch its remains.

"Now what will you do, Samael?"

Mephisto played the interaction with Suguro in his mind over and over again, going so far as the create a hologram in his hand of the boy. He continuously repeated the words, a mockery of Mephisto's cunning, chess-like abilities. He pressed his lips into a tight line, an emotion he hadn't felt in years began to surface, and by the Gods of Gehenna, it was a passionate one. He crushed the hologram in his hands, where it dissipated into nothingness.

"Dismantling all my hard work again?" He asked quietly. "You are insufferable."

"Lilith says 'hi.'"

Faint, roguish giggling began to bubble from his throat. It gradually escalated, becoming quiet chuckling until the demon of a man was roaring with laughter.

"That woman! She never knows when to quit!"

His plush throne sank a few inches as he stood and held his hands out to capture the entire Assiahn night in his grasp.

"Now, let the show go on!"

A/N:

Hails: Holy cow, okay, this chapter took its sweet time getting written. I apologize for it being so late, usually it's out on the third or fourth but Independence Day is a thing, so there's that.

So! There was a heart-to-heart this chapter! I'll have you know I sacrificed comedy for the sake of a Rin and Yukio brotherly talk. I hope you're all satisfied, I know I certainly am.

That being said, remember to read and review. Support your local authors!

Stay savvy, my friends.
~Hails