True Cross Academy,
Entry 4: Disturbing News

TCAc, Okumura dorms
August 29th, 2009
03:16 pm

Rin yawned wide, showing sharp teeth to whatever would be daft enough to spy on a demonic teen doing nothing, shifted around a bit, patted his pillow to fluff it up, and returned to his lazing around. He had a purring -or snoring, who knows?- Kuro on his chest, a discarded Shonen Jump near his hand, and was currently -for those who didn't guess- on his bed at the dorms of True Cross Academy. It was 3 pm and the sun was bright in this lovely end-of-the-summer afternoon.

It had been more than 6 months since the Illuminati debacle, and almost two years since Rin had discovered his heritage. Now seventeen, more mature than he ever had been, he had over time showed quite some changes, partially due to his demon status, and partially to the influences in his life.

Rin had gained a bit in height, and now wore his hair a bit longer -and a lot messier-, which made him look a bit more like his demon brothers, even though he didn't have a weird addition to it like Amaimon or Lucifer's spikes, thank Heavens. He had also, after a few "sparring lessons" with Amaimon or battles with powerful demons, decided to give the demon method a try and stop filing his nails, and now wore a set of dark blue claws at each fingertip -which was handy for slicing vegetables, but less for picking his nose.

Kurikara hadn't changed, more scratches on the sheath and the blade, but otherwise holding fast and keeping his Demon Heart contained. But the only real change about Rin Okumura was on his chest, under the form of a small red, blue and silver Exorcist insignia pinned to his brand new Exorcist coat.

Indeed, Rin had graduated about 3 months ago now, not without a lot of work of course, both at swordplay with Shura, revisions with his friends, impromptu tests made-up by Yukio, and -strangely enough- demonology, demon power and fist-to-fist fighting lessons from Amaimon, who had decided to help -his words: "'Cause it's fun to fight Okumura, but it would be better if he could actually fight back. And 'sides, I'm bored, so..." _add shrug_- and so, Rin had been forced to mature a bit, and learn a lot.

He had left the school part of the Academy to focus more on sword training, sparred with Amaimon and fought off all the horrors he kept throwing at him -it went from a baryion bigger than he was to a forests worth of Ents with the occasional pit of Nagas- and spent his afternoons preparing for the basic Aria, Tamer and Doctor tests, because he was required to at least know a bit about every way of Exorcising even though he would be a Knight. And now, after the hell race he had done,Rin Okumura, officially a lower, 1st class Exorcist (so two ranks under Yukio, which pissed him off all the time) was also officially lazing around all day while waiting for a mission to come up, and hoped it would stay that way until school began again.

Of course, there was still trouble in the world: Satan was still alive, the Illuminati still running, and he still found CoalTar under his bed whenever he forgot to use the vacuum at least once a week! But otherwise, everything was fine, he didn't have a death sentence hanging above his head like the sword of Damocles, school was over, his friends were okay with his ascendance... Yeah, everything was fine. And besides, there was no rush at all! I mean, they had both waited for centuries, if not millennia, a few more days -monthsandpossiblyyears- couldn't hurt, right? Well, maybe not the CoalTars, no, those would need to go soon...

With a moan, Rin forced his mind to wonder elsewhere than the upcoming housecleaning. Let's see... His friends! Right, let's think about the others. Well... How to say? Things had changed a lot in six months.

Firstly, Renzo had been exposed as a spy only three weeks before the Exorcist Exam, so about 5 months after his 'traitor escape' as Ryuji liked to call it. He had only had enough time to send Yamantaka with a SOS, and his friends had arrived just in time to save him. A lot of bazooka shots and gun fire (from Bon and Yukio), thrown baryions -courtesy of Amaimon, who had joined in the fun-, sutras, impromptu greenery thrown at the enemy, and swipes of blue flame later -and a LOT of dodged attacks from various Illuminati members-, the group of friends had made a quick retreat with their injured pink-headed friend. Indeed, his treatment at the hands of Lucifer's minions, and later, one of Amaimon's baryions -"but it was so they wouldn't pick him up and force him to go with them, Aniue! I swear I didn't mean to break him!" (Amaimon's words)- had left Renzo in the hospital for over 2 months with crushed ribs and legs. Even now, he still had to use his Shakujo (K'rik) as a crutch, and kept whining about it even after Mephisto forced Amaimon to apologize. His handicap hadn't made him stop running after Izumo, though...

Oh, and because he had been playing double spy and later been injured, Renzo had failed the Exorcist Exam. So he still had one more year of Cram school to do. Of course, his family had been pissed off at him, but everyone with eyes could see they were very worried about him and it was their -strange- way of showing it. Now, still limping, but finally out of the hospital, Renzo had gone back home in Kyoto to assist to a baby shower in honor of his brother Juzo and Mamushi's upcoming baby. The least one could say is that those two hadn't lost time at all since the Fujo-O disaster. Lucky them! thought Rin with a smile.

Konekomaru had graduated as Aria, working nearly as hard as Rin to make it with the honors, and now had the same title as Rin to go with the pin he wore proudly. He had invested a lot of time into his pet project, a database sorting each and every demon known by rank, powers, weaknesses, fatal verse, and other information, to put together all the ways of fighting them. He had, for months, begged the ArchKnight, Lightning, to help him make up his website and submit his project to the Grigori to make improvements on the working demonology system. With the ArchKnight's active support, the website had quickly become a reference: the Dictionary of Demons. Konekomaru had been practically glowing when the Paladin himself had come to congratulate him. It had been five months ago, and the database was still evolving, Exorcists from the entire world adding data daily.

Nowadays, he couldn't be seen without his Just-in-case shoulder bag, containing a Bible, a pile of sutras, some holy water, his phone and a tablet with the updated version of his work. And he did a fairly good job as a strategist, where even Yukio had been forced to recognize his potential was even greater than his own. Konekomaru was a genius in his own right, in the sense that he always guessed the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents and allies and environment and thought of a way to put them to use in a creative way. It was always great to have him behind you, guessing at the other side's attacks and making you dodge them several seconds before they came.

Ryuji, still wearing his chicken crest like some kind of rooster, had passed his Exorcist Exam with the honors, and was now a middle, 2d class, one level under Yukio and one above Rin. He had been the one to review Rin's lessons and bash him on the head for hours on end with the intent to make him learn his verses and pharmacology, even going as far as to ask Shiemi and her familiar for specimens and threatening to make Rin swallow them all if he didn't recognize a poison from a medicine. Rin still didn't know where, between Cram school classes, his own studying and teaching Rin how to make the difference between a ghoul and a zombie, Ryuji had found the time to practice for his own Dragoon Master. But the thing was, he had gotten it! Along with the Aria Master, and he was currently studying for a Tamer one.

For as long as he had been in the Academy, he had believed himself not to have the 'talent' needed to summon demons, but after his contract with Karura, the Phoenix, he had decided to give the Fire Kingdom a try. So far, he had managed to make himself obey from some kind of angry monkey who could spit fireballs (if you begged for half an hour and were ready to dodge said fireballs) and, once, a salamander. It was still far from summoning the Phoenix, but there was still hope.

Now, he could be seen around with his own bag, containing a tablet -even he had found Konekomaru's database incredibly useful- and sutras, with the cleaning kit for his favorite weapon, a bazooka. Under the Exorcist coat, he always wore a belt of munitions -mostly Rot-based, because Rot attacked Air and it was Air that made the most damage to Earth-based summons, and everyone wanted to protect Shiemi anyways- and a knife for emergencies. Right now, he had gone home to celebrate with his family both their graduations and Juzo's future addition to the Shima family.

Izumo Kamiki, after having let go of all ties with her family, had decided to focus all her energy on her familiars, realizing how much she loved them after having nearly lost them. She had fully immersed in her miko training, practicing her dancing and rituals until she could execute them as easily as her mother once did. In order to achieve this, she had begged Mephisto for a special key, and spent all her afternoons training in a temple in Kobe under the watchful eye of the priestesses there. One day, the High Priest had presented her with a beautiful katana, named Gin'norin no Ken, and told her it was said to host a Yoko spirit's power. The Yokos being, just like the Byakkos, foxes of the Kitsune family, she could probably use it better than they could at the temple.

The priest told her that if she managed to take a Knight minor in her training, he would not only give it to her, but also give her a way to summon it and its power, the Fox Fire. After getting her familiars approval -and their appreciation-, Izumo accepted the offer. And so, she passed the Exorcist Exam with a Tamer master, and minors in both Aria and Knight, leading her to the same level as Ryuji, middle 2d class, and gained Gin'norin, the Silver Bells sword. She now had a tattoo on her left shoulder which she used to summon it, much like Shura did.

But Izumo had also spent a lot of time and energy into caring for her familiars. Uke and Mike loved her now that she attended the ceremonies and celebrated the harvest with them. She had taken to giving them monthly offerings of rice and sake, which pleased them tremendously, and had, little by little as her determination, her will and her belief in them and in herself grew stronger, augmented their own power level until they both gained a second tail, symbol of power for foxes. With them at her side, Izumo's skills had improved as had her confidence, and her ritual dancing had calmed more than one minor Kami gone insane, which had allowed to resolve things peacefully. Each and every time she took to dancing, Saru, Kitsune, Lion-dogs and even Kuro, Rin's familiar, regrouped to watch, entranced by the offering to the Spirit Kingdom.
Now, sword training with Rin, Fox Fire against the Flame of Satan, under the watchful eye of Shura, had become a pastime for the both of them. Which was also one of the reasons Rin was so bored right now: it was the end of the summer, and so Izumo had decided to go and celebrate the harvest in the most rural part of the country, where the offerings to Inari would be bountiful. So Rin had been left alone.

Shura, Rin's instructor... Well, she hadn't changed a lot. Less drunk and less swearing most of the time, the only thing really different about her was that sometimes, she would be seen cussing up a storm and throwing stones at a cute little white dog with a pink ribbon, that seemed to follow her most of the time. Of course, those that actually knew who the dog was, would just take care not to get in the way, knowing better than to pity the dog.

Talking about Mephisto, the poor demon had suffered a lot of trouble with the Grigori after they had realized he was the King of Time, even if he had managed to keep his position as head of the Japan branch of the Order. Of course, it had all been Amaimon's fault, what with calling him "big brother" in front of the Grigori? But Mephisto's trouble had only been beginning: Lucifer's declaration of war had been the spark which lit the fire, causing a lot of unplanned things to happen to him, and he was a bit lost as to what to do now. For example, he had taken to teasing Shura around, transforming into a dog an following her everywhere, changing her alcohol into water, spamming her on her phone... It was fun, especially when she tried -and failed- to trick and hurt him, but after she had literally collapsed into his arms after the declaration of war by Lucifer, the good-nature fun had turned into fascination. She was distracting, and interesting, and he wanted to figure her out, and it was annoying him to no end.

There was also the matter of Rin, who had taken to going to see him when he had a problem in his demonology, claiming that he just had to know these things since he was a demon, and besides, family was supposed to help each other, so why couldn't his 'new big brother Samael' help him become an Exorcist so he wouldn't be killed off by the Vatican?

But the greatest headache of Mephisto was currently his newest charge. Barely a month after the Inari Town mission, Amaimon had broken through a Grigori meeting, through all the barriers, Exorcists and guards, in the middle of the Courtroom, without any kind of warning. After greeting his Aniue -which had resulted in the Grigori finding out who he was-, the King of Earth had asked in so many words if he could join the fun.

After the initial shock -it's not every day a Hell King barges in your house- and a lot of shouting, attempted attacks, and a lot of dropped Baryions on the Exorcists backs, Amaimon had explained -sitting on a chair of baryions like a King on his throne- that if his Father or Lucifer Onii-sama destroyed Assiah, he would have to go back to Gehenna and would probably be punished, so he would better stay here in Assiah where he was actually having fun, and if he was going to be punished if the Exorcists failed, at least it would have been worth it. And besides, if Rin won, he wouldn't be scolded at all and keep his source of amusement, so he was better off joining the same camp as him. Besides, a lot of his power came from Assiah, and a lot of his sbjects currently resided there, so he had nothing to gain from Assiah's destruction, and everything to lose.

Amaimon had obviously spent a lot of time on his speech, and for once, he didn't have a lollipop in his mouth. The green-haired demon had offered several arguments, and made offers, for example, he had declared he would personally help making a big stock of what humans called 'sanctified soil' -and had let out a laugh, seeing as most of the holy water, blessed ashes, sanctified soil and venerated relics were actually just vessels of a demon of the same Kingdom's power, just like a demon Sword, that to actually bless water you had to borrow a Water demon's power, no matter what name you gave it, and that it had been thousands of years since the Gods had actually been interested in Assiah anyways- and so, he would also give them the official support of the Earth Kingdom, and that included not only their King, but every demon connected to Earth, from him to the tiniest of the Greenmen, as long as he could stay -under certain conditions of course- and that he was ready to hear any counter-offers.

Once they had recovered from their shock and processed what he had said, the Grigori had concerted for a long time before setting conditions. There would be no killing, maiming -including anything that could cause a Mashou-, stealing from humans or willfully destroying material property, just as there would be no revealing his nature to ordinary humans, and he would participate to any mission where he was really needed -meaning big Earth or Water demons in particular. Amaimon then requested a monthly allowance (mostly to buy candy), a free pass to most of the Academy, including the Exorcist shop -he wanted to see that garden his subjects kept talking about- and also keeping his Infinity Key in case he wanted to take a stroll somewhere and come back quickly. And there would be no making fun of him or anyone he spent his time with without his and their permission, or the 'no maiming' rule wouldn't stand. Same for if someone attacked him physically or tried to Exorcise him. The Grigori had him take a standard Exorcism test and a 'medical test' -where they could take samples and ask questions- and in return, Amaimon asked for the right to keep his Hobgoblin Behemoth with him, promising he would behave.

And thus, they had an accord. By then, Mephisto (and Angel) had been fuming but stood powerless as the King of Earth shook the Grigori's hands, popped a lollipop in his mouth, and dismissed all the demons he had summoned to immobilize the Exorcists.

A day later, Amaimon took a test, passing both Tamer and Knight without having to learn anything, and would probably had passed Doctor if he could actually touch 'that dreaded holy water'. And thus, he moved in the Okumura dorm -that quickly became known as the Demon Brothers dorm- and to everyone's surprise, proved himself to be a pleasant roommate. Two months after his admission, he was as much part of the décor as Rin was, and actually taught useful tricks to whoever asked, be it in pharmacology or fist-fighting. He had accepted to help Rin pass that 'stupid Exam' whatever the cost, and was the one to push Rin out of bed when the alarm clock rang. He taught Rin demon etiquette like being ways to avoid being injured in a fight, like hiding his tail or using it as a balance, or where to hit to knock a human or a demon out without having to use his flames, and everyone was grateful to him because of it, because they could all see that now, Rin fought better and suffered less injuries.

But the greatest scandal had been with Shiemi. It was truly the most amazing thing that had happened in the Order since the news of Rin and Yukio's birth. Not only had the King of Earth publicly apologized to the young Tamer for his stunt with the Zhong Chi moths in the forest, and her following kidnapping, and not only had she forgiven him on the spot, but she had done so by hugging him, making him blush harder than a tomato. She had then declared -still in public, mind you!- that now that they had made peace, she would love to be his friend. Two days later, he was following her like a mix between a lost child and a terrifying bodyguard. No one had dared to mess with her ever since...

Ever since he had asked her 'who knows that place so well' where the garden the Dekalps kept talking about was situated, and she had led him straight to her own garden... Oh, upon seeing the place, he had stood frozen on the spot for a long time, mouth agape, transfixed. He told the others later that he had never seen a place in Assiah, except maybe for Babylonia's Royal Gardens or Versailles, where people had taken so much care of his subjects, and loved the Earth so much, and it was the first time it had all been done by a single person. The very soil of the place hummed with power and love, to the point it had driven his subjects there by the dozens. With Shiemi's accord, he had made it into a sanctuary for his Kin, declaring that the only thing missing to make it one was his personnal blessing anyways. Shiemi had felt so happy at the honor. Now, you only had to pay attention to see a random Greenman tending to a flower, a small Goblin weeding or watering, or a baryion somewhere humming softly.

Amaimon had, to bless the Earth and make his mark, created a giant tree in the back of the garden, whose branches he had twisted to create a net of wood, like a cocoon. Inside, he had made a great flower grow, with big pastel blue petals and a heart made of dandelion fuzz. If you searched for Amaimon in the afternoon and couldn't find him anywhere, it meant he was probably sleeping in this flowery nest. As for the anti-demon barrier Rin had knocked down the first time he came, it wasn't a problem anymore: with the King of Earth's personnal blessing, no demon in their right mind would ever dare to try and harm those which were under his protection.

After a few weeks of hesitation, when Amaimon had -finally- asked Shiemi out, had been also considered as a memorable moment in the history of True Cross: a Sub-King, a great Demon King, and a newly-graduated, human Exorcist, hugging in the middle of the street with goofy grins on their faces. Of course, the Grigori had not been pleased, but as Lightning had remarked: Moriyama Shiemi now had a Hell King at her disposal. So only Mephisto was left grieving for the loss of his carefully oiled plans, all for the interest of his baby brother for a human. What irony...

Shiemi herself had graduated in Tamer and Doctor. She tended to the shop, to her familiar and to her new improved garden with a lot of care. Her relationship with the Kingdom of Earth, and her belief in Amahara had made her place worthy of the Earth King's praise and she was glad for it. Amaimon had told her that he actually knew where the legendary Garden was, and promised her that once they won -if they won- and he could return safely to Gehenna, he would lead her to it. According to him, Amahara was a place he had created on a whim when he was still a small kid bullied by his peers, to escape the pressure and his overbearing family. It was a hidden place in his Kingdom of forests, protected by his subjects, where after hearing about the Garden of Eden, he had messed with the weather to create all the ecosystems existing on Earth. He then had planted seeds from all the plants of Assiah and Gehenna -the place was over 70 000 km wide, after all, the size of a little country- in order to create his own Eden, give the Greenmen a place to stay, and also hide his own Demon Heart, which was now known as the Rarest Flower of Gehenna for those who didn't actually know what it was.

And so, Amahara had become a myth, a place where a lot of demons would like to go at least once in their lives, but that no one had yet managed to find. She had often asked for a more accurate description, but Amaimon had always refused, saying that it only looked like a bigger version of her own place.

And so, our little blonde Exorcist could often be seen alone, sometimes dressed in a kimono, sitting on a bench in the park, waiting for class, for lunch, or for her (boy)friend with a smile on her face, dreaming of Amahara. She always carried a Just-In-Case shoulder bag containing summoning paper, her phone, some holy and normal water, and an emergency stack of candy in case Amaimon decided to pay her a visit. Recently, she had also acquired a small, but sharp dagger in her belt, a gift from Amaimon, 'For protection, when I cannot come immediately', he had said. But he often did. It was a pretty thing though, leaves and jeweled flowers carved in the hilt with a Damascus steel blade that looked like wood. She loved it. And she had totally forgotten her crush on Yukio by now, although Rin hadn't forgotten, and used every occasion he could to spar with his new 'Maimon nii-san, much to Yukio's chagrin.

Speaking of Yukio, he had awakened his powers 4 months ago. Apparently, the flare he had had when Tôdo had attacked him, in the Fujo-O debacle, had only been the starting point of a progressive awakening, and the stress levels had only quickened the process. But even though he discovered his own fire, his deny and fear of it had kept it weak and nearly harmless. He couldn't actually create a flame, the most he could summon was just sparks when he was really angry, and very rarely, blue flashes that lasted only a second when he was really in danger. Though, he had recently discovered, and with Rin's begging, used, that if he 'switched on' that particular state of mind he had, he could actually use his fire if it had a material vessel. For now, it was bullets.

And so, he had started training to fire blue-flaming shots. In order to train him, Rin and Shura had actually tried to make him light Peg Lanterns until one of his sparks succeeded and... Let's say it involved a lot of running after Shura to try and calm the lovesick object without killing it. It had taken a lot of time, but once Yukio had the 'switch' under control, their job had gotten easier. Well, actually, it had also taken a few accidents, a lot of tantrums, and it was only after everyone had given up that Mephisto had sent them all battle ghouls in a cemetery somewhere near Nagasaki that Yukio had finally found out an use for his Sparks. The bullets he used, full of blessed ashes -for Fire works against Rot- had suddenly caught on fire, because he had, in his panic and the emergency situation he was in, turned on the 'switch'. And later on, so caught up in his 'switch', he hadn't even noticed that he had continued on firing even though he had run out of bullets a long time ago. Afterwards, Rin had given him a thorough head-bashing and sermonized him on how he really needed to over think less and trust in himself more, and what about 'making us all think you were hopeless, you damn four-eyes scaredy-cat!'.
Otherwise, Yukio hadn't changed much. A bit taller, a bit stronger, he had, though, abandoned his glasses when his powers had awakened. When he turned on the 'switch', his eyes momentarily changed into the characteristic demonic blue that was the twin's lot, and his vision went 10/10. But even afterwards, after 'switching' off, his turquoise eyes had kept a perfect vision. Now, only thing left to do, get rid of the moles...

That day, in the last week of the summer holidays, had been up until now just like any other. Counting the cracks in the ceiling, cooking, napping, and reading manga... Shiemi had left on a date with Amaimon, so she could be anywhere, from Mephyland to the Amazonian Rain Forest, so no use searching. Izumo had left with her familiars to go pay her homages to the God of Harvest Inari (it was the good season for it, after all...) so she was probably dancing somewhere in a temple, for the greatest pleasure of both deities and demons, so no use searching for a spar either. Yukio was currently studying for an Aria minor in hopes of getting another Master next year, so being boring as Hell. So the only option left for Rin was to wait for someone to call on the Sons of Satan and hope that the mission/emergency/potential-end-of-the-world would be interesting. Rin didn't know it at the time but he should have been more careful of what he wished for. Because at this very moment, the phone rang. And their world, as well as everyone's, was turned upside-down again.

***

"Hello?" said Yukio, answering on the phone. On the other side, a woman answered.

"Mr Okumura Yukio?"

"Yes."

"You and Mr Okumura Rin are demanded to help for a case of murder."

"Where?"

"Tokyo, sir. Please come as soon as possible. Someone should wait for you near the HQ with a key. I say it again, please hurry..."

"Wait! What should we expect to find? Should we bring anything special?"

"Mr Okumura, there is no demon there at the moment, but we do need help in identifying the species of the creature responsible. Our experts are lost as to what it is, and so we need help in tracking it. For now, we only know that it is powerful, so please hurry!"

"Give me a Kingdom, at least!"

"None we could identify, but certainly not Earth, Rot, or Water."

When he hung up, Yukio suddenly found himself face to face with a very eager Rin, tail wagging like an excited puppy's. "So, was it a new mission?" said the blue-haired demon. Yukio sighed.

"Yes, Rin, although you probably shouldn't get so fired up. There will be no fighting in this particular case, it's an investigation."
Rin frowned. "Investigation? Meaning they can't figure out what happened so they're asking us to do it for them?"

"I think it's more like calling YOU for help, you're the one who can sense demons after all... And besides, it's not what happened that they want you to find out, but what did it and why, if you catch my drift..."

Rin blinked once, twice, and finally asked "what kind of case did you say it was?"

"I didn't"

10 minutes of preparation saw the two Exorcists to their destination. The Exorcist Squad had put on a security perimeter, and all of them looked grim, if not sick. In a corner, speaking to a woman in civilian clothes, Rin saw a familiar safari hat peeking out. Strange. Why would they have been summoned if the ArchKnight was here? 'If it's Lightning the expert they were talking about, then it must be something big...' thought Rin. 'And if even he didn't know what it was... A new kind of demon?' As Rin took a deep breath to help sense the responsible, a breeze brought to him the most horrible, bloody scent he had ever smelled. Gagging, the young Exorcist had to stop for a moment.

'What the heck happened here? I've never felt anything so horrible since... Since... ' Eyes widening, Rin's head shot up, and he ran towards the crime scene, ignoring the startled shout of his brother. The last time he had smelled that scent had been in the Illuminati facility. It was the scent of rotting flesh, of stomach contents and of death, everything overwhelmed by the stench of blood. And to be so thick in the air, there must have been at least ten people that had been murdered, and in the most gruesome ways. It couldn't be more than a day old. Rin skipped to a stop when he came across the body of a woman with a head wound, who had clearly tried to flee and failed, and grumbled that 'whoever did it really had fun going in a full-on blood-lust', then strode more carefully this time towards the rest of the scene.

It was gory. It was gruesome. It stank. It was obviously a demon's work. What else could be strong enough to rip off heads and arms like that? It was impressive, though, and Rin, although thoroughly disgusted, had to commend the demon's work. Half-dried blood painted the walls and the ground in uneven puddles, guts were splattered along with brain matter like a pinkish carpet, necks had been wrung like rabbit's, heads removed, bones broken... And all of it seemed to have been done by claw, not by any kind of demonic energy... How strange. Demons usually attacked with their power, and only resorted to their claws and teeth when desperate and/or injured.

Rin crouched near a body, examining it: the white jacket, clan tattoos and gun holster, as well as the scars, labeled the man as a yakusa. Actually, all the men were yakusa... A robbery gone wrong? Because, actually, Rin reported his attention to the body, it had been a bullet that had killed the woman, not a demon's claws. Meaning the demon might have lashed out in retaliation... Or just gone crazy from the scent of blood.

A deep gash on the man's side drew his attention. Four wounds, parallel and of equal depth. Gingerly, Rin traced the bloody gashes with his fingers, not really surprised when he found that it fit. The demon had been in humanoid form. No, it had been in humanoid form while attacking, which was even worse! A demon strong enough to maintain a human form even when in a blood-lust could only mean two things: Nobility, or worse, Royalty. There were less than a hundred demons in Gehenna that could pretend to the first title, none of which had been seen since the Middle Ages at least, and as for the second... Rin felt sick only at the thought of a Hell King on the loose in Tokyo.

"LIGHTNING!" yelled Rin at the ArchKnight's intention. "That was an humanoid demon there! Any guesses on..." he jumped on his feet and raced to Lightning's side in a little more than a second before finishing in a softer voice "... which one of the Hell Nobles it was? Because the wounds were made by human-like claws, so it's either Nobility or a Sub-King, and I don't even want to think about the latter."

The ArchKnight held out a hand to silence Rin, and told him: "I know. Something came up while you and your brother were coming here, something important."

"Something?"

"Someone." corrected Lightning. "A witness. She says she saw everything, gave a good description of what happened, and... says the demon saved her."

And he pointed to the woman he had been talking to earlier. She was discussing with an Exorcist with a notepad, looking as scared and shy as the small child hiding behind her leg. She made gestures while talking. Rin's ears caught a Chinese accent. She was trying to describe the killer, and obviously failing, judging by the Exorcist's puzzled face. Rin cleared his throat to ask for attention and began.
"Excuse me, are you... Eh?"

He didn't have time to finish, for as soon as she had noticed him, the young woman pointed her finger at him and yelled: "Like him!" and started circling the half-demon, observing him from all angles.

She continued, obviously very excited: "He looked just like him! Same ears, same teeth, same shine in the hair, but..." she frowned, inching closer to Rin's face and continued in a strange voice "But also same chin, same high cheekbones, same set of the jaw... and nose bridge... Oh God! Are you related to him?"

All the Exorcists who had been listening suddenly looked at Rin and recoiled involuntarily. Rin's gaze met Lightning's and saw that they were thinking the same thing. He gulped.

As far as they knew, Rin Okumura shared his features, and most importantly, his face shape and cheekbones with the members of the Baal, of Satan's family. Mephisto, Lucifer, Amaimon's and Yukio's faces attested to that. To find such a high-level demon sharing those features as well could only mean one thing: there was a Hell King in Tokyo.

***

"So, you say he created a smoke screen, or something that looked like it, to separate the fight from you? And then he killed the yakusa, made the screen disappear and carried you both to the main street without even scratching you, looking all in all like a perfect gentleman after killing a dozen persons? Somehow, I find that hard to believe. Don't you?"

Yukio slapped his brother upside the head for the trouble and cleared his throat before going with a professional tone:

"The smoke screen, as she said, is the only indication of demonic power being used at all in this fight. The demon being a Hell King, we can rule out Samael, Lucifer and Amaimon of course, but for the rest... I'd say it could be Azazel, Astaroth or Beelzebub... "

Rin shook his head. "No, I've seen Astaroth once, the old man exorcised him the day my powers awakened, remember? It isn't him. I'm not too sure about Beelzebub either, since Amaimon described him as an 'uncouth lazy bum', so not very gentlemanly. Azazel... well, it could be. But I'm not making any suppositions as long as Mephisto isn't here. And besides," he threw his arms wide to emphasize his point "do we even have any proof that it's a Hell King at all? I mean, even the Azazel hypothesis sound almost ridiculous. Don't Satan have any... distant cousins or anything? Or it could be another demon that just happened to share the same features! ... No?"

Yukio made a face while Lightning snickered.

"I don't think Satan has any 'distant cousins' as you put it, Rin... As for your hypothesis, even if it is another demon, we still have to wait for Sir Pheles to tell us more... about THIS."

And Yukio gestured to the portrait one of the Exorcists had drawn of Rin's face, modified at the eyes, hair, brow and mouth to look like the demon the witness had described. All in all, it looked like Rin with a long fringe covering half his face, sad green eyes, and the typical Hell King hairdo -slicked, shoulder-length hair with a weird addition to it- but surprisingly, the only weird addition to the hair was the fringe in itself, which didn't make him look ridiculous. Not too much. It made him look strange and perfect, almost in an angelic way.

And it was in moments like these that Rin dreaded to see what his real father looked like. Would the Devil actually look like the angel he had once been?

***

Not even 5 minutes after the call from Lightning -on Yukio's phone-, the flamboyant demon arrived. Flashy and garish as ever, Mephisto wore his habitual devilish smirk like a crown, twirling his umbrella around his wrist as he strode down in the alley like he owned the place.

But his self-confidence didn't last more than three seconds. 10 meters into the alley, Mephisto Pheles froze on the spot, eyes widening until his pupils were mere pinpricks, sniffing the air like a dog who'd caught a scent, an expression of disbelief on his face. His umbrella fell to the ground with a thunk, unnoticed.

An angel passed. Mephisto was biting his lip so hard it had pierced skin and a trickle of blood was now running down his chin. His head lowered until his hat and hair was obscuring his face and hiding his expression. Rin and Yukio's sharpened hearing caught a whisper.

"It cannot be..."

Mephisto's hands were trembling, and when he finally raised his head, although he had regained his composure, his eyes looked haunted. Rin wondered who exactly could have made the King of Time lose his composure like that. Even when Lucifer had attacked, he hadn't lost control over his emotions, and he doubted even Satan could achieve such a feat. So who?

Mephisto slowly walked until he reached the crime scene. His eyes scanned the bodies, and he kept frowning even as he reached down to lightly trace the claw marks on one of the corpses, like Rin had done minutes before. His white cuffs became stained red; he didn't seem to notice.

"How did he? When did he? And why, by the Gates of Hel, why?..."

Mephisto looked like he was choking on something. He sniffed another body that had been gutted like a fish. "A blood-lust... What possessed him to do something so reckless? And how did he manage to break out of it in time?"

As he watched his newly-acknowledged older brother mumble to himself, looking like a broken man for all to see, Rin suddenly felt like he had enough of all that crap. He crouched next to Mephisto and put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"You know him, don't you? You've known him for a long time."

The purple head shot up. "Know... You could say that. It's more like I know of him. No one has seen hair nor tail of him for... Oh, about millenia now. About as long as he has lived. Some of us even thought he was dead, but his scent is impossible to misplace."
Rin nodded. "The scent of kin... No, of family, right?"

The older demon nodded with a faint chuckle. "Yes. You're getting better at using your nose, I see. We'll make a proper demon out of you yet... " His feeble attempt at joking made Rin smile. It was obvious he was distressed, but he added

"Which one of your... Of our brothers was it? Yukio says it isn't Egyn of Iblis, and I have my doubts about Astaroth, but then there aren't many left... And why are you shaking your head like this?"

"He isn't one you exorcists have ever dealt with, or even heard of, Rin. Even in Gehenna, his existence is known only by a handful of people, his life considered by the rest as a legend, a story told to frighten misbehaving hatchlings... "

"Meaning?" Mephisto rose to his full height with a sigh and declared:

"Meaning the one who did this has been banned from Gehenna for as long as he has lived, and thus should not have been able to access this Realm. Meaning the one you're searching for is the 6th born son of Satan, Kage, the King of Darkness, and that in terms of power, his level is equal to Lucifer's." Mephisto paused for a second. "Kage's story is probably the greatest tragedy that ever happened in our family. He was the only one we could all agree to say that we loved him, a sweet child and a promising King. To this day, I still have no idea what happened exactly, but we still all mourn what could have been..."

Rin nodded slowly, still trying to process all the information, and finally declared:

"I think I understand why you reacted like this, now."

***

Rin sighed deeply. Mephisto had been so shaken that he had been excused immediately after his little speech, mainly on Rin's advice, with the mission of telling Amaimon the news (when he got back from his date) and ordering his own thoughts. Yukio was talking in a hushed voice to Lightning. The rest of the Squad was taking samples and cleaning the mess.

Rin straightened his jacket and loosened his tie to breathe better. That demon, Kage or whatever, had been injured in the brawl: the scent of demon blood had nearly been drowned in all the gore, but the puddle of black-as-pitch blood in the middle of the scene was proof enough of the injury. Adding to that the mental and physical strain of breaking out of a bloodlust, that Kage must be somewhere supposed safe, sleeping away the exhaustion or meditating his mental control back -Rin had seen and did it before. So he must be somewhere nearby, immobile and running on base thoughts and instincts. Now, to find him...

Rin concentrated on his demon Heart, and shouted a warning to his fellow Exorcists before sending out, in every direction and as far as he could, a blue-white Pulse of pure power, projecting his flame far and wide.

It was a trick he had learned with Amaimon, a signal convecting the sender's thoughts and feelings, that could be used either as a warning, a SOS, or just a demand for answer. If it was used as such, the surrounding demons had almost no choice: they sent out a Pulse of their own without even realizing it, and the more powerful the demon, the greater, and longer the Pulse. Plus, a demon's Pulse carried their own energy, under the form of feelings, a scent, a taste, and for powerful demons, even images. It allowed for a quick identification of, if not the species, at least the Kingdom of the receiver. With any luck, it would be enough to locate the runaway King.

Rin waited about 10 seconds before the first Return Pulses arrived to him. A Ghost, a cluster of CoalTar, a Ghoul in the sewers... and a Mayuko ghost in the 4th floor's toilets... They were all weak, barely noticeable Pulses, not what he was seeking, and then...

BA-DUMP!

A flash of dark light invaded Rin's mind for an instant. A taste of fresh air in the night, of nuts and dark, rich chocolate. The curve of a moon in a starlit sky. More powerful than Amaimon, even more powerful than Samael's and less than two kilometers away, shining like a dark beacon.

Rin bolted, sword unsheathed, all senses focused on the direction of the Pulse. Far away, he heard Lightning yell for the rest of the team to follow.

The hunt was on.

Next time: Aftermath of a blood bath

A/N: I'll be beginning a new story, called "Satan's Short Story About Everything", that will explain some details of Gehenna and Assiah to you.
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