Walk me through the Valley
Disclaimer: Characters and premise are the property of Kazue Kato. I'm just borrowing them for a little non-profit fun.
Chapter Fifteen: Year Two
"Can we fight now?" Amaimon begged Shiemi.
"Pleeease? We have to go back to school tomorrow," Rin chimed in.
Shiemi looked unhappy. "Are you really sure about this?"
"It's just a spar, it's not like we're gonna really fight," Rin said.
"What do you think Rin and the Paladin do every week?" Shima asked lackadaisically. "Sis, Izumo-chan and I spar too; anyone doing Knight training does."
Izumo and Bon nodded in agreement. "Drills are like homework, spars are tests," Bon tried to explain to the only Exwire who had no interest in developing her skills into an offensive ability.
"I just wanna fight with my little brother," Amaimon contributed. "Fighting with older brothers isn't much fun; I lose a lot. What's the point of having a little brother I can't fight with?"
"I beat you," Rin pointed out.
Amaimon shrugged. "Just once; I would have won the third time we fought if Big Brother hadn't told me to lose. And really, we're pretty close in age, I'm only a few thousand years older than you. Astaroth's practically the same age as me, he's a wimp but he always whines to Father so none of the rest of us like playing with him. Occasionally I can win against Egyn or Iblis, they're only ummm…. a few million years older than I am or so."
"Only?" Konekomaru asked incredulously.
"This is Astaroth and I's first Assiah," Amaimon stated. "My next two older brother are all survivors, if not victors, of the last Ragnarok. Father, Lucifer, Samuel, Azazel and Beelzebub are all Fallen, true Fallen not your silly Exorcist definition of the term. Assiah has been destroyed and recreated a thousand times since they lost their rebellion and were cast into the Void. Beelzebub is a lazy bum, I'm not sure how much power he's reacquired since the Fall. Since their return to Gehenna Samuel has seen a dozen different Assiahs rise and fall; he gives himself a new name after each apocalypse: Raven, Loki, Trickster… Mephisto. He and Lucifer might hate each other but they both think it's funny to pick on me and there's nothing I do to stop them. Azazel's the same. Father… He doesn't even have to do anything, just calls me before him when he's ticked off and it hurts."
Bon shivered. He remembered fighting against Amaimon in the forest, how completely helpless they'd been before Rin went berserk. He did not want to even think about what Amaimon was implying Satan's powers.
Rin gave Amaimon a puzzled look. "If you don't like Mephisto why were you hanging around helping him?"
"He's not bad, it's just how older brothers are, they pick on you." Amaimon stated. "He's gotten in the way when Father was ticked with me. Big brother gives up most his power to stay on Assiah but he's tricky, even Father is careful around him. I think he's either got blackmail or an Elder God who owes him favors."
"Yeah, older siblings are a pain in the ass," Shima agreed. "Until you need them."
Rin bit his lip when Amaimon and Shima mentioned older brothers. The other Exwires could practically hear him thinking about Yukio. They imagined that he'd been taught to be extremely careful of his younger brother since Yukio was human and Rin wasn't. It was obvious that the sort of sibling quarrels that both Amaimon and Shima saw as normal sounded completely alien to Rin.
"So are they doing this or not?" Izumo demanded looking at Shiemi.
"Come on, it'll be fun," Rin pled putting thoughts of Yukio out of his mind. "I wanna figure out what I've learned from Angel."
"If you're sure." Shiemi glanced between Rin and Amaimon.
Rin threw an arm around Amaimon's shoulders, "We'll play nice. Won't we?" he said pasting on a huge grin.
Amaimon studied Rin's expression for a moment then used his fingers to push up the corners of his mouth to form a grin of his own. "Right nice. Can we fight now?"
"Okay," Shiemi agreed unenthusiastically.
"Great!" Rin exclaimed. He dashed upstairs. When he came back he was wearing all three of his swords in their new harness.
The Exwires, Paku and Yoshikuni followed Rin and Amaimon outside and well away from the buildings.
Rin and Amaimon faced off against each other. "You're not going to unseal your heart?" Amaimon pouted.
A look of concentration crossed Rin's face and a pale blue halo formed around him. "Good enough?" he asked then glanced to Shiemi for a signal.
Shiemi sighed. "Begin!" she announced and the pair leapt at each other.
Rin's wakizashi and second katana where in his hands in a heartbeat. He leapt over Amaimon's first charge and spun around, his sword seeking out his opponent. Amaimon twisted and slapped Rin's katana away only to find the point of the wakizashi pressed against his ribs.
The pair froze for a moment. "We're demons," Amaimon said. "Don't pull your punches." He grabbed Rin's wrist and yanked him forward before the younger demon react. Rin stared in shock as the wakizashi sank into Amaimon's chest. "Come on Little Brother, play with me." The Earth King let go of Rin's wrist, reached over his shoulder and snatched Kurikara out of it's sheath. Amaimon hurled the flaming demon-sword to the other end of the meadow where the blade sank several inches into the ground, leaving the sword standing up right and quivering.
Then Amaimon stepped back, settling into his ready position. "Now we can have some fun," he informed the fire-wreathed demon as the wound in his chest closed over.
Rin took a deep breath and tried to recollect himself. "Okay, so I win when I get my sword back?"
"Yeah," Amaimon agreed. "We keep fighting until you do… or until I get bored."
"Anything I shouldn't do?" Rin asked. "I'm not used sparring against people who heal like I do."
Amaimon paused to consider the question for a moment. "Don't cut anything off. Getting all the bits inside lined up before healing it is a pain." His eyes sparkled wickedly. "I promise not to cut, or rip, any of your limbs off either, at least not while we're 'sparring'."
Rin nodded. A few minutes later it occurred to Rin that he'd taken Angel's role from their spars during the last term. Where Rin normally tried to keep Angel from getting to Bon, now it was Amaimon trying to prevent Rin from reaching Kurikara. Rin remembered the first fight against Amaimon in Mepphyland, his desperation as he tried and failed to reclaim his sword. Angel never focused so intently on his goals that he lost sight of the obstacles he faced; Kurikara would be there when Amaimon was defeated.
Bon nodded, looking pleased when he saw Rin settle into his stance. Just from how Rin held himself the Aria knew Amaimon was in for a hard battle.
As the spar progressed Shiemi cringed and finally covered her eyes, neither Rin nor Amaimon seemed particularly bothered but after the first fifteen minutes they were both dripping blood from a dozen different cuts.
Izumo and Shima watched with an almost analytic air, their own Knight Training giving them the best eyes to evaluate Rin and Amaimon's skills. Rin was biting his lip, dodging, carefully turning aside most of Amaimon's blows rather than risking his swords by meeting the powerful demon head on. He didn't give much ground, in total, but he was constantly circling backwards, always watching for the moments when Amaimon left him an opening.
When the battle shifted and Rin suddenly started falling back rapidly Paku gasped, but Konekomaru nodded appreciatively. During the fight Rin had shifted his and Amaimon's position so that Amaimon was actually driving him toward Kurikara. It seemed that the Earth King had become so caught up in the battle that he'd lost sight of the final goal.
Rin was taking heavier blows now, evading less. Blocking Amaimon's punches with his forearms, still protecting his swords from being shattered, not falling, but being knocked back by strike after strike. Until suddenly he turned and darted toward the sword, his fingers brushed over Kurikara's hilt. Then the ground fell away under his foot.
Rin lurched sideways at the sudden loss of footing, the Exwires all flinched at the loud pop as the joint stretched out of place. "Ahh! Shit!" Rin swore, he tried to stand up and immediately collapsed.
Amaimon snickered. He pulled Kurikara out of the ground and handed the sword back to Rin, then ruffled his hair with a enough force that the show of affection almost counted as an attack. "I win," he declared.
"You did that? You made the ground go soft?" Rin realized. He peeled back his boot to get a look at the damage. The others grimaced at the sight of bruises forming as they watched. Shiemi started murmuring instructions to Nii-chan.
"Earth King," Amaimon pointed out. "Why don't you heal that?"
"It's healing as fast as it can," Rin protested.
"No it's not," Amaimon disagreed. Impatiently he grabbed Rin's rapidly swelling ankle. Rin yelped and his flames flared. Amaimon jumped back and swatted the side of Rin's head. "Don't burn me, I'm helping."
"Helping, right," Rin said skeptically. But he tentatively extended his foot again.
Amaimon watched as the blue flames died down. "Iblis is going to hate you," he remarked.
"Hn?" Rin glanced at Amaimon questioningly.
"The blue flames," Amaimon explained. "Iblis is the King of Flames but your flames are the same as Father's. He won't be able to rule you, so he'll hate you."
"I can't actually heal you," Amaimon said leaving his tangent behind. "But I know how to heal myself, I can show you." He put his hand on Rin's ankle again. "Make your power follow mine. You ought to be able to feel it."
A phosphorus green glow enveloped Amaimon's hand, Rin felt the alien energy poking around inside his ankle. He bit his lip and scowled fiercely as he tried to direct his flames to fill that same spot. After a minute Amaimon drew back, Rin put his own hand over the sprain and gradually the swelling went down.
"Thanks," Rin said, sounding surprised. "I wasn't looking forward to starting another term on crutches."
"What are big brothers for?" Amaimon asked.
"Injuring you so they can fix it up again?" Rin asked.
"Exactly," Amaimon agreed. "Once you're better at healing yourself I won't have to be so careful of you." He paused for a moment then added "Just remember; Samuel and I are the only ones who have acknowledged you as our little brother. Your mother was human, the other Hell Kings might not claim you. If they don't they're not your brothers, just demons who are older and stronger than you are. And even if they do, sometimes our fights are real, even if we are brothers."
The first day of the new school year, after Itamae kicked him out of the kitchens, Rin slowly made his way to his new homeroom class. His sulky expression brightened when he was Godain sitting at a desk near the front of the class. Rin quickly snagged an empty seat beside the tired-looking boy.
"We've got homeroom together!" Rin announced.
Godain turned and grinned. "Okumura-kun, how was your break?"
"Great," Rin replied. "So um…?"
"Yeah, Aiko, Mana-chan and I will all be starting Cram School today."
Rin smiled. "You'll feel better once you know a little more about what's going on."
A large black blob of a demon shambled into the classroom, past oblivious students, muttering about blood. Godain grimaced. Rin cleared his throat loudly then glared at the demon. Chastised it slunk away. "Just another day here at ghoul-central," Godain sighed. "I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing them."
"You will," Rin promised.
When their normal classes ended the two boys made their way toward the cram school building together. "There's a guy following us," Godain whispered after a few minutes. "He's not a demon right?"
Rin glanced over his shoulder and saw Shiratori Reiji glaring balefully at him. "I was wondering when he'd get over the beating Bon gave him." He turned back to Godain. "He's not really a demon, but he's more likely to hurt you than the actual demons wandering around campus. Shiratori's the worst sort of bully. If he bugs you, you let me know okay?"
Godain nodded and Rin smiled. But as they walked off he couldn't help but take one last look over his shoulder. Absently he scratched at his wrist. 'You could get around your oath,' Rin's subconscious reminded him.
Bon caught up with them just outside of the cram school building. "Ready for Angel?" he asked Rin.
Godain spotted Mana and Aiko walking into the Page's classroom. "See you later Okumura-kun," he said.
"Yeah, see ya," Rin replied falling in with Bon.
The next day, when Professor Shiku arrived for the first group class of the new year, the Exwires could only stare in disbelief: Their rotund, fussy middle-aged professor's heavy make-up completely failed to disguise her massively swollen cheek in shades of vivid purple and yellow.
"Professor, what happened?" Shiemi exclaimed after a minute of shocked silence.
"If you must know," Shiku huffed. "I was sent to assist in clearing out a small nest of demon-pests and I accidentally exorcised a similar type of familiar. The Tamer was quite uncouth. I was sent there to do a job, is it my fault she'd made a pet of a related nuisance?"
Slowly everyone in the class turned to stare at Rin. "What?" he asked then he caught on. "Oh no!" he exclaimed gesturing to the Myodhan trio. "You three are Arias, you can't just not recite verses because one of 'em might affect me."
Bon shook his head in disagreement.
"There's one fatal-verse for each demon type right?" Rin asked. "Out of all the religions in the world."
"That is not precisely correct," Shiku said. "Although your lack of understanding is not unexpected given your abysmal grades. The more common types of demons tend to have verses in most religions that work to get rid of them." Then grudgingly she added. "It's higher level demons like you who only have one verse, or at least it is theorized that the top level demons must have a fatal-verse. Arias have been searching for verses that would destroy a Hell King for generations, but the best they've managed so far are verses that force them back to Gehenna where they belong."
"We're not risking sending Rin to Gehenna either!" Bon exclaimed. He grabbed Rin and stormed out of the room. The other Exwires trailed after them.
Shiku stared at her suddenly deserted classroom. "Well I never!" she exclaimed.
Mephisto listened to the Exwires' concerns, then turned to Rin. "You seem the least disquieted?"
Rin shrugged. "How many hundreds of verses are in the Bible? And that's just one holy book, what are the chances of me hearing my fatal verse? 'Sides, if God didn't hate me for being born, I wouldn't have one."
"I don't care about the odds," Bon stated. "Rin should wear ear-plugs or something when we fight from now on. And he needs to be excused from the Aria requirements on the Exorcist Exam."
"What if I told you the odds were zero?" Mephisto replied.
"Really?" Rin asked in a strangled voice.
Mephisto's answering smile was chilling. "The Elder Gods hold so much power that they rarely move; they can hardly raise a finger on Assiah without bring on an apocalypse. However Satan's rebellion was sufficiently annoying that the Eldest chose to move against us, and when he moved nothing was left behind. Assiah has been destroyed and recreated a hundred times over, but the gods have their attachments. We save bits of former Assiahs and insert them into the new world because we love them. But there was nothing left after the Rebellion had been put down, not even the atoms of that Assiah were left whole." Then Mephisto shrugged. "A side-effect was the complete and total destruction of all religious books from that Assiah. Very convenient for species of demon which pre-date the Fall. The one you call 'God' destroyed all record of your fatal-verse when he threw your father in the void."
"Humanity has cobbled together new methods of combatting ancient demons but..." Mephisto turned on the three Arias. "Pop quiz, gentlemen: Tell me why 'Fatal-verse' is a shockingly sloppy term for a disciple which prides itself on precision. And what exactly do you do when you exorcise a demon from it's host?"
"There are actually two sorts of exorcisms that an Aria can perform," Konekomaru replied. "We refer to both as being a demon's fatal-verse but the more common version simply ejects the demon from it's host."
"Yeah, but sending Rin to Gehenna isn't much better!" Bon exclaimed.
"Tsk, tsk, we are talking theory right now," Mephisto reprimanded Bon. He gestured for Konekomaru to continue.
Konekomaru took a deep breath. "There are exorcisms which truly destroy a demon, but they aren't a single verse. It's generally a lengthy ceremony requiring multiple verses from at minimum four different holy texts. And it's extremely specific. John 21:24 will expel ghouls, draug, jiangshi and other closely related demons from Assiah, but to destroy a demon you have to tailor the exorcism, almost to the individual demon. It's difficult, inefficient and morally questionable to perform the second sort of exorcism."
Mephisto's eyes sparkled. "Not to mention impossible if the relevant religious texts have been destroyed. But lets talk about the simple, morally upright version of Exorcism. How is a demon ejected from it's host?"
"When a demon hears the proper verse it weakens it's hold on the host body," Bon said refusing to be outdone by Konekomaru. "This enables the host's true soul to re-assert itself and forces the demon out, without a host the demon is drawn back into Gehenna. Everything has a soul, even objects, but a dust mote soul isn't much of anything. So you can't really exorcise low level demons like Coal Tars since the true souls of the things they possess aren't strong enough to push the demon out even after they've heard their fatal-verse. No one really cares because they're too weak to do much harm anyway."
"And the true soul of Rin-kun's body is…" Mephisto asked leadingly.
"Rin," Bon realized. "He can't be Exorcised because he isn't possessing his body, he was born in it."
Shima slapped Rin on the back. "Well, looks like you aren't getting out of the Aria basic requirement after all," he said.
The riverbank, fireworks going off across the water, all his friends nearby, Izumo - a warm presence curled up in the circle of his arm. And this time, when Izumo turned her face up to him, Rin leaned down and kissed her.
Her lips were warm and soft. Rin's heart was pounding so fast he was surprised it hadn't beat it's way clean out of his chest, but then he could hear Izumo's heartbeat, like a hummingbird's wings so maybe it was okay.
Rin closed his eyes, Izumo's hair felt like silk. She's left it loose for the festival and it cascaded over his hands, which were slowly sliding up her back as they kissed. He could taste the dango they'd shared on her lips and somehow peaches.
The fireworks, his friends, even the riverbank were all gone. It was just him and Izumo, they were the whole world. And that was really great, because Izumo had turned into the kiss, her leg thrown over his.
Rin broke the kiss for a moment, pulled back so he could look at Izumo, see that she was real, that she was there, that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. Izumo's eyes were warm and welcoming but where his lips had touched her, her ivory skin had turned black.
And Rin was back in the bathroom at the old dorm. Staring at his demonic reflection in the mirror. "What did you expect?" Yukio asked. "You ruin everyone you get close to. Look what happened to Dad, to Kuro, to me. And now you aren't even trying to fight it anymore. The Hell King, your true brother, is teaching you to be a better demon now. You've completely given up trying to be human haven't you."
"I just want to protect my friends," Rin protested. "I don't want to be a burden."
"But that's all you're capable of. Dad didn't want you to protect yourself. He didn't want you to draw the sword. He taught me to protect you; all he tried to teach you was to NOT be evil. That was all that anyone could expect of something like you. That you would fight your nature and not be evil."
"And you've given up. You could do what I asked of you, you know how." Yukio hissed.
In the depths of the mirror Rin saw Shiratori watching him.
Bon shook Rin awake. "You were scratching your skin off," he quietly explained his deviation from their unspoken agreement where Bon did what he could to help Rin's nightmares without ever admitting to knowing about them.
Rin looked down at himself, in his sleep he'd wrapped his arm around himself. His tee-shirt was in tatters and the skin beneath it was heavily scored. Apparently he'd been leaking enough power to transform his nails into claws.
"I thought they were getting better," Bon said. "You didn't have any nightmares over spring break."
Rin forced himself to pull his hands away from the oozing scratches adorning his ribs. He shrugged, not really up to talking.
Bon left the room briefly and came back with a first aid kit. Rin hissed at the sting of antiseptic as Bon cleaned his wounds and taped bandages over them. "Maybe next time we should see if Amaimon could knock the whole damn building down," Bon muttered.
Rin managed to muster a weak grin. "I think the problem's all in my head," he said.