When Rin woke up he wasn't in his bed anymore. He wasn't even in his room. He looked around and noticed that he was laying on a pink and white bed. The sun shone through the big windows and he stood up to look outside. He was high up in a tower and saw a complex of stone buildings that were built in a circle around a tall broad building.
"Guten Morgen, Rin-kun. [Good Morning]" Mephisto entered the the room and Rin concluded that the older demon had taken him away from home. "Where am I? Why did you bring me here?" He reached out for the dagger which he carried always on his belt, but he couldn't find it. "Oh, are you afraid? Now I know what Father meant. The future King of Gehenna shouldn't be afraid so easily. Tell me, were you scared when you went to steal Kurikara?" His brother asked curiously. "What are you talking about?" The Prince was confused, his tail twitched nervously.
"Your confusion is too cute, little brother. I thought Father had told you about it. You are supposed to study to become a King and I will be your marvelous teacher!" He explained dramatically. "You?! Why did he choose you? I thought it would be Iblis or Amaimon!" Rin was shocked. He didn't know what he was supposed to learn from this guy who didn't seem to take anything seriously.
"Iblis? Yes, that would make sense since he is the King of Fire, but Amaimon? He is so childish and always wants to fight everyone. But I'm your oldest brother, well, the oldest brother that actually cares. You can't really count Lucifer." Mephisto enlightened the young Prince.
"And where am I?" Rin didn't completely trust him yet. "Where do you think you are? In Assiah, of course. True Cross Academy, to be specific." The older brother grinned.
"True Cross Academy? Isn't that the place where the exorcists are trained? Why did you bring me here?" Again fear could be heard in Rin's voice. Last time he met exorcists they almost killed all of his companions and now that he was a demon, they would try to kill him too.
Mephisto laughed. "Why I brought you here? I'm the headmaster of this school. While we're here, I'm Johann Faust, understand?"
"So you are a traitor! You're working with the exorcists! How could you betray Father?" Rin accused his older brother. That made Mephisto laugh even more.
"Please stop it. I can't take it anymore." He held his stomach. "The world isn't just black and white. It's fun to play with the little humans. Sometimes I help them, sometimes I don't, but I got the Vatican to trust me, that means I can do whatever I want. Sometimes I even send some information to Gehenna." Mephisto explained.
"What do you mean?"
"Father knows that I'm working with the exorcists and he still lets me take care of his precious heir."
Rin was just staring at him in disbelief.
"You really are a bit slow, aren't you? Well, that doesn't matter. But what does matter is the fact that you want to meet Yukio. Before you run away from me and look for him on your own and probably cause a mess, I will arrange a meeting. Since Yukio is living in this school it won't be that hard. Unfortunately, I can't allow you to leave this tower. You will have to learn to behave and more important look human. Those little flame horns on your head are a no-go. I can't risk anyone to find out that I'm giving shelter to the son of Satan. Even if it could turn out interesting. . ." The Demon King instructed the teenager. Rin looked into a mirror, hanging on the other side of the room. Mephisto was right, the two little horns made of blue flames were still on his head and another little blaze was burning at the tip of his tail. His ears were elfish and his pupils were bright red. A part of him was confused and shocked about his appearance, another part felt betrayed. If he had looked like this when he lived in Gehenna, the other demons wouldn't have avoided him and wouldn't have constantly been afraid of hurting him. Now that he was in Assiah, he would stand out again.
"You didn't expect to turn back to your human form just like that, did you? You are so naive. Kurikara isn't sealing your powers anymore. You will have to learn to maintain it on your own." Mephisto was shaking his head. "And how do I do that?" Rin asked slightly annoyed. He wanted to learn it as fast as possible, so he could meet Yukio.
"First of all, you need to get rid of that attitude. Not because it will help you look human, but I don't feel like helping you like that." Mephisto snapped his fingers. Rin rolled his eyes and put up a sarcastic smile. "Great! Secondly, it is all a matter of concentration. You need to focus on something. Before, Kurikara was your anchor, now you need to find something new." Samael explained.
"What's your anchor?"
"Oh Rin-kun, I am way too old to need something like that, du Dummerchen. [you dummy]" He laughed it off.
That didn't really help the teenager.
"So you're saying that I just need some crap to focus on?" He asked.
"This is going to be hard," The King of Time sighed, "Of course not! It must be something you feel emotionally connected to." Mephisto started feeling like talking to a small, really stupid child.
"An emotional connection?"
"Yes! How often do I have to tell you? Why did I sign up for this again? Have you always been that stupid?"
"I'm not stupid! You're just a crappy teacher!"
"Excuse me? Is that how you address your elders?"
"Yes, when my elders are crappy!"
"Didn't they teach you some manners? Oh what am I talking about? Most demons are rude little beasts. Well, I don't have to listen to that anymore. Unlike you, I can leave this room. I hate being strict, but there you have it. Train until I come back and be nicer next time." Mephisto walked out of the room, leaving Rin alone.
"You're the stupid one. . ." He said pouting and crossed his arms.
After Mephisto was gone, Rin sat down in front of the window. The sun was just rising and made the snow which layed everywhere started shimmering. It was the most beautiful thing Rin had ever seen.
"If I want to go out there, I have to hide my appearance and probably be nice to Mephisto." He thought out loud. Especially the second part would be hard for the Young Prince. The older demon just had nothing that let Rin take him seriously, but he acted all high and mighty in Rin's eyes. He stood up and looked around. "How am I supposed to find anything with an emotional connection when all my stuff is still in Gehenna?" He started searching through some drawers and shelves. To his surprise, Rin actually found his precious dagger in one of them. It was the first gift, he had received from his father. He had been ten years old and it was the day he first attended a trial. A sharp, golden blade with a gemmed handle made it a deadly but beautiful weapon. When he was smaller, Rin used to accidentally cut himself when he trained with it.
If he had an emotional connection to any object, it was this dagger.
Now, he sat down in front of the mirror and tried to concentrate on the dagger and his human form. For a second, the red spark in his pupils vanished but immediately returned. This went on for a few hours and was only interrupted by Mephisto who came back to bring Rin some food.
"I see, you are taking this seriously. Let's make a deal. If you can hide your demonic features in a week, I allow you to go out and watch the new year festivities and meet your brother." He said while putting down a plate with some weird, brown food Rin had never seen before.
"Really? One week? I know I can do this!" The Prince was motivated by this chance and stood up excitedly. He took the plate and looked at it. "Umm. . . what is that? It smells so sweet." He looked at Mephisto waiting for an answer. "That's Kuchen, I mean cake." The King of Time explained.
Cautiously, Rin took a bite and his eyes began to shine. "That's the most amazing thing I've ever tasted! Can I get more of this?" He quickly ate the rest of the chocolate cake.
"Well, you actually don't need to eat anything at all like ever again but if you want to; I can bring you cake more often." Mephisto was surprised by Rin's excitement and cooperative behaviour. He blamed puberty for the teenager's mood swings. The boy nodded and ate every last crumb on the plate. "Okay then, just practice some more. I will leave you alone." Mephisto certainly had taken interest on his little brother's development.
Rin practiced every day from now on and after almost five days, he pretty much got the hang of it.
Although, he still had slightly pointy ears, sharpened canines and the tail, he looked actually human. He knocked on the door hoping Mephisto would hear him. Rin didn't even know if he was at the other side of it because he was always using some weird keys to get in and out but it was worth a try.
"Why are you making so much noise?" Rin could hear Mephisto's annoyed voice on the other side.
Mephisto opened the door looking at his little brother. "See! I'm looking like a human!" Rin presented proudly. "Well, almost. Just hide that tail of yours and I think you're good to go. I don't understand why you leave it out in the open like this. A gentleman always knows how to hide his weak spots." He judged him critically.
Quickly, Rin let his tail slip under his shirt. "And now, I want to see my brother! You promised!" The teenager exclaimed eagerly. "Alright, alright." The Demon King rolled his eyes. "I will bring him here."
"Forget it. I want to go to him. I haven't left this room since I got here. I want to go outside!" Rin made his point clear. He heard Mephisto mutter something about him being annoying but then he nodded. "Don't cause any trouble, verstanden [understand]?"
Rin followed his older brother through the door and they suddenly stood outside. "What? How? Is that some kind of portal?" He asked looking behind him but not seeing where they came from. "I'm the King of Space and Time. Do you think I would walk anywhere? Now come, Yukio should be on his way to the cram school. Ah! Speak of the devil." Laughing about his last comment, he pointed at a figure coming in their rolled his eyes at Mephisto's corny pun. "Great!" Rin looked at the brown haired boy approaching them. The moment Yukio saw the two demons they stopped. "What the fuck?" Rin heard him say confused.
Rin waved happily at him which made the boy's confusion only bigger and bigger. He seemed to be unsure if he should come closer. Carefully, he made his way to the demons while laying one hand on his gun. "Mephisto? What. . . What is he doing here?" He asked full of suspicion. "Well, he wanted to meet you after he found out that he has another brother. I'll leave you two alone. I really love drama but unfortunately I have plans." Samael poofed out of sight. "Umm. . . hey, your name is Yukio, right? I'm Rin." The older twin had a big smile on his face.
"You're a demon. Why would you want to meet me?" Yukio still wasn't sure if he could trust Mephisto concerning Rin. "Well, you're my brother. I just thought that we didn't really have time to talk back in the monastery." Rin scratched his head. "You want to talk? Yes, back then I wanted to talk too but then you killed two priests and left two others with burns and scars all over their bodies!" Yukio clenched his fists.
"I really didn't mean to do that but you killed the demons that were with me. I just wanted to protect them." The Young Demon defended himself. The conversation went into the complete opposite direction than Rin wanted it to. "And that's why I'm here. I screwed up and now that idiot Mephisto is my teacher." He continued explaining. "Please, I just want to get to know you."
"Get to know me? How can I trust you? You're the son of Satan. You could be planning something."
"You're also his son. We're twins, you idiot."
"I'm human. I'm definitely not the son of Gehenna's ruler. My father is Shirou Fujimoto."
"That doesn't change the fact that we're still brothers."
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't shoot you right now."
"I'm not attacking you. Why would you shoot someone who's not threatening you? Or is that how exorcists operate?"
"It's definitely what demons do."
"Most demons aren't even harming humans on purpose. It's just like. . . It's like an aura around them. Believe me, growing up in Gehenna taught me that many demons just want to live in peace."
"Peace? Satan is trying to conquer Assiah!"
"He wants to unite the worlds. He just follows the wrong path but I can show him another way." The last thing was a total lie. He was definitely not able to change Satan's mind in any way.
"You would really do that? Why?"
"Yes! I actually really like Assiah. You have cars and amazing cities and cake. I'm really fond of that last thing. I mean, have you tried it? If Father would conquer all this, it would probably become a second Gehenna and that would be really boring." Rin smiled.
"Umm. . . yes, I have eaten cake before" Yukio started to wonder about the teenager. He couldn't understand how someone could be so overjoyed by something like cake.
"You know what? I'm not trusting you but we can talk, just not now, I'm late for school." The brown haired boy decided.
"Can I come with you? I think Mephisto won't pick me up until later."
"You want to go to a school full of exorcists?"
"Well, as long as you don't tell anyone that I'm a demon I should be fine, right?" Rin was pretty optimistic about it.
"You're going to follow me either way, aren't you?"
The Gehennian Prince nodded and followed the exorcist all the way to the cram school.
"So you're still learning to be an exorcist?" Rin asked after a while.
"No, I'm a teacher." Yukio wasn't sure what he should do about Rin. Should he tell Shirou about him? Should he just shoot him? He didn't seem to be a cruel, merciless demon. He was more like a curious child.
He had asked him a lot of questions about Assiah. Things like "How are there 4 seasons? Are cars working with magic? How can one king rule over almost 7 billion people? When Father is ruling Gehenna, does God rule Assiah? Have you ever met him?" Made Yukio realize that Rin had absolutely no idea about anything related to Assiah. After asking him if the demons haven't taught him about Assiah, he just answered, that Satan thought it would be a waste of time. When they finally reached cram school, Yukio was more than relieved since it would mean Rin would have to cut back with all those questions.
"I would be proud of you that you're a teacher if you wouldn't teach those people to kill me and my kind." Rin said smiling. Didn't he take anything seriously?
"Oh, by the way, Mephisto told me that there would be some kind of party because the New Year starts or something like that. I want to go there. Would you go with me?" Rin got excited thinking about the things his older brother had told him about something called firework.
"I actually planned staying at home at New Year's eve."
"Please, I don't want to spend the time with that old fart."
Yukio wasn't sure about this, but he decided that Rin couldn't make some shady plans if he was with him.
"Okay but don't try anything. I am keeping my eyes on you."
They stepped into a classroom where already five teenagers the same age as Rin and Yukio sat.
"Hey, Mr. Okumura, who is that guy?" A boy with a weird blond streak in his hair asked. "That's Rin, he will watch our class for today." He explained and showed Rin a seat. Rin was excited. There were so many humans, he could interact with.
While listening to Yukio's lesson, he learned that his students were called Kamiki-chan, Miwa-kun, Shima-kun and Suguro-kun. When Yukio started talking about hobgoblins of a certain size and how to approach them Rin interrupted him.
"But why would you just shoot at it? You don't know what it's doing here. Maybe it is just getting candy for Amaimon."
Shima laughed while the other students looked kinda shocked about Rin's almost friendly intentions with demons.
"Candy for the Earth King? Nice joke, dude." Shima commented. "But it's not." he muttered confused by his laughter.
"Rin, how long are you planning to stay here? Your presence isn't really helping in my lesson." Yukio intervened while crossing his arms. What did he even think when he brought Rin here? What did Mephisto think bringing this guy to Assiah? The demon wanted to disagree, but he saw that it wouldn't get him anywhere. "It's just so unfair to kill someone or something that didn't do you any harm.", he complained quietly. Yukio opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted. "Okumura-kun? How great to see that you took care of little Rin." Mephisto appeared in the middle of the room. "What is the headmaster doing here?" Konekomaru asked his friends. "Oh don't worry about me, just continue. I'm just picking up this little devil." The man in the white suit chuckled. "Devil. . . oh I'm so funny." He added quietly. Rin stood up, rolling his eyes again, not really wanting to leave.
"Okay." He sighed and followed his older brother outside. Yukio also followed them. "Mephisto-san, can I ask you why you let him alone with me?" He asked looking at Rin. "Having a demon in my class doesn't really help the other students."
"Oh come on, Okumura-kun, he wanted to get to know you. Would there be a better chance to do so?"
"Hey! Don't talk about me like I wasn't standing here." Rin exclaimed a bit indignantly.
"Just don't come to me when I'm in class. I really don't need distraction." Yukio complained looking at both demons. He still wasn't sure what he should tell his father. Or did Shirou already know about this? He would definitely talk with him about his demonic twin brother.
"We have to go now either way. Say goodbye, Rin-kun."
After a short "Goodbye" Yukio turned around, laying his hand on the door handle, when he felt Rin standing only a few inches behind him.
"What the hell are you doing?" The younger boy jumped in shock looking at Rin.
"Oh, I'm just trying to memorize your smell." Rin blushed in embarrassment. Since he first drew Kurikara, his senses were highly enhanced and since Satan broke the sword, he just felt the need to memorize all new smells, it was like his instincts kicked in when he got to know something new. Were these part of these strange habits, Mephisto had told him about?
Yukio was a bit weirded out by his twin brother and slowly went back to class without taking his eyes off of Rin.
"Well, that certainly was amusing, don't you think?" Mephisto broke the silence.
"I think he doesn't like me much." Rin's smile faded.
"Humans usually carry a grudge against people who hurt their loved ones."
"But it was an accident. And they were attacking the demons that came with me to Assiah." The Gehennian Prince couldn't see how all this was his fault.
"At least he didn't tell everybody that you are here." Mephisto stated very optimistic.
After he finished his lesson, Yukio went straight to his old home, the monastery where Father Fujimoto still lived. "Yukio? What are you doing here? I thought you had work to do at the academy." The Paladin quickly let a indecent magazine slip under his armchair. "Sorry, I didn't plan to come back that early, but something happened." The boy sat down looking really serious. "Why? Are there some pretty girls in your class and you don't know how to talk to them? Well, it's not that hard when you jus-" Shirou started talking.
"Rin appeared at the Academy. Pheles brought him there." The teenager interrupted him.
The Paladin didn't believe what he had just heard.
"I don't know what they're planning. But it seemed like Rin really wants to spend time with me."
"Spend time with you?"
"Yes, he said something about wanting to get to know his little brother and he was asking me if I would want to spend New Year's Eve with him. I agreed, because when he is with me he can't harm anyone." Yukio told his foster father.
"But isn't he on Satan's side? He could try conquering Assiah."
"He said that he loved Assiah and that he would try to convince Satan to find a peaceful solution. I don't know, he didn't seem dangerous when he talked to me. And Pheles brought him here and he works with the Vatican. I have no idea what I should think about all this."
"Loving Assiah? Does that mean, he changed his loyalty? Maybe you should keep an eye on him. If you do it, he won't get suspicious. I can't believe, Mephisto brought him here."
"I don't know. He just said something about cake. It was a bit confusing."
Hey!
Rin is finally back in Assiah.
Thanks to all of you who reviewed the last part!