The first thing Rin noticed when he made it back to the academy, was the lack of exorcists that usually guarded the gates to the campus. When he wanted to pass the Southern Rear Entrance to True Cross he heard someone calling out for him.

"Hey! Stop it! What do you think you're doing? You can't just invade the Academy while most exorcists are on a mission!"

At first, Rin didn't know who had spoken to him until there was something small jumping in his way.

"Are you going to answer me or do I have to get serious?" The black cat before him asked slightly growling.

Rin had never seen a Cat Sidhe since most of them resided in Assiah as familiars of powerful exorcists but he has heard of them.

"Just let me through. I have to talk to Mephisto!"
"I don't believe you and I won't let a high ranking demon like you just pass."

The small black cat started growing, getting in a battle ready stance.

"I'm in a hurry, you idiot. I don't want to hurt you. Don't make me do that." Rin reached out for his dagger.

When the Cat Sidhe charged the Rin realized something that made him lose focus.

While fighting he had to obtain his more or less human form since he was in Assiah and he didn't know who could be watching.

Not paying attention Rin was thrown back against a stone pillar.

"Fuck, that hurt." The Prince brushed some dust off his clothes. He couldn't use his flames and had to focus on looking, human, while fighting. The latter would certainly be harder for him to accomplish.

He put his dagger back in his belt and dashed forward. He grabbed the cat demon by his collar and slammed him on the ground, holding him down in a wrestling-like grip.

"I don't want to hurt you and I really need to talk to Mephisto!" Rin tried to explain one more time.

Rin felt like the Cat Sidhe was trying to say something but he was cut off by an all too familiar flamboyant voice.

"What are you doing? Please don't start killing your time by beating up the entrance guards." Mephisto sighed, hovering a few feet over the two fighting demons.

Rin instantly released the cat demon, thinking of some way to defend himself.

"I didn't beat him up! He attacked me first and didn't let me through." He shouted before getting knocked to the ground by a gigantic paw.

"I got him! I demand catnip wine as a reward!" The Cat Sidhe meowed, proudly looking up to Mephisto.

The King of Time rolled his eyes.

"Fine with me." He snapped his fingers, making a bowl with a weird smelling drink in it appear. "Next time, you can just let him through, Kuro. He's my little brother and allowed to access the school grounds."

Kuro let go of the Prince and shrunk down to his original size.

"Alright, sorry for attacking you." He apologized to Rin, drinking his catnip wine.

Rin stood up, "It's okay. You were just doing your job."

"It was really fun fighting with you. You can come by anytime if you want to play. I'm Kuro by the way." The small black cat grinned after finishing his wine.

"I'm Rin and I really have to talk to Mephisto now. I would like to come back but now I really don't have any time." Rin apologized.

"Okay, see you soon." Kuro jumped back onto a pillar.

Rin looked at Mephisto, "How did you even know I'm here? Are you watching me again? Don't you have anything better to do?"

"You're thinking pretty highly of yourself. Your life isn't that interesting." Mephisto pointed towards one of the Academy's towers, "My office is right there. I've seen you from my window."

"So, why do you need to talk to me all of the sudden? I'm actually really busy so it better be important."

The King of Time snapped his fingers once more, teleporting himself and Rin into his office.

"Of course it's important!" Rin insisted, shaking his head slightly after the teleporting which made him a little dizzy.

"I was with Yukio and the Paladin when they suddenly needed to leave for Kyoto." The Prince explained.

"And now you're worried that they find out about your little trip there? I can assure you that it has nothing to do with it. Every fully trained exorcist of the Japanese branch has been called to Kyoto to fight a very powerful demon that appeared there." Mephisto told him casually.

"A powerful demon?" Rin thought about it for a second, "Wait, it's not-"

"It is, little brother. The Impure King has been awakened and since the head of the Myoo Dharani is dead and Karura probably shares this fate people are struggling to get him under control. It seems like no exorcist can summon a fire demon powerful enough to defeat him."

Rin was shocked, it was his fault that there was nobody who could stop the Impure King. Before, he hadn't thought about the bigger consequences following his actions. How could he forget about the Impure King?

"I have to do something. They are going to die!" He exclaimed, thinking about a way he could get to Kyoto as fast as possible.

"Lucky for you, I was just on my way there. I could bring you with me of course." Mephisto made it seem like he was just thinking out loud.

"Please bring me there. I want to help them. I can't let the war break out."

"You're so impatient. I am going to take you with me but before you start going into battle, I have to remind you that you can't use your flames in front of the exorcists and they are everywhere in the area right now."

"Alright alright, let's go already!"

"Fine, eins zwei drei." The King of Time chanted swinging his umbrella around, making them disappear in pink smoke.

Rin found himself roughly 300 feet up in the air on a small stool that seemed floating on its own.

Next, to him, Mephisto sat in a comfortable looking pink armchair.

"What's going on? How am I supposed to help them from up here?" Rin asked, trying not to move too much on his stool, fearing he would just fall down.

"Let me explain something to you." Mephisto started, looking at his little brother.

"You are in the same situation as I am. You're neither on the humans' side nor on the demons'. In your case, it's because you want peace for both realms. That means that you can't interfere in any actions without taking a side. When you go down there and help the exorcists, Father would consider it to be high treason. On the other hand, if you help the Impure King Fujimoto would certainly blow the whistle on you, making you an enemy of the Vatican."

"So what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and watch?" Rin growled. He couldn't accept the fact that he couldn't do anything. Yukio could be down there fighting, maybe losing his life. Even though the younger twin had been really harsh before, Rin didn't want him to die.

"Exactly, you simply can't be more than a spectator until you actually manage to take Gehenna's throne."

"But those people are dying down there!" Rin tried to argue. He understood what Mephisto was telling him but still, it was hard for him to do nothing to help.

"Kyoto is lost. The order was depending on Karura's purifying flames. If they were smart they would just retreat." Mephisto yawned slightly while watching a few exorcist struggles with new spores of the Impure Kind appearing before them.

"Can I at least sa-" Rin started, wanting to watch after Yukio.

"No. What don't you understand? You're supposed to sit here or go home." The King of Time groaned annoyed.

"But what if-"

"For Gehenna's sake, no! Stop acting like a child and if you must know Yukio is as safe as he can be here since he stays behind with the other Doctors to treat the injured."

Before Rin could even open his mouth to say anything else Mephisto cut him off again.

"If you're going to say anything about you going down there and help, I'm going to trap you in a pocket dimension full of water."

The Prince knew that he had to choose his words wisely if he really wanted to help.

"But Mephisto, I thought a King has to make his own decisions. I am not asking you if I can go down there. I'm deciding it for myself." He spoke up carefully.

The King of Time looked at him in surprise. He seemed to think about it for a second.

"Well, I guess if you consider this a lesson and we say that you learn about taking responsibility for your own actions…" Mephisto sighed before continuing, "Alright, but don't you dare involving me into this."

"Great! Thank you! Now, can you drop me off at the ground?" Rin asked looking down.

Mephisto grinned, "Drop you? Well, if you really want to."

He snapped his fingers and the small stool Rin sat on just disappeared, resulting in Rin falling towards the ground.

The impact on the muddy ground hurt, but since Rin was a demon he wasn't badly injured.

"You know exactly how I meant that, you bastard." The Prince muttered under his breath, feeling his wounds and fractures heal.

He landed not so far away from the battle but nobody had noticed him yet since the exorcists were a little busy trying not to die.

Now, he was standing there, not far from the next exorcists battle the Impure King, but what was he supposed to do?

Talk to the rot demon? Rin didn't even know if he had a head or a brain since he grew to the size and form of a castle. The Prince decided that it was worth a try.

He climbed up a tree so he had a clear sight on the gigantic demon.

"Hey! Hey, you!" Rin shouted. Where were the ears of the Impure King? He gave up quickly, starting a new approach.

If the Impure King had a conscience it had to have a brain, and if it had a brain there was a chance that Rin could establish a telepathic link.

"Stop! Stop growing already!" Rin tried to reach the demon mentally. After not receiving an answer and no visible reaction Rin gave it one last try.

"I, the son of Satan, command you to stop!" The Prince felt uncomfortable giving orders. He didn't know if he was even in the position to order a high ranked demon like the Impure King around because Rin wasn't a Demon King. His father kind of took his authority from him when he sent him to Assiah with Mephisto.

It was a relief when the Impure King actually stopped moving.

"What's going on? Why is it standing still?" Rin heard an exorcist ask one of his colleagues.

"I don't know. Do you think we did it?"

"But nobody is able to summon a powerful fire demon. How would it be defeated?"

Where people were screaming in pain and shouting orders only a few moments before, silence emerged.

"Who are you? Lord Satan doesn't have a son." There was a deep voice slowly talking inside Rin's head.

So the Impure King was able to talk after all.

"You were sealed for a long time. My name is Rin and I'm the heir of Gehenna's throne." Rin answered, trying to sound confident.

"I need a proof. If you're the heir you possess the flames." The Impure King's thunderous voice boomed inside his head.

Rin looked around. If he used his flames to burn anything, no matter how small it was, someone would notice it.

"I can't show them to you. The exorcists would discover me."

"The son of the great Satan would never cower before puny humans. How dare you insulting Gehenna by claiming to be the heir. Leave now." Rin felt like his head was going to explode from the noise the demon made.

A scream cut through the silence and confusion of the exorcists.

The Impure King started to grow again, covering many people in fungi.

"I think it's going to explode soon. Kyoto will be completely lost when that happens! Summon more salamanders! We need to stop this!" A high-ranked exorcist shouted while shooting at the spreading spores.

"Stop!" Rin shouted, jumping down from the tree.

If he didn't do anything quickly, everyone in Kyoto would be caught in the deadly miasma.

The Impure King didn't answer him anymore.

The Prince was passing the exorcists while running towards the rot demon.

"What? Who is this kid? Stop him! He's running to his death!" Someone shouted at him but they were to slow.

It was a rash decision Rin would regret afterward but when the spores started growing into his direction he lit them on fire, burning almost 30 feet of the Impure King.

Seeing the blue flames spread panic among the exorcists.

They didn't know what was going on and what they were supposed to do.

Even though Rin couldn't hear the Impure King's voice anymore, he knew that he was in pain. He was probably trying to apologize after seeing the flames but this time Rin was the one preventing the telepathic link. It was like the time he had killed the Dekalp. Back then, he only wanted to save Shiemi, now he wanted to save all the humans living in Kyoto. He let his instincts take over. His flames spread wildly, burning more and more of the Impure King.

On the exorcists' side, there were only two people understanding what was going on.

One of them was readying his weapon.

Rin didn't know how much time had passed until he got back to his senses.

He had burned down every last bit of the Impure King. He had never used his powers to that extent and felt exhausted.

He heard a clicking behind him. Turning around, he saw a group of exorcists pointing guns at him. It wasn't a large group since most of them had been injured by the Impure King.

Father Fujimoto wasn't there but there was a familiar face among them.

"Yukio? What are you doing? Tell them that I'm not a threat." Rin was a little nervous. He was surrounded, tired and vulnerable.

"I can't do that."

"Okumura? You know what's going on? Who is this demon?" Another exorcist asked, his hands were shaking.

"Yukio, please don't…" Rin was cut off by his younger twin.

"His name is Rin. He is the son of Satan. Last year, he attacked the Southern Cross Boys' Monastery and killed two priests." Yukio reported to his colleagues.

Rin was speechless. He knew that they didn't get along that well but they were family. He had never thought that Yukio would betray him like that.

"Does anyone know how we are supposed to handle a situation like this? Should we kill him? Capture him?" The Exorcist with the shaking hands asked.

"If we can capture him, we should. Can we capture him?"

Rin still couldn't say anything. His brothers had always been an important part of his life. He would never abandon one of them, not even Egyn.

"We can," Yukio confirmed before reciting a sutra.

At first, Rin didn't know what he was doing but then a numbing pain shot through his body.

He felt like someone was cutting off his tail. He could just stand there, paralyzed, experiencing the second worst pain he had ever felt.

"A sealing charm? How?" One of the exorcists stuttered impressed.

That's when it struck Rin. The small golden ring Yukio had given to him at New Year's Eve was sitting at the exact point the pain emitted from.

Had he planned to use it one day?

There was another pain that was unknown to him. He had trusted Yukio even if he didn't return that feeling. It was like someone had ripped his heart out.

Slowly, Rin clenched his fist.

"He's still moving. Shouldn't he be knocked out by now?" An exorcist asked, cocking his gun.

With a loud growl, Rin managed to summon his flames once more.

They protected him from the bullets, pushing the exorcists away from him without harming them too badly.

It took him a second until Rin could move again.

He thought about checking if they were alright but he decided to run.

After a few steps, there was a loud bang followed by something hitting Rin in the shoulder.

Turning around, he saw Yukio pointing with his last strength his gun at him.

Should he fight? No, he wasn't like Yukio. He wouldn't attack his brother if he had a different choice.

Rin was completely drained. He could probably use his powers one more time for that day.

"You can't run." Yukio stood up never letting his eyes off his brother.

"Yeah? Watch me, traitor." Rin started running towards the forest, hearing more shots behind him.

If Yukio wasn't tired as well, he probably would have hit Rin, but now the bullets struck trees and rocks next to him.

When the last bullet of this magazine missed Rin only by inches, the Prince concluded that he was too big of a target.

If he only could get smaller somehow.

But then Rin remembered that he could get smaller.

Yukio reloaded his gun when he was blinded by a bright blue light.

When the blue light died out Rin was gone.

"Where are you?!" The younger twin shouted.

There was a silent rustle of leaves but that was it.

Rin wasn't really fast in his panther-form. His legs were too short. But at least his black fur was the perfect camouflage in the dark forest.

He was running as fast as he could and as long as he could. He couldn't fully put weight on his left foreleg because of the bullet wound.

He didn't know how long he had run but the sun was rising after a while.

He turned back to his human form when he reached a small abandoned hut. He couldn't even walk in, fainting from exhaustion before he could reach the door.