Chapter 19: Study

It might be a contradiction, it might not be wise to let this happen, but Satan can't ever say no.

Rin's grades were decidedly…middle of the road. Painfully average. There was nothing wrong with them, but where he had once been dominating every class he took, now his A's had slipped to mostly B's and some C's. Math was rapidly becoming more and more of a struggle simply because it Rin was easy to frustrate and science that wasn't anatomy related (when and how Rin had already memorized the bones and major muscles in the human body, Yukio didn't know and didn't think about too hard) practically lulled him to sleep. Literature was only slightly better, but Rin was terrible at expressing himself in general, so any papers he wrote fell apart mid-paragraph into unrelated ramblings. There was one bright spot-

"Hey Yukio, your tenses switch right…here. See? It's all supposed to be past."

-Which just so happened to be Yukio's main weakness: foreign languages. Yes, languages, for Rin had taken both German and Chinese in the same year, and was, somehow, absolutely breezing through the class. Yukio had only taken Chinese to fill his requirements, thinking he'd be easy due to the roots his language shared with it. But no, they were similar, yes, but just different enough that he kept mixing them up.

"Thank you, Rin."

How Rin kept at least three different languages straight in his head was a complete mystery to Yukio, but then again, Rin had said the same thing about Yukio and math equations just a week ago.

Rin sighed, flying through his homework with such careless speed that Yukio would normally have been worried he was filling in random answers. But no, Rin had never scored under a 95 in any foreign language course he'd taken.

The older twin sighed again, much more dramatically this time as he finished. "Do you think that they'll let me take the test soon? I'd like to study something I don't know."

It was a test that native speakers took to prove they didn't need to take the course, and Yukio had never really understood how his brother… "But you failed the last one, Rin. Somehow you ended up using really old dialects. How did you even do that?"

"Just because they were old, doesn't mean my answers were wrong! It's bullshit they failed me, and everyone knows it!"

With how Rin had apparently cussed out his Chinese teacher over some technicality on his homework last week, Yukio was sure that the entire school knew now. And several Chinses slurs involving one's mother, a chicken, and something about incest.

"Yes, everyone knows now. But why did you use old dialects again? And when did you even have time to learn entire languages?"

"Trade secret."

And that was all Yukio knew he'd get out of his brother. One day he'd figure it out, but obviously not anytime soon.

"But you never study." Yukio commented, and no, he did not whine. He was just frustrated.

Satan shrugged, not having an answer for that, "Hey, I've already finished studying for that French test, which counts for something, right?"

Technically he hadn't studied at all, but Satan was of the mindset that you didn't study something you already knew. Human languages were easy; they were all basically the same when you got down to the bare bones, and Satan had made a point to learn a new one if someone even remotely important in his makeshift court took even cursory interest in it, though he was careful to be subtle. It made his life a lot easier if he found out someone thought they were going to be cute and write their oh-so-secret plans in a human language they assumed he didn't know, even though they kept using words of it for no reason and somehow thought he wouldn't think that was something worth looking into. Sure, he wasn't the a genius, but did his own subjects really think he hadn't learned a lot of things in the war he had practically single-handedly waged against Gehenna?

Idiots.

Some days Satan wondered just how much his conquering of Gehenna was him just being amazing and how much was just the fact that most demons couldn't plan their way out of a paper bag. Not because they weren't smart, but because they assumed the paper bag was inferior to them in every way and couldn't ever do anything to stop them. And so they would suffocate without even knowing it.

"Yes, but how did you first learn them?"

"I told you, I study." Today, yesterday, two hundred years ago, did it really matter when he studied so long as he did it? "Besides, it's not like you really need it. Just focus on the classes that actually matter for you, ok?"

"But if I want to get into a good school, I need to have good grades overall, not just in a couple of classes, Rin!"

"Yukio."

But Yukio couldn't stop, all of his frustration rushing to the forefront of his mind, "And there are scholarships for being fluent in several languages, and that's not even counting just how useful it is to be multilingual. A lot of patients might not be able to properly communicate what's wrong with them in their second language, so if I can just-"

"Yukio, stop!" Satan snapped, voice full of the ancient authority he carried. Yukio, just a small child barely twelve years old, instantly quieted in instinctive respect. "Yukio, you'll be fine. You'll learn everything you need to about how to be a doctor, you'll pick up a couple of languages, and you'll find some linguist to cover what you don't know, ok? There's no way wherever you work won't have someone on-call."

"But what about in the field…" Yukio trailed off, and saw Rin's frown. He knew Rin didn't like the idea of him being a field-doctor for Exorcists, but their father had mentioned how there was a shortage of them, and he hadn't been able to get the idea off his mind since.

Yukio as an exorcist…it was a strange thought in Satan's mind. Yukio could do whatever he wanted, Yukio could do anything he pleased, but the thought of his son fighting demons when Yuri had done anything but…No, Satan denied it, even if the training would be useful when his child was targeted simply for existing, but slaughter was unacceptable. And so he guided, until Yukio had decided to be a Doctor before anything else. Yes, a healer, for that was something that Yuri would have approved of.

Maybe one day he'd let the shitty priest teach Yukio the basics of shooting, but for now hand-to-hand was enough.

"Ok, first of all, you're assuming you'll ever be on a team where there isn't a common language. Which would be dumb and basically suicidal since communication is key when fighting." Satan started, remember how many times he'd had that little lesson beaten into him, "And second, I already said you'll have someone! You're the medic, so someone needs to protect you anyway, and like hell I'm letting you go out into the field on your own anyway!"

Yukio laughed, "Well, you do always need a medic to patch you up. So of course, I have to become a Doctor, if only to keep you alive. Besides, you usually scare away demons without them doing anything."

"I told you, demons are just like bullies: most of them will put on a huge show about being tougher than you, but just hold your ground and they'll turn tail and run! And you should let them, because cornered dogs bite, Yukio." Satan recited, happy when Yukio nodded on, attentive even when it was just review. The idea of Yukio killing a helpless goblin left a bitter state in his mouth. It wasn't revulsion at the act, but the thought of Yuri cuddling with them, unafraid and warm. "Just remember that the actually dangerous ones are the ones that don't try shout and bark at you."

"Right, I won't go picking fights like my oh-so responsible big brother does."

One beat, then two. On the third Satan moved and flipped Yukio, pinning his arms behind his back in a classic police-hold he had looked up on the internet. Yukio squealed and bucked and shouted, Satan laughing manically the whole time. But either Satan wasn't as good at the hold as he thought, or Yukio had a natural talent of breaking free, because suddenly he lost his grip and Yukio punched him square in the throat. Satan, of course, retaliated.

When Shiro rushed in, he nearly had a heart attack at the amount of blood smearing the floor, Yukio sheepishly stopping mid-motion, trying to shove what looked like half a tissue box up his twin's nose. Satan, however, was on cloud 9, grinning like a loon over just how much stronger Yukio had gotten in such a short time. He was pretty sure his nose was at least fractured!

He told as much to the shitty priest, and got a strong smack to the back of the head for his trouble.

"Stop rubbing off on your brother already."

"Never!"