Chapter 20: Deteriorate
Satan realizes his general foresight skills have deteriorated over the years, but that's fine because he can adapt. Mostly.
AKA: the chapter everyone has been waiting for.
The day it all went wrong came much earlier than Satan expected. He thought he would have had about two decades to prepare himself, but instead he barely got thirteen years.
He and Yukio were walking home from school, both in exceptionally high spirits despite the slight nip in the air as the seasons sluggishly changed. Satan had finally been allowed to borrow the nicer camera whenever he wished, and he took great advantage of that. He must have taken fifty pictures of the newly bloomed flowers and Yukio. Bygone were the days where he could bastardize a flower crown and force Yukio to wear it, all the while sighing, remembering how Yuri kept wearing the blasted things specifically because it annoyed him. A real shame since he got a nasty stink-eye whenever he tried to sneak one, but that just meant he had to get creative.
Shaking a tree branch and showering Yukio in petals worked well enough.
Yukio had sputtered angrily and thrown flowers in Satan's hair in retaliation.
Satan had just hummed and arranged a couple he liked so they'd stay in place and grinned with Yukio had huffed over his lack of annoyance. Sometimes, the best retaliation was to show you weren't bothered, and he'd taken a liking to fragile things over the years. Beautiful and soft like feathers, they lived such short but bright lives, and were the epitome of the transient nature of the human's world. Besides, they smelled nice and nostalgic.
The flowers couldn't ever hope to block out the raw smell of rot that hit him like a truck.
The sudden power stopped him short at the sheer audacity of it. This is my territory it screamed, aggressive and claiming to any who could listen, and Satan's hackles rose instinctively at the challenge. He'd destroy whatever demon had decided to move here, how dare they, this place was his hishishis, no one wasallowednearYukio and blue flames flickered between his fingers like a snake, his own power hissing and spitting angrily. His own aura lashed out, pushing the violating power away from him and his-
Yukio walked into his back with a shocked gasp, and the spell was broken. Satan closed his hands and crushed his fire and his raging heart alike. But the rot was still there, flooding the space his own power had aggressively burned away and oh no-!
Yukio braced himself, dizzy all of a sudden, and, with obvious concern, "Rin, what wrommh?!"
A hand over Yukio's mouth muffled the boy as Satan practically sprinted into an alley with superhuman speed, but not fast enough. Satan had picked the possessed man out in the crowd immediately, a slick businessman with an air of professionalism and coal tars about him. And, even as he did his best to hide, he made direct eye contact with the man who'd turned unnaturally fast towards the power that had responded to the challenge he'd been broadcasting loud and clear.
The smile was feral and full of too-sharp teeth.
Shit, shit! The air was sour with the smell of rot and sickness so potent he realized wasn't some lowly ghoul now. Satan was sure that was Astaroth and all he could wonder was what the actual fuck one of his kids was doing here. This should be a well-known no-go zone for any powerful demons, patrolled quite literally religiously by high-level exorcists and Satan himself, who, collectively, picked off some ninety-five of all demons higher than a hobgoblin. Astaroth would be swarmed within a week and lose his body unceremoniously, so what was he doing here? There was nothing important here as far as anyone knew!
Ah, except for Satan himself of course. But he killed any demon or human who saw his fire, so how would anyone know?
Satan could figure that part out later, and instead drug Yukio further down the alleyway into a full-sprint. Yukio, always such a good child, didn't hesitate and followed without a word of hesitation, trusting him so so much. They ran until Yukio was heaving, and then kept going at a jog, weaving through the alleyways Satan knew well from his hunts for demons and depraved humans alike. He made sure to take a somewhat random route, and yet always continue in the general direction of the monastery. He couldn't kill Astaroth like some low-breed ghoul, no matter how much of an idiot he was, he was still Satan's child.
Damn it.
Well, the worst the shitty priest could do was exorcise Astaroth, and that had the added benefit of no one questioning his place in the world. Plus it'd hurt like shit, and hopefully get the message across to never come back. Probably not, since Satan had a sinking feeling that he knew why the asshole was here in the first place.
A Great Dane ghoul practically as tall as Satan while still on all fours skidded around the corner and snapped angrily at them, lunging for Yukio and ok, no. Satan went low with a switchblade he always kept on hand and threw his weight against the massive dog, digging the blade into its soft stomach just below the ribs. The two crashed to the ground, a mess of limbs and snapping teeth that Satan held back with his elbow in its throat. He didn't stop though, and drew another knife from his pocket, this one thicker, sturdier, and stabbed viciously at the ghoul's spine and severing it easily with his strength. That knife was a lost cause, wedged between bone, so he pulled his switchblade free with a vicious twist, shredding most of its abdominal muscles in the process, and leapt back.
The smell of gore and rotting blood filled his senses, and Satan breathed the sickening smell in deeply.
The ghoul growled and snapped angrily, but even it couldn't move a body that wasn't properly connected anymore. And those wounds wouldn't be healing anytime soon, not with the Holy Water he'd coated his blades in.
"Come on, Yukio!" Satan says, turning to check on his charge-
Astaroth held the young boy still with nothing more than a rough hand on his shoulder and claws digging through cloth and into flesh. The grip tightened ominous and Yukio gasped, voice pitching high with pain, "Rin…!"
"Such strength, such ruthlessness, and that aura I felt earlier!" Astaroth practically gushed, hardly caring for the other boy in his grasp as anything more than a useful hostage. He had eyes only for the other twin, and his excitement let his disguise slip more, horns peaking from his skull as Coal Tars swarmed him happily, "Yes, even without the flames, I'm sure of it! You're a demon's child, aren't you?"
Satan barely heard the words, eyes locked onto the hand that threatened to powder Yukio's shoulder. "Let go of Yukio."
"You have the flames, don't you?" The demon king continues, as if Satan hadn't just spat an order with a detached hate, "You must, or else there's no reason father would have gone so far to protect you. Ah yes, I haven't introduced myself I've been chasing rumors for months now, and to think that you'd be here, carving out your territory in an Exorcist infested town."
Yukio whimpers as the grip tightens and his green shirt begins to turn a dark red, his thick jacket doing nothing to protect him. Satan's vision is narrowing, blood rushing and mind filled with such heady static he can feel his thoughts slipping away to a bloodlust.
"Rumors? What do you mean by rumors?" Satan asked slowly, swallowing his soiled heart down, keeping steady eye contact with Astaroth. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Yukio moving, slowly, carefully, reaching for a pouch on his bag while still in the demon's grip, in spite of the pain.
"You've been carving out your own territory under those Exorcist's noses, haven't you, young prince? Something has been killing demons in this town for a while now, actually killing them as if they were mortals. Maybe you don't understand, but killing a demon for good almost never happens, and only the flames of our father, Lord Satan, can do that with ease!" Astaroth is more demon than human now, a sharp grin nearly splitting his face in half. "And Coal Tars see everything. Even if they can't talk, together enough of them can get a message across well enough."
"You don't say…" Satan drawls, knowing Yukio is giving him a look. And ok, sure, he might have messed up, but he didn't think that a few random scavengers who happened to see him hunting creeps would be missed! Or the aggressive ones he decided were just too dangerous to even be in the same city as Yukio. And those few who he'd gotten pissed off at enough to let his flames flicker, and then he couldn't just let them go…
Well, shit.
Ok, so maybe he had killed more than a few demons.
"My name is Astaroth, your brother. Show me that fire, young prince. Give me the proof I need, and we'll leave this world behind and take you to your destiny to be a king!"
Satan looked dully at Astaroth, forcing his emotions away so he could deal with the here and now, and not flights of fancy ("You should talk to them." She said, as if it were that simple-) and let out an overdramatic huff. "Interesting offer, and I'd really consider it, I really would, if it weren't for one thing."
"And that is?" Astaroth askes with baited breath, ready to rip the entire world to shreds if it would get his 'younger brother' to come quietly.
"I don't have any fire powers."
"Impossible, you have to be a true heir! Your demonic aura, your raw strength, none of it's human! I felt those flames early myself! No matter how weak they were, they existed! So, you must be the thing our father, Lord Satan, burned those damned Exorcists for all those years ago! Even your age would match the date of the Blue Night!" Astaroth ranted, words vomiting forth like disgusting froth and spilling more ugly things Satan didn't want to hear.
"There had to be a reason Lord Satan would vanish, and it must because he finally produced a true heir!"
Satan's flat expression never falters, even knowing he should technically be asking things like what the Blue Night was, "You're really reaching there. And, one more thing…"
He tosses the switchblade up and down blindly, not caring if he catches it by hilt or blade. The shoddy coating of Holy Water wore off the moment he tainted it with a demon's blood, so it couldn't hurt him badly even if he missed. But it was shiny and caught the dim light, and he could throw it at any moment, forcing Astaroth to pay attention to him and only him.
Perfect.
"How do you know it's even me? I have a twin you know."
"A…twin…?"
Yukio stabbed Astaroth in the leg.
The demon howled and lurched back with a hissing growl. Drawing himself low, his power flared angrily, muscles bulging, horns elongating and his skin darkening with his rage. Those brats, how dare they play him for a fool! He would kill them! Astaroth reached with clawed hands towards his defiant hostage - shaking like a leaf and barely gripping his knife, the weakling! – intent on ripping that hand that clutched the blade clean off-
A backpack, fat and heavy with books, slams into the demon, knocking off balance in surprise. The young prince was suddenly between the two, a small black…tube in hand and pointed steadily at him as if it were a weapon. But it wasn't a gun, there was no barrel, so just what-?
Satan pepper sprayed Astaroth in the face.
It was a perfect shot: directly into wide eyes too confused to know to defend, and the reaction was glorious. Astaroth shouted, throwing himself away from the pain and clawing at his eyes. But he couldn't escape the pain, the rubbing only pushing more spray into his eyes and making it worse and worse-!
"You motherfucking, shit-eating brat-!"
"Come on Yukio." Satan whispered through a snicker, pocketing his new favorite toy and leaving Astaroth to wallow in his suffering.
"When did you get pepper spray?!" Yukio hissed, following Rin over a chain-link fence.
"Some asshole tried to use it on me, so I use it on him. It seemed to work, so I kept it. I didn't think it'd be that effective on a demon, huh…" It was probably more the just how unexpected it was than anything else, but Satan wasn't going to question his luck. Astaroth was a tough kid, he'd get over it.
An inhuman roar born from hell's deepest rage some distance behind them sent birds scattering ominously.
Satan rolled his eyes. What a damn wuss, you would think Satan had broken his tail or something.
"So, 'carving out your own territory', huh?" Yukio asks like an angry mother when they pause at the mouth of the alleyway to arrange their clothing to look a bit more presentable.
"They might have hurt you one day." Satan says, and even if it's a terrible excuse, Yukio knows him well enough to just sigh and hand over his messenger bag since Satan had sacrificed his own backpack for the greater good. It's very clear that Yukio is going to interrogate him later, but at least the boy has enough sense to know that something like that can wait until they aren't being hunted down.
Satan ends up wearing his jacket inside out, messenger bag awkwardly positioned in front of his legs, since that's the only way to not look like he hasn't just murdered something with all the blood. Yukio grimaces and zips up his own jacket to hide his own blood, and for once Satan curses the fact that he insisted on carrying the bulk of their supplies to and from school. He wants to stop and force Yukio to sit so he can tie up the wound, but they don't have the time, nor the supplies.
It is a surprisingly uneventful speed-walk to the monastery. Their arrival, is less so.