Chapter 35: Kindling

Kindling- Noun: "Easily combustible small sticks or twigs used for starting a fire."

-or basically Satan's entire life. Because no matter what he did, it was destined to go up in flames, either by his hand, or…

Satan was quickly rushed to the nurse's office like a damaged damsel. A damsel who also happened to curse like a sailor and literally hissed more than once when one of the trio of idiots had decided to comment on his current state. An office that was suspiciously empty considering the school had just been attacked, without even a proper nurse present, forcing Yukio to do the dirty work of properly cleaning his ankle.

Accelerated healing was a bit of a massive pain when it worked as fast as his was starting to. It still wasn't even a fraction of what he was used to, but it was enough that when Yukio tried to unwrap the hastily applied bandages to do something a bit more proper, it had started tearing open rapidly aging scabs. Which hurt, and without the high focus of battle, Satan wasn't in the right mindset to properly ignore the pain and didn't feel like dropping back into that state. But he didn't want his obvious weakness being seen by others who weren't Yukio. So, he did the only reasonable thing he could think of:

He threw the biggest bitch fit possible.

"Piss the fuck off, Ryuji! I don't need you throwing up like the sissy you are when Yukio gets to work!"

"And I say that someone needs to hold you down, so you don't run off the moment you stop bleeding!"

Renzo, sitting in a chair far away to prevent becoming potential collateral damage, very nearly laughed, "I'm pretty sure Rin's the kind of guy who wouldn't even wait that long." And then, lower, he muttered; "Not that you're all that different…"

"What did you just say!?"

"Oops, was that part out loud?"

Idiots, all of them, and absolutely not at all endearing to squabble with and have them fret over his perfectly fine health, "It'll scab and heal soon, stop being such sissies! Do you three make a big deal every time you get a papercut and see your own blood too?"

Konekomaru avoided looking even partially at the wrapped ankle and ridiculous amount of medical supplies, "That's…That's not exactly a papercut…And shouldn't we go to the hospital for this kind of thing?"

Because the doctors there would be thrilled to see healing so fast that they could watch it with their own two eyes. Actually, they would be thrilled, and that was the part that worried Satan, "It's still attached, right?"

"If you aren't joking, I'm going to hit you." Ryuji deadpanned, sounding so calm he was clearly only seconds away from a complete explosion. His mind just wasn't sure how it wanted to release its rage and frustration yet, "I'm going to hit you until you pass out because you are clearly insane and want to die."

"Bring it, Bon-bon." Satan sang, drawing the nickname he hadn't used for a while and smiling as the taller male very nearly growled, "I can take down your overinflated ego without even getting upuuu-!"

Yukio, once ever-worried about his twin's health, finally made peace with his rapid healing and tough body just in time to rip the bandage clear off with all the care of a charging rhino, taking about half of Satan's skin with it.

Ok, so it wasn't that bad, still careful and doctor-deliberate, but it certainly felt like he was missing a chunk of leg. Satan's mouth clicked shut audibly and he shuddered at the pain. His hands balled into fists as Yukio worked with the calm acceptance of someone who had stopped caring about tiny things like comfort, relying entirely on Satan's pain tolerance to outweigh his clinical prodding.

He must have made quite a face because Ryuji paused, cautiously leaning in as best as he could without getting a good look at the mutilated flesh, "Hey are you ok-?"

Satan lashed out and, with pure vindictive glee, grabbed a reaching arm and squeezed all his frustration and pain until it was Ryuji who was howling.

"Shit! Damn it, let go! Let go before you break my arm!" Ryuji yowled, tugging and yanking and-

And Satan let go. Ryuji crashed into Konekomaru and the two fell to the ground.

The king of demons was as mature as always and snickered, "What, you wanted to help, right? Well you might as well be a stress ball since all you're good for is being a meat shield!"

"You almost broke my arm!"

"I know exactly how much force it takes to break an arm, so no, I did not come even close to breaking your arm, idiiiioooooshitfuck!"

Yukio continued to pour disinfectant over Satan's ankle, humming a small tune to himself with forced cheer. It was really an excessive amount by anyone's standard, but absolutely no one objected.

Satan was only slightly surprised when he later learned that the fledgling's assault was already being pegged as a horrific, but simple attack. Since different students saw different things when they looked at the fledgling, it was easy to dismiss the claims of a monster as a deliberate gas leak followed by an assault by a lone machete-wielding psycho. Any other damages were easy to isolate and hide from the press, and the dead girl's body had been doctored with disturbing accuracy to look like she had only suffered mundane injuries. Officers were being led in circles, contradicting reports were being disproven with careful misinformation, and the entire school had already been announced to be shut down for at least a week.

Samael really was terrifyingly good at his job.

Of course, Satan only learn all this when he flipped through the television channels in the nurse's office an hour later, still the only patient. And most of his conclusions were just based on the fact that Samael was a shady bastard on the best of days. Bored of television within minutes (and not at all needing reminders that the supposedly safe school at been compromised in such a fundamental way) he pulled his camera Yukio had so graciously bullied the idiot three into retrieving (along with his bag in general, but homework was hardly important) and started to flip through them as his son argued with Samael over the phone. Yukio, the ever-kind child, wanted to go and help the injured, but Samael was stonewalling him.

Good, the crafty demon was already holding to his end of the deal. Even if Satan was sure the threat was gone, the fact that a fledgling had somehow spawned was worrying, no matter how impossible it was for another to appear without cause. And so Satan would hold to his end and follow the heavily implied order to not cause more trouble while Samael smoothed things over with sly words and probably a generous number of bribes.

"I didn't know you liked to take pictures." Renzo finally spoke up after watching the demon king fiddle with a camera for no less than twenty minutes.

"There's a lot you don't know about me," And he would be despised the moment anyone knew his true face. He expected nothing less, of course, "It's not like we actually know each other."

"Oh, come on, we're friends, right?"

"With you? Not a goddamn chance! Out of you three, the only one I like is Koneko over there." Satan drawled with a little wave to the boy in question without even looking up from his camera, ignoring the audible jerk at suddenly being addressed, "He knows how to not stick his nose into stuff he shouldn't. The rest of you are minions. At best."

Ryuji scoffed, "Like you could actually lead anyone and not get everyone killed horribly."

"And yet for some reason you're still here," The demon smirked at the Exorcist without any real malice, "following me around."

Konekomaru, while glad he hadn't been dragged into more bickering, couldn't help but feel exasperated at their behavior. "Fighting again?"

"I think that's just how tough guys like Bon and Rin express themselves. Something like 'our fists will convey our true feelings!' or something cliché like that." Renzo explained with a few unneeded hand gestures to try and make his point.

"There better not be any fists thrown or I'll separate them myself." Yukio declared with absolute certainty, angrily ending his call with Mephisto. He had, once again, been refused any offers to help and simply told to watch his brother. His brother who, despite grievous injuries, would be fine in a handful of days at most, and was already well enough to bicker like everything was normal despite not having been given any pain reliever stronger than aspirin.

That alone was yet another reason he refused to call any of the girls, especially Shiemi over. They would almost certainly realize just how much pain his twin should be in and that would raise too many questions. At least here, Bon's group had been completely caught up in the teen's sass and blasé attitude and forgotten just how terrible the injury had been, or held misguided assumptions of how far "acting tough" could take you.

"And why are you three even here in the first place? Your timing was way too convenient to be pure chance," Satan asked, only slightly aware of how much Yukio was thinking things over. All that mattered was that the boy stayed in his sight for as much as possible, everything else was secondary. But that didn't mean he didn't want his suspicions of meddling confirmed.

"We're only here because the headmaster told us that there was an emergency. If we hadn't gotten texts, you would've been left out on your ass out there." Ryuji explained, "Hell, we're only still here cause you're going to drive your brother into the ground if he doesn't get some help."

"Right, whatever you say." Satan said dismissively, though he privately filed away just how loyal they had grown to Yukio. That was good, and it made it a good time to sow some seeds of distrust, "Oh and do any of you ever actually remember giving the 'headmaster' your phone numbers?"

"Well no, but…"

"He almost certainly has a registry with the information on all cram students, Rin." Yukio explained smoothly.

Renzo spoke up, "And that includes our personal phone numbers? That's a bit creepy…"

"Rin!"

Satan jerked to attention reflexively at the familiar call, "What are you doing here, you shitty priest? Don't you have a job to do?"

"Would you stop calling me that already, you absolute trouble magnet," Shiro huffed, crossing the distance from the door to the bed with only cursory glances at the other children. He shared a nod with Yukio, "And why wouldn't I be here when I hear that you've gotten yourself injured! Again! I swear, you always throw yourself headfirst at things, and your thick skull isn't enough to save you forever!"

"I don't need your babying when I have Yukio to take care of me!" Satan gripped, swatting at any hands that tried to get too close. Shiro ignored his efforts and did his best to examine the demon without unraveling the bandages.

Yet the human was as irritatingly irrational as ever and, without a care of thought, turned Satan by the shoulders so he had to look at the priest fully.

"Are you really alright, Rin?"

"O-Of course I'm fine!" Satan bit out, "It isn't anything I can't heal from, you know!"

Red eyes narrowed, easily seeing through the bluster, "But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, right?"

Satan grumbled out something incoherent about pain and transience, but he glanced away from that too-intense stare. Even now, being cared for when he had nothing to offer in turn was strange to him. He was immortal and yet the fleeting humans with their rice paper skin and glass bones that took days to heal from even a tiny cut fretted over him. Not for status or political maneuvering, but because they wanted to.

(And they would turn on him when the truth came out. Everything would become less than void, and the Paladin who thought he could raise a demon would realize he was a fool.

Satan…didn't know how to feel about that anymore.)

Meanwhile, Samael had managed to corral the rest of the teens back into the hallway with a rapid-fire explanation of how they needed additional help, additional hands and helpers who were already in the know.

"Who's that?" Ryuji asked even as he was walked out of the room, "He looks pretty familiar…"

"That, dear children, is your esteemed Paladin, and foster father to the Okumura twins. And as you can see, we're currently intruding on a beautiful and tear-jerking reunion so-"

"Wait, what!? How come we're just hearing about this now, what the hell!?"

"Because there is something called 'extenuating circumstances' and 'nepotism' that have to be account for…"

The rest of the conversation was cut off as the door closed, though Satan hadn't really paid too much attention to it, too busy trying to ward off overly concerned not-father-figures. Yukio mentally resigned himself to the questions he would have to answer later, but otherwise decided that was a problem for tomorrow's Yukio.

Today's Yukio had plenty of problems, and that was perfectly exemplified by the seamless way Shiro ceased his pointless worrying and straightened up, suddenly deadly serious.

"How bad is it?"

"It's nothing to worry about!" Satan snapped, an impenetrable wall when it came to his own health, as always.

"If it was anyone else, I'd be worried that this wouldn't be enough, but since it's Rin, he'll be fine." Yukio diagnosed clinically, "He was already healing by the time we reached the Nurse's office and he'll probably have most of his skin back by tomorrow with minimal scarring."

"Excuse me," Shiro started slowly, yellowish light of the room catching dangerously on his glasses, "'most of his skin back'? What in God's name happened earlier?"

Before Yukio could go into painful amounts of detail, Satan sat up straighter and explained it, "There was a…thing. It, uh, melted anything it touched, and I…got unlucky."

A hand covered red eyes to fight off the pressing headache, "Jesus Christ, Rin."

"You heard Yukio. I'll be basically fine by tomorrow, so I don't see what the big deal is?"

"The 'big deal' is that you got hurt, Rin!" Shiro very nearly shouted, "I don't know why you think I don't care about you, but I do."

"I know that you fucking care, ok? Now piss off and leave me alone." And that was the problem, Satan lamented, ducking his head to look at the pictures on the camera instead.

It might have been awkward if Yukio hadn't only just resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Once the bickering had been something serious, something painful that had scared him, but now it lacked heat and the hatred that had once been there and was just the roundabout way his twin used to express his feelings without actually doing so, "I think what Rin means is that he doesn't know how to handle 'feelings' because he's supposed to be too tough for those kinds of things."

"Are you trying to be a damn shrink now?!"

"Hardly, but you don't hide your feelings half as well as you think." If anyone bothered to look past the delinquent exterior, they would find that there wasn't much that the elder twin could hide from them.

"You know I don't hide shit when it comes to my opinions. I'll let anyone and everyone know what I think of them, social niceties be damned!"

Shiro cleared his throat with an air of seriousness, though it was clear he was trying to not grin, "Yukio said you hide your feelings, not your opinions, Rin. You might act all tough and like some kind of wannabe badass, but we all know you have a soft and gooey center that you're just too embarrassed to admit you have."

It was a checkmate that froze Satan, but not for the reasons anyone thought. For it wasn't embarrassment that had him hide his heart, his true heart, but stabbing guilt at how ugly and rotten it was, soaked in blood and black. But it still oozed out between the cracks, gold and gore wrapped in one single form that should have driven away all who saw it, and yet Shiro had stayed there, by his side, even when Satan had wrapped his hands around that fragile neck.

The priest may not have known everything, but he knew that this demon was little more than a ball of insecurities and fears held together by bluster and anger and possessiveness.

(Satan had been so lonely for so long)

"So why are you here?" Satan sputtered, voice cracking at the rush of feelings at being picked on like the teenage mortal he appeared, "I know I talk shit about you all the time, but I know you're usually a lot busier than you let on. So, spill."

The topic change was as subtle as a car crash, but it was also an admission of defeat. Ultimately, Shiro knew that Rin would be fine, but he also knew he needed to constantly reinforce that his health mattered, that just because he could handle something, didn't mean he should. Something had gotten through and pressing much more would just lead to a shut-down, so Shiro would back off for now.

Besides, Rin had just all but admitted he knew that Shiro was actually an important individual in the Order. That was a rare victory indeed.

"I was called out to help examine the strange demon and determine how it managed to get past the barriers. Normally something like that would take days, but the demon vanished before our very eyes, and not a single bit of it was left."

"Vanished?" Yukio asked.

"Yes, it was like it was unraveling into the air, but we confirmed that not a single speck was hidden in the air of the investigation chamber. It's like it was erased, and we have no idea what caused it. Mephisto seems to have some suspicions, but he's being stubborn about sharing until he knows more. I'm certain he arranged for time for me to meet you just so I wouldn't keep trying to get answers out of him."

Satan frowned, looking like he was suddenly questioning Shiro's intelligence, "So, you willingly played into his hands?"

"It's not like I'm going to forget anything that managed to hurt you like that, Rin." Shiro said sharply, "I'm willing to give him time to do whatever research he needs to do, though. Making sure that that…thing didn't do anything to you is all I care about right now, anyway."

"Whatever, shitty priest…" Satan grumbled, looking away and at the oh-so-interesting wall. Oh, there was apparently supposed to be a blood drive in a month, how interesting and completely attention absorbing.

Yukio ignored his flushing twin, "So, you're saying it just…vanished?"

"Yes, it's like the world itself just deleted it."

Well, that was a scarily accurate summary of what had happened, but Satan didn't let his surprise show.

"So, what about where it came from?" Yukio asked, "If we can determine that, at least, then maybe we'll know what to expect next time."

"We aren't able to track it through traditional means, Yukio. When I say that it vanished, I mean all of it vanished. There isn't even a scent trail left to track, so we can only try and piece together any security footage and eyewitnesses." Shiro explained, and let out a long-suffering sigh, "But that's slow going, and people would start asking too many questions if dozens of priests showed up, so we have to wait on police reports."

"How do we know that this thing didn't just…appear?" Satan found himself saying before he could keep his mouth shut. He desperately wanted to explain the mysteries he knew, but now wasn't the time. But he had spoken up, and he had never been one to back down, "I'm serious, that thing wasn't natural, to the point I'm pretty sure it only way it could form is by reality breaking just a bit. And if it just spawned from the Godforsaken void, then that explains how and why it just vanished completely. It didn't belong, so it was erased."

Satan knew just how effectively Assiah would reject that which didn't belong. It was why he had struggled for so long to find a foothold that wouldn't collapse under his mere presence.

(A foothold built on a small mountain of corpses that he stood proudly on, little more than a thief and a destroyer.

He only lived because, impossibly, that woman still wouldn't be disappointed that he wore their lost child like a meat suit.)

The guilt was old and dull and didn't make Satan so much as grimace as it gnawed lazily at his heart, like a beast that had gorged itself but continued to nibble just for the sake of it.

Shiro shook his head at the notion that monsters could appear and vanish with equal ease. Even when working with demons all his life, there was always a source or a cause, "I hope something like that didn't just appear out of thin air! If it really did, then how are we supposed to prepare ourselves for another one if they can just pop up from the ground, fully grown?"

No, hiccups in the workings of reality only occurred every several thousand years or so without help, and even then, they tended to self-correct in a matter of minutes. If the fledgling hadn't vanished on its own, it almost certainly would have been devoured by things bigger and older than it by a magnitude of eons. But as it was, it was a blip, a myth that would be forgotten in a matter of decades.

Satan shrugged, "If it's falling apart so much that it just vanishes, then the problem solves itself, right?"

Unless it didn't, but if that ever occurred, Satan wouldn't hesitate to bring forth his full might, even if it banished him back to the very bottom of Gehenna.

It might scare a human to think that such a thing could spawn on its own, but it was much, much, more terrifying for something to be able to birth atrocities that were those forsaken miracles turned inside out.

Mephisto stood where the damned had once lain. There was no sign it had ever existed, nothing to confirm that it had been real except for some tapes and damages, and yet, his skin prickled all the same. It was just in his head, he knew it, but a primal part of himself drew up and hissed in vain at monsters in the dark.

Something like that could never be allowed to exist ever again.

Now, more than ever, he needed those blue flames under his control.

The afternoon started completely normal. Once again restricted to his room, Satan had grumbled and stared out the window at the nice and temptingly warm weather. With no classes for at least a week, with no worries or threats or even annoyances, it was too much temptation to ignore. His ankle was only a bit sensitive with nasty scaring that hadn't completely faded yet but otherwise had healed nicely. But he had to wear the bandages and hobble around for appearance's sake, and it was a nightmare.

Beside him in their shared room, Yukio diligently worked ahead in his classes. Once again, every single member of their classes had been called to work. It wasn't anything strenuous or serious, just busywork that needed to be done as the proper Exorcists finished cleaning up the True Cross attack incident. It was just basic training with few risks.

And yet, once again, Yukio hadn't been called.

While the others had been given a dozen assignments each, Yukio had only had a tiny handful, instead tasked with "overseeing Rin's recovery" by the Samael himself. The demon damn well knew that 'Rin' was fully recovered but hadn't changed his tune in the slightest.

Yukio wouldn't say it, but it was clearly grating his nerves. It was in the furrow in his brow, in the way he would glair at his homework, in the way he habitually cleaned and loaded his guns and then put them away with a resigned sort of air.

Satan looked outside and stood up.

There was no one from their class anywhere near campus, so what did it matter?

"Yukio, let's go outside and play around."

They ended up near the edges of the campus, Yukio still paranoid about being seen. It was close enough that the barriers and seals prickled Satan's skin like an electrical charge, humming and filling his sense like a storm ready to lash out if it was only just a little stronger, a little wilder. It was annoying and dulled his senses, but the heavy presence was also reassuring with how it loomed like the tall wall that it was. Kuro didn't enjoy the feeling at all, but the demon stoically worked through his discomfort.

After being forced inside for several days, Satan ended up running around like an absolute menace, so it probably was for the best that they were so far away from anyone else. Kuro was at his heels, not really understanding the game, but happy to play none the less. Roping Yukio into their play-fighting wasn't hard when such a thing had become second nature thanks to a childhood filled with sneak attacks and roughhousing courtesy of Satan himself.

Throwing a ball of dirt and leaves at Yukio might have helped get him in the mood as well.

"What are you, a child?" Yukio had asked calmly, purposely refusing to look at the stain of dirt over his left breast. Satan hadn't said a thing, instead reaching for more silently and without breaking eye contact.

"Kuro, stop Rin right now," Yukio said with such absolute authority that the Cat Sídhe didn't even question the orders.

Satan had approximately two seconds to realize that he had given Kuro orders that under no certain terms was he to listen to and prioritize Yukio over himself and that such an order would be followed through whether he liked it or not.

"This means war." Satan droned out for as long as he could before he was tackled by several hundred pounds of enlarged Cat Sídhe.

Kuro kept Satan pinned for the exact amount of time it took for Yukio to slip off his jacket and shake off his own stiffness. The annoyances from the past several days filled his mind and made a primal and savage part of him hiss and thrash in its cage. It was a part that was his cruelty and the part that reveled in violence for violence's sake, and undeniable proof that he was still just a bit demonic even without a trace of power. Once, it had scared him how quickly he wanted to hurt others, how deeply he had hated even from a young age. But Rin had taught him it wasn't healthy to be afraid of oneself, and if he could take so many things in stride, so many changes and pressures, then sure Yukio could survive.

It wasn't something others would realize, but Yukio liked to fight. And not with his guns and fancy weapons, those were so impersonal that he couldn't really make the needed connections, but proper grappling and punching and kicking and even clawing and biting. It fed a primal (demonic) part of him that, logically speaking, he shouldn't indulge. It was bad, it was giving into temptation and wrath, it was any number of things. But none of that mattered as Yukio carefully set his glasses to the side, well out of the way.

Because as long as they didn't go too overboard, it was also fun.

The elder teen managed to finally slip from Kuro's paws, rolling up into a half-crouched position that looked more like a coiled and dangerous predator than any sort of stance a human would take. Yukio looked blandly at his brother, eyesight blurry but not impossible to work with. In reality, he would never stand a chance in a proper fight, but, well, things like this were closer to playing in his brother's mind, even if Yukio himself had to treat it like a threat to his life to even have a chance.

Satan grinned, happy and drunk on the summer atmosphere. It was rare that Yukio so obviously wanted to fight, but it wasn't entirely unexpected considering how frustrated the boy had been. It was good to release the tension, or something would snap (and the world would go up in blue light).

Satan charged, inhumanly fast and ready to knock Yukio stupid. Humans were weak and fragile on their own, and so Yukio simply had to adapt. Satan was speed, so fast that he flew past without an easy way to stop when Yukio simply stepped to the side, an inch away from small claws. Satan jumped and twisted around in one smooth motion, bleeding momentum back into the grass as he skidded and tried to find purchase. He didn't even let himself properly stop before he pushed back up, trying to leap forward and-

Satan hissed, only getting a single arm in the way as Yukio spun around with a sweeping kick, very nearly knocking in his teeth. Of course, it was a foolish move, and Satan grabbed that leg, squeezing just hard enough to let his child know that he could have easily broken that ankle if he so wished, something like that wouldn't work on actual demons. It was around then that the black wall of power that was a Cat Sídhe crashed into Satan, knocking them both away, but resulting in Satan finding himself pinned once more.

Ah, a trap.

It was a far cry from the days when Yukio had been afraid to even throw a punch.

Satan grinned.

Some probably excessive amount of time later, Yukio was entirely sure that they had very much gone overboard. He groaned as he sat up from where he had fallen, numerous grass cuts stinging and several soon-to-be bruises on his arms, legs, and a rather nasty one on his side angrily throbbing. There was also the rather ridiculous bite mark where Rin had bitten his hand like an angry cat that was smarting. Speaking of which…

Satan grinned and waved from the top of Kuro like he was on a mountain, demon tamed and exhausted without even a flicker of blue flames. Despite the early victories Yukio had claimed, the tables had been quickly turned once the king of demons did what he did best and adapted. Conquering would have come in short order if he hadn't purposely drawn things out for the sake of exercise and education.

"You did good," Satan chimed, sliding off Kuro when the Cat Sídhe whined that he wanted to sleep, "I still win though."

"Of course you do…" Yukio grumbled, only just resisting hissing as he made his way over to his glasses. Defeat stung more than he would admit, but he was too tired to care too much. Honestly, he didn't mind being hurt or the prospect of pain, but it wasn't at all fair that while he would be smarting for days to come, the proper half-demon would be up and ready to run within an hour. A vicious part of him had hoped that that still-tender ankle would have given him an edge, but of course, it hadn't mattered.

But life wasn't fair, and for every boon the elder twin had, Yukio knew it would bring an even greater number of banes one day soon.

"You're thinking too much." Satan quipped, walking over and making to bop Yukio on the head. His hand was caught and batted away easily, "Lie down and relax already, that's why we're out here, right?"

Yukio watched blandly as his brother sprawled out on the sunny grass, stretching before relaxing, "So first you bite me and now you nap in the sun? Are we sure you aren't becoming a cat?"

"'m not a cat, I just like how warm it is today."

It was also ridiculously humid, making the heat cloying and heavy. Yukio knew that they both had to be absolutely disgusting with sweat and dirt and that they should really get a shower. In fact, now was the perfect time before his brother somehow, impossibly, used up all the hot water in their entire dorm. But he was also tired and aching and honestly, there was no one around to watch him act so childish.

In for a penny, in for a pound, Yukio thought as he relaxed and slowly drifted off to sleep. He at least had enough presence of mind to set an alarm. Kuro, now only the size of a typical housecat, curled up between the two boys.

Satan awoke suddenly, familiar presences bearing down on him, smothering him with memories and emotions before he even opened his eyes. He was on his feet in a second, Yukio cautiously rising beside him, refusing to do anything to agitate the new arrivals. Even through the hum of the barrier, the atmosphere was thick with power enough that he was certain that everyone on campus had to be feeling it.

They were right there.

Impossibly, they were right there.

Satan wasn't ready.

"Oh? How convenient that you'd be here just in time for the show." Teeth, too sharp to form a smile that was anything but a feral grin, "It'll be a lot less annoying if I have to track you down before I get to kill you."

"We…We aren't supposed to…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll just char him up a bit, ya know? Besides, the rest are free game, aren't they?"

Before him, separated by only a paper-thin barrier and illuminated by a half dozen Seraphim, they were there. Two opposites, one tall female, short-haired, and daringly dressed in an open flame-patterned coat and leather, while the other was a short male with long hair and equally long and conservative, flowing clothes that nearly swallowed him whole. People liked to think that they clashed, and they did, but somehow, they stood together more often than any other of their kind.

Before Satan stood Iblis and Egyn.

And he wasn't ready.

"Do you want to run?" Iblis called out, and behind her, the Seraphim brightened until they blotted out the world.

*Aggressive canon derailing noises*

Yes, I'm changing Iblis and Egyn to suit my needs and personal headcanons I had long before the manga even mentioned them. They've also had, like, maybe 8 pages between the two of them and I really couldn't wait years and years to maybe see more about them. Hell, we haven't even seen Beelzebub and are over 100 chapters in, so I'm not holding out for a monthly updating series at this point.

Honestly, this should have been painfully obvious for any manga readers when Iblis was mentioned to be "an idiot" who everyone was just waiting to go off since that's not at all in line with what (little) we see in the manga. Don't worry, Iblis won't be a one-note "I am fire, so I am anger now" type character, I just really need someone to fit that type of roll and Iblis made the most sense while planning things since she hadn't even been introduced back then. This is also why I've changed up Iblis' design from canon, to better separate them in my head and show a personality shift along with a few other small reasons.

Also, Egyn is clearly only in a shark suit and 100x more dangerous than anyone thinks, and I will die on this hill.