Chapter 38: And Lose Everything That You Love

In a way, it had always been inevitable. Because Satan knows that he will always fail when it matters the most.

Life, a certain girl had learned at a tender young age, wasn't fair. People, even children, were cruel to anyone who was declared an 'other', someone who lived outside of typical social norms. Someone with plum-purple hair who talked a bit too much about demons and shrines until she had learned to keep her mouth shut, but by then it was too late. That someone was the school pariah, the outcast who was to be both pitied for her upbringing and mocked for the resulting strangeness that everyone insisted wasn't her fault and yet she should still be punished for it. That was fine. She only needed her family, in the end.

For some reason or another, another girl, small and as plain as could be, joined her side and refused to leave. Even if she was a strange girl covered in bitter thorns, the other, ordinary, girl stayed. Those two girls never made any other friends, but that was fine. They only needed each other, in the end.

Life wasn't fair, and piece by piece that girl lost everything.

Her family was torn from her and her friend seemed to outgrow her. The girl was strong though, and she would bear the pain with her thorns to protect her. It was for the best that she was alone, she reasoned, because she only hurt those around her.

After all, Izumo would forever be the one who caused tragedy.

(If only she hadn't-)

And yet, for some reason, some reason she couldn't understand, she could still be forgiven. Despite how she had messed up, despite how she had tried to burn bridges and tear down every comfort she had known in a desperate attempt to punish herself, they were still willing to forgive her. Not because she had gone through trial and tribulation and repented enough to satisfy them, not because she had begged or because she had slain the great demon, but simply because they wanted to.

Izumo realized she hadn't truly understood the concept of friends until then.

And because life was unfair, it chose that moment when she finally felt she could begin to trust again to rip everything away from her.

When a stern-looking brunette and blond woman wearing glasses and dressed in a very recognizable blue and red uniform suddenly strolled into the room, flanked by three others dressed the same, Izumo had felt her heart stop. They walked with such authority and confidence that Bon and Konekomaru had let them pass out of confusion, having no reason to suspect that they were anything but a special division of Exorcists. Izumo couldn't speak, her heart in her throat and pure, primal, fear gripped her very being.

When Shima stepped over so he was standing by the intruders as if he belonged there, Izumo knew exactly what was happening.

She hated it.

"Izumo Kamiki." The woman began, authority practically radiating off her, "It's time for you to play your part."

"…No."

The denial surprised even Izumo. It was a foolish thing to want. There was nothing she could do against four well-armed and clearly trained soldiers, but her very being screamed out in denial. Not only was it far too early- surely, she would die if they tried to force things as she was- but she simply didn't want to go. She didn't want to leave when she finally felt like she could breathe properly around her classmates, she didn't want to drop everything and walk to her death in some vain hope she could take down a few others with her.

She wanted to stay here.

"No! I refuse. I'm not going with you!"

"Ah, Izumo that's not a good idea…" Shima said, laughing nervously as the tension in the room suddenly spiked.

The woman did not sneer, nor did sound in any way mocking or even confused. Instead, she sounded no different than Izumo imaged she would if she had nodded her head and accepted, "Do you honestly think you have a choice in the matter?"

"Hey, Izumo said she didn't want to go with you creeps," Bon said from where he stood in the doorway, body tensed as he read the room. Even if the woman in charge hadn't moved, her companions looked ready to fight the moment she said 'go'. And on top of that… "And just what the hell is going on here, why are you standing with them, Shima?"

"Well, about that…"

"Renzo is with us, now." The stern-looking woman, clearly the commander, said simply "We're here to collect Izumo so that she may do what she was always intended to."

It was a foolish, useless, thing to do, and Izumo knew it. She didn't stand a chance against them, and her actions could possibly put Tsukumo in danger, however remote that possibility was if she could trust that woman's promise. But she wasn't ready, couldn't possibly hope to bear the burden they expected her to, and her very being refused to accept giving into fate. And when she saw her…her classmates (friends, maybe, soon) tense around her, ready to fight without question simply because clearly didn't want to go with strangers who they didn't even know…

"I humbly call upon the gods of harvest…"

…It filled her with a foolish little hope that somehow, things would be alright.

"…To fulfill my prayers!"

(But life was cruel)

Things stopped making much sense after that. The summoning was like a gunshot and, as one, the enemies, the Illuminati, readied themselves. Bon charged into the room, screaming as he tackled the redheaded girl to the ground. The room exploded into motion after that, Izumo's Byakkos causing absolute chaos as she decided to take a page out of Rin's book and punch the Illuminati Tamer mid-chant. His nose broke, her own fingers hurt worryingly, but she didn't dare stop to think as she set her summons on him- the last thing they needed were more enemies. The sheer strength of Shiemi's Greenman caught their opponents by surprise, vines knocking them away and giving them a chance to run out the door-

Somehow, in the chaos, the brunette and blonde-haired woman had slipped out and Izumo arrived just in time to watch her shoot the phone right out of Konekomaru's hands. The small teen froze in shock at the pinpoint-shot that had missed him by mere inches. He caught Izumo's gaze, his eyes a fearful reflection of her own fear, and something sharpened within him.

"Izumo, run! Don't worry about-guh!"

The sickening whack as the Illuminati commander hit Konekomaru across the temple sent a jolt of icy terror through Izumo and, without thinking, she ran down the hallway, the others following her lead. Behind her, she could her Bon shouting and doing his best to grapple with the man that was nearly twice his size. His angry yell ended with a heavy, meaty, thud.

Izumo ran. They had guns- if they wanted to kill anyone, they already would have done so. But she quickly realized just how well this had been planned: there was no proper exit and the hallway dead-ended into a lavish common room. There were oak tables and plush chairs and a dozen other things between her and the closed double doors at the other side of the room. She threw herself against them, pushed and pulled and kicked at them but they refused to move.

Of course, they were locked in.

The Illuminati members filled in, almost casually, and stopped any chance to escape.

Izumo turned, shaking something fierce. Both Bon and Konekomaru had been taken down easily, and even their efforts to buy time had been in vain. Meanwhile, the Illuminate hadn't lost a single member, though Izumo felt some satisfaction at the way a few of them seemed to regard them with begrudging respect instead of the arrogant contempt she had seen before.

The commander did not sigh, but her disappointment was palatable, "Are you going to stop being unreasonable, Izumo?"

For a moment, Izumo thought about simply giving up. They were now both outnumbered and outclassed with their back to the literal wall. Maybe if Yukio or Rin or even that creep with the puppet had been here, they might have had a chance. But as they were, what could three scared girls do against a team of trained professionals? She had known it was pointless to resist from the start, but a part of her wanted to believe, wanted to finally be free-

Shiemi stepped forward, determined defiance filling her very being, "We won't let you take Izumo away- she's our friend!"

"That's right!" Paku added, "If she doesn't want to go with you, then she won't, and it doesn't matter who you are!"

They were three girls, small and weak children compared to the adults before them. But Izumo believed that Konekomaru hadn't run away without a reason- he had had his phone out, after all. Even if it had been destroyed, she had to hold onto hope that he had gotten through to someone. And so, if she could only stall, then maybe, just maybe, they would get out of this.

And if not, then Izumo wasn't so prideful that she was unwilling to offer herself if it meant protecting the others.

Self-sacrifice was nothing new to her.

The lull in fighting was something temporary, transient, and damned to shatter the moment someone made the first move. The girls were huddled in a knot in the far-left corner, backed up until they were practically pressed against the walls, clearly having been herded there what with how they were as far as possible from any possible exit. The strangers in uniform commanded the rest of the room, several standing a few feet in front of the open doorway to prevent any escape attempts.

Someone else might have questioned what Renzo was doing in the midst of the enemy. Some might have questioned if he had been blackmailed or if he was a hostage of some sort. But Satan read his body language in an instant, could see the ease with which he held himself, the lack of pain or panic, and he simply knew.

And as luck would have it, Renzo stood practically dead center in the room, in a position that put him directly across from Satan's claws.

"So, you're a traitor, Renzo?" Satan asked rhetorically, letting his too-blue eyes drift to where he flicked and spun a knife in his hand with deadly precision.

Renzo wasn't a complete idiot and could tell instantly that something had shifted when 'Rin' had shown up. The rather terrible feeling in his gut had no small part to do with the fact that the other teen was standing strong when he should have been crippled for weeks, and had gone scary still, like a predator coiling to strike, "I guess so. No hard feelings, right-"

Metal met metal, and the only reason that Renzo didn't die that day was because the redheaded woman had intercepted the knife aimed for his eye with the pole of her scythe. She was deceptively strong and didn't flinch when Satan slashed wildly for her throat, blocking the flurry of blows with grace despite her unwieldy weapon. Metal screamed and clashed with teeth-rattling volume, again and again, but the woman blocked him easily. That was fine.

All Satan needed to do was make as much noise as possible.

Yukio's head shot up from where he had been bent over Bon, checking him for injuries, when he heard the sound of fighting. It hadn't even been a minute since Rin had taken off down the hallway, hadn't been much longer since he had heard someone scream over distant sounds of a clash.

Yukio swore and hastily abandoned Bon's unconscious form in favor of pressing himself against the wall, gun held in unsteady hands. The fighting continued, grew louder as unfamiliar voices rose, and the teen forced himself to calm. Rin was loud and boisterous and vicious, so long as he himself was careful, Yukio was confident he could slip into whatever fight was going on without being noticed. Yes, he just needed to find a key moment to reveal himself.

Rin was counting on him, he was sure.

The brute of a man, nearly twice the height and thrice the weight of the teenage, spun on his heel and punched at Satan. The demon jumped unnaturally high and pushed off the man's shoulders like a gymnast, twisting in the air to land in a crouch some distance away and leaving the man to fumble as he overextended and regain his footing.

Renzo stumbled back and clutched at his chest, so very acutely away of how close he had come to dying. That had been…unexpected. Sure, he and Rin hadn't been the best of friends, but he had thought the other would have shown some hesitation. But no, he hadn't paused, and the pink-haired teen was sure there wouldn't have been any remorse if the murder attempt had been successful.

A demon indeed.

Satan hardly cared to give his enemies time to think and instead threw a knife at the woman with the bicolored hair- she was obviously the leader- before he had even fully landed from his gymnastics. To his complete lack of surprise, she wasn't someone who could be taken out by cheap tricks and she knocked the airborne blade away with her staff. That was fine, in fact, it was more than fine since the motion left her open for him to lunge at her, clearing half the room in a single leap. She was both fast and skilled enough that she could turn her movements into a spin, intent on cracking his skull open with one swift strike. But Satan brought his arm up to parallel and block the staff with a dull thud. It burned, it stung something awful (she was small but powerful and ruthless) but there was no crack of bone-like she had probably expected, like would have happened if he hadn't met the direction of the strike so precisely.

He had no knife currently, but he was perfectly fine snapping necks and crushing windpipes with his bare hands.

Something black launched itself into the air from where his shadow overlapped with the woman's, a basketball-sized grotesque bug of darkness with six legs that ended in raptor-like claws and a mouth full of wolf teeth. Satan recoiled and reversed his momentum so fast his human legs simply couldn't compensate, and he fell. The demon shrieked at him from where it had latched to the ceiling, leaped for him with its mouth opening in three directions and-

-A fox snatched it out of the air, the two demons hissing and shrieking as the white and black tumbled across the floor like a twisted yin-yang symbol. Satan glanced over to the girls. Shiemi had very nearly passed out and was almost entirely being carried by Paku as they tried to inch their way to the doorway, and Izumo…

Izumo was panting, clearly tired from how long she must have been supporting her summons, but her confidence was unwavering, no, it was being rekindled before his very eyes. She must have been so close to giving up, and suddenly, like a cliché drama, Satan had shown up and thrown himself at seemingly impossible odds without question. And he had been persevering despite being outnumbered, like a knight defending a damsel in distress from an army of evil.

"I'm going to help you before you get yourself killed."

Except the supposed damsel was hardly defenseless and refused to sit aside.

Satan huffed, "Focus on getting out of here or this is going to be pointless, you know?" And it would make it easier to violently kill every enemy and traitor here if he didn't have to worry about witnesses and (traumatized classmates hating and fearing him) other annoying things.

Satan rolled away from the scythe woman's strike and slipped between the giant man's legs to nimbly dodge the punch that literally shattered the floor inches behind him. The man spun and kicked Satan like an unruly cat, sending him tumbling across the floor and into a table. But the angle had been awkward, and it had lacked the sheer power needed to shatter ribs or even properly wind a demon, and Satan easily vaulted the overturned table and used it as a shield to avoid the blast of water.

The redhead scythe wielded swore, "What the hell, Renzo, I thought you said that he was 'grievously injured' and shouldn't be a problem!"

"Hey, I never said that Rin wouldn't be a problem, just to make things clear! And he was, I saw it! I nearly vomited and everything from it!"

Izumo gritted her teeth and ignored the wave of nausea she could feel building up as her summon fought. She didn't even have to win, but only had to outlast that stubborn Tamer who looked seconds away from vomiting, passing out, or both, and she wasn't about to lose now! "Rin, watch out for that bitch's scythe- it's poised or something! She cut Shiemi's vines with it and they started withering in seconds!"

Satan didn't bother acknowledging any of the conversations going on, but that didn't mean he wasn't paying attention. It was nice to have confirmation that the scythe wasn't normal, though he really wanted to take out the summoner. His little bug was weak but its shadow travel ability was annoying even with the Byakko constantly chasing it away. But it was fast and, despite what many thought, even Satan couldn't keep an unlimited number of knives on him at all times, so any shots he made had to count, which was hard when there were no less than two admittedly talented fighters attacking him, and a third who could jump in at any moment but who was mainly doing a good job of guarding her summoner and traitor. Satan's eyes followed the bug as it darted around the room and he avoided his attackers, trying to predict its movements and-

BANG!

There had been a sort of unspoken understanding that, despite the fact that Satan could very clearly see guns being carried by virtually all of the attackers, those specific weapons would not be used. It wasn't from a sense of honor or fairness, but the fact that they clearly were interested in more than simply slaughtering some schoolchildren for shits and giggles. No, there was a goal here, a goal that needed at least one person alive and relatively unharmed (and Satan knew he was arrogant and self-centered, but he had a feeling he was starting to understand the plan here, and he didn't like it), and Satan was more than crazy enough to bring a knife to a gunfight. He was also fast and perfectly fine with close combat to the point that friendly fire would almost be a sure thing. So, to put it simply, they had no choice but to try and wear Satan down until he could be dealt with in a non-lethal way.

Yukio had none of those restrictions when he decided to shoot the summon midair.

It exploded into dust and ink and Satan felt some amusement as he saw the summoner nearly pass out when the connection was snapped. Once again, everything had gone very still, everyone very aware of the new arrival in the doorway, pointing a gun he clearly knew how to use at anyone who so much as twitched.

"Don't move." Yukio hissed and did his best to pretend it was rage that was shaking him and not fear. He had no idea what he was going to do if they didn't listen- was he going to have to shoot a person? He instead did his best to cover his anxiety with false bravado.

Satan, a demon with a body count higher than several countries' populations, was oblivious to the inner plight, "Nice shot."

The bicolored haired woman stepped forward, "Put the gun down."

"I said don't move!"

"You shouldn't point a gun at someone if you don't intend to use it."

"You…"

Satan sneered at the overconfident woman "You might want to reconsider your position, bitch."

"I know exactly what my position is." She replied and smoothly unholstered her gun and raised it to aim squarely between Yukio's eyes. "I don't think you do, however."

Satan threw himself in front of Yukio before he could think. Or, well, he tried to. Except suddenly something was wrong and everything he had ever learned was screaming at him.

It was one of those moments were everything just simply…stopped. Time itself froze as Satan's mind took in every single detail possible before disaster struck. The room was divided into two sides: the uniformed enemies and the terrified students. He was nearly dead center in the room and Yukio was just inside the doorway, the two of them doing their best to corral their opponents into the far corner by the window so the girls to slip out the exit that was behind them. Izumo was only a little behind the boys, doing her best to provide support while Paku and Shiemi were nearly at the doorway, leaning on the wall closest to the exit for support…

And that was it.

In that moment, he could see the woman seem to realize something had changed, her eyes widening as she looked behind her, out the window-

He couldn't see what the woman saw since the mountain of a man was perfectly in the way, but he could see light. Light and fire.

Oh.

The room was suddenly and forcefully invaded. The floor cracked and splintered as something crashed through the window- Iblis. The people in uniform scattered as she slammed right into the center of their loose formation and very nearly took out a few of what Satan assumed were her allies. He himself had to jump towards the window in order to dodge her tumble to the center of the room. She hissed, body alight with flames as she pulled herself up almost exactly where Satan had stood, and he would have thought it had been a surprise attack if she hadn't begun to clearly brace herself for something. But what-

Samael had dragged Amaimon into helping him.

Oh.

Satan tried to shout a warning, he really did, but it was too late.

This time, the room exploded when Amaimon, by far the physically strongest Demon King, dove through the window and slammed into the waiting Iblis with all the speed and destruction of a bullet train. Satan didn't even see the impact, but he felt its effects, yowled as the force knocked him clean off his feet and into the reinforced windows hard enough to crack it. He fell, limp and unable to properly breathe, his ears ringing and wracked with nausea so intense he very nearly blacked out.

Or maybe he did blackout, because the next thing he knew, the redheaded girl was leaning over him, her scythe ready to bite into his arm and flood his body with whatever poison she had made.

Yukio didn't know what happened other than that he had somehow ended up halfway back down the hallway moments after a Demon King had landed practically at his feet. His forced flight had been uninterrupted until he hit the ground, something that was a small blessing since it gave his body time to bleed off whatever momentum and had made the landing bearable. Somehow, he had managed to keep a hold of his gun, his first reflex to hold it tight to his chest, however dangerous that was. Yukio sat up with minimal dizziness and very nearly dropped said gun in shock.

Even from where he was, he could see that the room was destroyed.

Yukio ran.

The destruction was up-close: the room was now quite literally divided in two with a massive, gaping chasm that tore the floor apart and continued through the wall and deeper into the dorm. It was dangerously close to where Paku and Shiemi had been, and something terrible and sharp clenched his throat closed when he didn't immediately see them.

"Shiemi! Paku! Where are…?"

Yukio stood, still as a statue and the barrel of his gun trained dead center on the forehead of the massive uniformed man he had seen earlier. They stood with deceptive calm, the gash in the floor separating them, and Shiemi held like a doll by the scruff of her kimono over it. The hole wasn't very wide- maybe three feet and easy enough to cross- but it was more than wide enough to slip down through, and Shiemi, limp as she was, would fall. It wasn't likely, they were only on the second floor, but there was still the very real possibility that she would break her neck.

Yukio and the man both knew this. Even if he had the willpower to do so, there was no way he could shoot the man.

"Drop the gun." The man commanded and, when Yukio began to slowly comply, added, "Down the hole. Only then will I give you the girl."

It was hardly a second after Yukio had complied with a grimace that a scream shattered the tension between them.

"WILLIAM!"

It was an unfamiliar woman's voice, screeching in fear and raw pain just a few feet away. The huge man, whose name Yukio realized must have been William, jolted and, without warning, threw Shiemi at Yukio. The teenager gasped and did his best to cradle her head and neck as the force and weight sent him tumbling to the ground, his own head cracking painfully on the hardwood floors. He wheezed, winded and aching, but he gritted his teeth and gently pulled Shiemi off him and set her to the side.

The screaming hadn't stopped.

Yukio shakily stood and, after confirming that his only proper ranged weapon was indeed gone, took out his emergency knife and looked towards the noise. The redheaded woman was curled on the ground behind the protective form of the massive man, William. She clutched her profusely bleeding hand and whimpered, a knife clean through the palm up to the hilt, her scythe off to the side and useless to her now. William looked enraged, staring down a positively livid Rin who was practically on all fours, ready to literally pounce and rip open their throats with his sharpening teeth.

"Where is she?"

Rin was…beyond mad. He looked feral, like an animal set loose with his fangs bared and fingers extended like they were claws. He growled lowly like an animal, the noise rumbling and barely human anymore, and it was…

"Where is that walking carcass that pointed a gun at Yukio!?"

It was honestly starting to scare Yukio.

Satan was going to murder someone.

Oh, he was probably also going to have to kill every enemy here to send a message to whatever damn organization thought they could pull this shit, and Renzo specifically had to die before he told them anything overly incriminating (he wasn't sure that the pink-haired boy actually knew anything useful, but he was going to be sure) but Satan was going to very specifically murder one woman in particular. It didn't matter that it was a fight, it didn't matter if nothing had come from it or if it had just been an idle threat or a point to be made, she had pointed a gun at Yukio.

"Where is that walking carcass that pointed a gun at Yukio!?"

She, a woman whose name he didn't even know, had been the first to seriously threaten Yukio with something Satan couldn't correct. Oh sure, Astaroth had gotten handsy and there had been a good number of dangerous demons both before and after that little incident…but cuts, slashes, even stabs? Satan could account for those, because humans could heal and rarely were those truly instantly fatal. But a shot to the head, a quick, instant death that could steal Yukio's soul before he could anchor it? That was unacceptable.

Satan was going to break the very hands that had held such a weapon, pull out the tiny bones in her fingers shard by shard, and twist the sensitive nerves into knots he would then pluck like strings.

When the two fools in his way said nothing, Satan charged. His rage had brought forth the full force of the demonic power that had been slowly seeping into his once-human blood, and he focused it until he had claws and fangs. He left his wounds as they were- he was already pushing the crying seal with just this- and instead had forced his wounded hand to form a cracking fist around the hilt of his last blade.

The massive man did his best to defend, he really did, but even he clearly didn't expect Satan's new claws to cut through his uniform's front and rip through the skin underneath with such ease when the demon gracefully dodged the punch that could have taken off his head. When the man gasped in surprised pain and stumbled, Satan planted his knife in a thigh and slipped past him, leaving him to collapse as muscle was cut. A part of Satan was disappointed: he was pretty sure he missed the femoral artery by less than a centimeter, which would have nicely taken care of that threat in minutes.

But the demon didn't pause and completely ignored the redhead on the floor to rush his real target: Renzo who was cowering in the far corner like prey. Satan was angry, yes, but he was still completely practical and knew that traitors and spies needed to be killed before they could slip away, as those sorts tended to be good at surviving despite one's best efforts. And so he attacked, swooping down towards his prey like the apex predator that he was, fangs bared in a parody of a grin at the rush of power, the thought of eliminating a traitor, the simple satisfaction from a kill after so long-

BANG!

Human bodies were strange things. There was only so much trauma they could process at once, only so much sensation they could feel in one moment. It was such a problem that, for several seconds, Satan didn't even realize that he had been shot.

Sharp pressure in his upper back caused him to stumble and, for some reason, fall forward with far less control than he should have had. Pressure turned to the familiar feeling of warm blood on his back, and then burning fire. He realized a moment later that he couldn't breathe properly anymore, his breathing quickly becoming wet with the blood rapidly filling one of his lungs.

"What the hell?"

"Oh my God…"

He had been shot.

"He was going to kill you! He was absolutely going to kill you, what was I supposed to do!?"

Someone…Someone hadn't learned their lesson.

"The commander had a plan! Shit, that's a lot of blood. Did you kill him?"

People were shouting, but that didn't matter. Because even as Satan laid there, his human body rapidly bleeding out, all he could feel was anger. He would be fine, but what if one of those trigger-happy idiots had lost their cool and shot Yukio? He could at least handle a level-headed and likely hollow threat, but now that his worst fears had been brought into reality, now that the danger had increased beyond what he could handle and reasonably shield Yukio from (the bullet had passed clean through his chest, he was sure) well…

"No! But if no one does anything soon…"

Well, things were about to get a lot simpler. He would deal with the consequences later. Even he wasn't selfish enough to keep up this charade when the stakes had gotten so high.

Satan breathed in, and fire ignited in his stomach. "How…dare…"

At some point in the struggle, likely during the interruption, Satan had lost the sword. He didn't care, that was fine. Because the seal was already so weak that it would only take a minute to tear through the last layers and render all reinforcement it had undergone moot.

Flame filled his chest, grace flowed into his wounds and knitted flesh back together. His body ached as it was pushed beyond its limits, and soon, so very soon, it would be shattered and torn apart before being molded back into something more fitting for the king of demons, for the holder of the Blue Flames.

A part of him took a moment to grieve, for he would soon completely destroy the body of the child he and Yuri had made (and failed) and pervert it into something else.

But he knew, in the end, she would approve so long as he saved Yukio.

Satan pulled himself up slowly, almost mechanically with the unnatural way his body jerked. Renzo, having shuffled closer to him when he had collapsed, yelped at the sign of life and back right up into his corner again.

As much as Satan hated traitors, he had someone else to deal with first: the redhead bitch. He turned to her and must have made quite a sight with the way he was covered in his own blood, his eyes filled with fire and burning coals, "How dare you fire that gun!"

The woman, no, everyone still conscious, froze in raw, primal, fear. They knew that he was something beyond them with the way flames flickered in his eyes and between his claws as his power burned more and more holes in the seal with every passing moment. The Blue Night was hardly his proudest moment, but it had cemented his infamy with all Exorcists, and just the tiniest flicker of flames was enough to bring back those cursed memories. The woman cowering before him must have been affected in some way- her eyes were distant, gazing at a scene that was not here.

He knew she would not shoot him again, not until her nightmare finished repeating itself.

Satan would kill her before then.

The rush of blood, the pounding of his heart and the crackle of his flames was so loud that Satan almost didn't hear it. It wasn't as loud as a proper gunshot, but it was still a reverberating crack of thunder. And the pain wasn't what he remembered a proper bullet being, but instead something sharp and localized and-

Satan hissed and pulled the dart from his shoulder. It was strangely shaped with fuzz on the end and, of course, already completely empty. He growled like a true beast and strode forward: whatever poison they tried to use on him would be burned away in a few moments as soon as he broke the seal that was…

…That was suddenly slipping through his fingertips. The world spun and his power, while still there, was beyond his means to grasp. No, it was there, but he couldn't concentrate, but that didn't make sense, his grace should have protected him, he shouldn't be able to be affected by such things…

…This was…the ground…?

Satan's last thought as he laid there, limp and helpless to the sudden pull of darkness, was him remembering that his body was so fragilely human that superficial (corporal, visceral, earthly) damage could still affect him and smother his grace.

(And he had been tired for so long.)

What Yukio was seeing was impossible to him. It was inconceivable that…

In the arms of the enemy, as still as death itself, was Rin.

…That Rin could ever lose.

"…Let go of him."

Shock and horror had frozen him still as his mind had screamed in denial at what he was seeing. The sight of Rin being shot, not once, but twice and finally falling limp had seemed like a trick up until William had scooped Rin up and the teen hadn't snapped to life and retaliated. Yukio felt numb, horrified really, his heart so loud he couldn't hear anything but his own panicked breathing. He didn't even realize when he had gotten up and started running, jumping over the gap, his knife wildly slashing at their weakest member: the black-haired Tamer. Metal bit into the man's arms when they raised in self-defense, and the blade sliced through the fabric easily, drawing crimson that made something in Yukio sing. It was something dark within him that didn't care who got hurt so long as what was his was protected. It was the terrible part of him that cursed and hated and held no remorse, the part that scared him.

But it was also the part within him that was unbelievably strong.

Kill him stab him stop them before they take yoursyoursyourbrother-

Yukio ducked the clumsy and panicked retaliating swipes, instead turning his attention to William. His arms were burdened with Rin's body (so still) so it would be easy enough to slip under his guard, take advantage of his position and drive the blade right into his gut, twisting it just like Rin had taught him to spill free intestines and other organs in a way that would kill him in seconds.

(And he wouldn't regret a thing)

The bicolored haired woman reacted faster than even Yukio's frenzied thoughts could keep up with and tackled him. She was strong for her size and skilled enough that Yukio almost found himself pinned, but years of wrestling and practice let him buck her off without even losing the knife. She was on her feet faster than he could recover, and so when he finally looked up, still on the flat on the ground, it was down the barrel of a gun.

"You're going to do exactly what I say and nothing else, you understand?"

Yukio was not Rin. He could not stare down death and charge forward recklessly, nor could he ignore pain and suffering in order to push forward. So he froze like any reasonable person would do, yet he could not stop cursing himself for not being more.

"STOP!"

Before them stood Izumo, shaking and scratched and bleeding from a gash on her leg that was filled with splinters of wood. One hand was outstretched, her hands holding crumpled summoning papers like an offering.

"Stop, please just stop this! I'm sorry, I'll go with you quietly, ok?" Izumo pleaded even as it hurt her beyond all imagination to say those words. I'm dropping all the summoning papers I have on me right now, see?" Izumo continued, and let her hopes slip between her fingers and uselessly to the floor. "I swear I won't even give you any trouble when we reach the research labs. So please…"

Izumo was not an idiot, nor was she blind. She had seen the flicker of blue, cursed, fire, and suddenly everything she had ever wondered about Rin had fallen neatly into place. He was a half-breed, sired by the most reviled of demons who every single Exorcist feared and hated. He was the spawn of Satan himself, a cursed child who should have probably been slaughtered as a baby, a creature that was subhuman and something to be destroyed.

Izumo did not care about any of that.

She knew of the Blue Night, of course, knew about the damage it had caused, but, well, it had never directly affected her. It was something terrible, yes, but it also seemed so far away, like a fairy tale she was told to remind her that demons were nothing but evil. And maybe that made her a short-sighted fool, but…

But she also knew that Rin, who, while violent and dangerous and likely everything she should fear, was also a snarky, hot-headed idiot who would go to the ends of the Earth to protect his brother.

(His brother, who must have known what he was, but still cared so deeply for him, and suddenly things made so much more sense. No wonder Rin clung to his brother so fiercely, since he had to know he would be hated if anyone else knew the truth.)

Rin had also stepped in to protect her without any hesitation. And they had never gotten along, had honestly been one step short of enemies, but he also hadn't ever been anything but brutally honest with her. He didn't pretend to like her and didn't pull any passive-aggressive backbiting and well, maybe she didn't like him, but even knowing what she did, she had never truly hated him.

She couldn't possibly let the Illuminati get their hands on him.

"Please let Rin go!"

Her life was over, so the least she could do was bargain with it.

The commanding woman looked Izumo up and down, evaluating her. After a moment, she nodded, "Come over here then."

Izumo complied, hopping the gash in the floor. She stumbled but was caught one-handed by the commander and roughly pulled deeper into the heart of the Illuminati squad. Shima grinned sheepishly at her as he took her by the wrist, and she felt disgusted when she noticed that he had casually slung the sword Rin always carried around over his own shoulder like he owned it. Izumo summoned her bluster and scoffed at him- she had chosen her fate and she would accept it.

"Good. Now you…Yukio was it?" The woman stared down at the teen, never once wavering, "You're also coming with us."

Izumo stopped and felt something cold curl in her gut as she realized something terrible. Even if Yukio was nothing like his brother, of course, the Illuminati would still be interested in any and all of Satan's children, "What…Wait, what are you doing? I gave up, I agreed to listen to you!"

"You lost any negotiating power you could have possibly had when you decided to resist us. Now come on…"

While the woman had been talking, Izumo and Yukio's gaze met. She could see the confusion in the younger twin's gaze, his anxiety mounting at the open fear that had to be in her own eyes. She had seen what these people were capable of, and even if Yukio was someone completely human, that wouldn't stop them. If anything, the seemingly impossible complete split of traits between the twins would be more interesting to that sick, fat freak…

Izumo yanked her wrist free of Shima's loose grip and ran forward. She threw herself under the commander's raised arm and knocked into Yukio, shoving him as hard as she could. She screamed as her hair was snatched and her head snapped back as she was dragged away, but the damage had been done- Yukio had already fallen down the gash and to the first floor.

She howled in pain as she was dragged away, but she turned her agony into words. "Yukio, run!"

After that, let herself be roughly pulled to the ground and restrained, her face passive even as tears burned in her eyes. She was such an idiot who always caused problems for others, and now Rin was going to be left to the tender mercies of the freaks at the Illuminati.

But, at the very least, she was sure Rin would be happy that she had gotten Yukio away.

To think I was worried that this chapter was going to be too short. Also, I'm not sorry, happy early Christmas.

Fun fact: I knew I wanted to kick-start Izumo's arc early to shake things up and also because it was the best way to violently derail canon I could think of. But I also couldn't figure out how I was going to get them to invade the base since Satan would, honestly, leave her if it meant putting Yukio in even 1% serious danger. I thought about having Yukio get kidnapped then, but also realized that I would have to do some serious logical juggling to not have Satan go absolutely apeshit and break the seal on the spot when I want to draw this out longer. Then I debated having Shiemi get kidnapped and having Satan want Yukio to go rescue her to 'prove his love' or something else since he is a romantic at heart, but that was really reaching, but was also my plan for a while to the point you can see remains of me trying to build to it in some chapters.

And then I realized literally all my problems here are Satan-based, so why not just have him get kidnapped? It solves actually everything, makes sense since he keeps acting like he's invincible and really should overextend before he becomes actually invincible, and is a 100% unexpected move. It's also a slightly insane one, but is also incredibly evil of me and removed the idea that if things get bad enough, Satan can just break the seal and roflstomp everyone.