Rin had managed to hide himself in an alley whilst the nearby area was full of screaming and running from the explosion. Exorcists had already planted themselves on the scene. He would need to be careful if he was going to get away unnoticed and unscathed. He'd only just managed to escape Yukio's gaze; that explosion drawing more attention than even he wanted.

He was startled out of his thoughts when the phone in his pocket started buzzing. Pulling the phone out of his pocket and clicking the call button he put the phone to his ear.

"Yeah."

"What the hell was that?! I could see those flames from outside the damn gates!" Iblis's voice screeched from the other end of the phone.

"Oh, oops?" He said sarcastically, shrugging even though she couldn't see.

"Oops?! I'll give you oops you little—ugh! At least you will have gotten Samael's attention – and the rest of the exorcists."

"Oh, trust me, there was no avoiding that anyway." He eyed the entrance to the alley scanning for anyone that would recognise him.

"What do you mean by that?" She growled "Do you need help?"

"I mean, I ran into a bunch of exorcist students and their teachers…" He decided to leave out the mention of his brother "I had to blow up the building as a distraction to get away. If anything, they probably think I'm Satan."

She hummed in agreement. "Samael will know it's you. But hopefully his curiosity gets the better of him and he sends Amaimon after you. I take it you're at least safe for the moment?"

"I'm…safe enough. I should probably keep moving until things calm down though. I'll call you later."

"Right."

He hung up the phone, depositing it back into his pocket. Jumping up to the roof of one of the buildings he was hiding between, he observed the commotion below. Civilians appeared to be evacuated from the area; his flames being extinguished by the exorcists in the area. They certainly hadn't wasted time; the place was now crawling with the pests.

He couldn't spot the familiar head of his brother anymore, nor the students that had been with him. No this was all fully uniformed exorcists, ones that wouldn't hesitate to shoot him on sight. Would they risk searching for him if they thought it was an attack from Satan or would they regroup with a better plan first?

After listening to the shouting below a bit longer, it seemed like they were spreading out to search the area first. Rin needed to move away from the area without being seen. He could jump the roofs but there was always a chance he'd be spotted and shot; he didn't want to get shot. If he stayed put, they could search the roofs; which would also mean getting shot…

He could've burned his way out but he was sure if he did that Samael might take more drastic measures and kill him himself. Rin might've been stronger than he used to be but even Iblis was cautious of the older demon; he'd be stupid not to be as well.

In the end Rin cautiously jumped a few roofs eyeing the ground below for exorcists. When he considered himself far enough from the main search party, he dropped to the alley ways. He stayed out of sight whilst working his way through the large maze-like city; further towards the centre.

Yukio and the two boys arrived at the infirmary in silence; he proceeded to sign the boys in and they were taken to a room to be looked over. Thankfully both the boy's injuries had been minor, although Suguro was going to get some pain and bruising around his ribs but luckily nothing had been broken. Whilst the two boys were being examined, Yukio left the room to call Father Fujimoto. He grabbed his phone and found his father in the contacts pushing the call button and hesitantly waiting for the man to answer. He didn't wait long.

"Yukio? Everything okay?" Shiro's voice echoed down the phone.

"It's Nii-san…he's back" Yukio croaked out.

"Rin? Was it actually Rin or…?" Shiro wasn't sure if he wanted the answer, Yukio's tone was worrying.

"It was definitely Nii-san, not Satan. I spoke with him…" a dead silence followed his statement before he continued "He attacked two of my students – one being Shiratori Reiji. Kuro jumped in to protect them but got beaten up pretty badly as well."

"Is everyone okay?" The worry in his voice was evident.

"Yeah, nothing serious thankfully." Yukio said sighing in relief.

"Dad, Shura was there. She said she wants us all at headquarters for questioning. She's been undercover as one of my students this whole time. She witnessed everything."

"Right, I'll head over there now. Where are you?"

"I'm currently at the Infirmary with Shiratori and Suguro. I'll join you as soon as we're done."

"Okay." Yukio ended the call, glancing back towards the room where the two boys were being treated. He sighed and waited outside till the medical staff were done.

The doctors and nurses finally left and Yukio returned to the room with a grim expression.

"They are gathering everyone at headquarters for questioning, are you fit to move?" There was still that authoritive tone to his voice but their teacher just sounded…tired. Shiratori nodded and moved to stand, rubbing the bandage on his head as it itched. Suguro on the other hand glared at Yukio.

"Was that your brother, or was that Satan?"

Shiratori and Yukio both looked back at him with shocked looks. Yukio composed himself before answering.

"Save your questions for later."

"No, you answer me now. Was he your brother or not?!"

Yukio frowned at the boy, but straightened and looked Suguro in the eye "Yes, that was my brother. Now are you coming or not?" He gestured to the open door now leading to the True Cross Japan headquarters.

"B-But those flames…how? Was he possessed?" Suguro really wasn't sure if he wanted to feel bad or angry at Yukio right now.

"Look Suguro, if you want answers my father is at headquarters. I can't tell you more without him." Suguro resigned himself and nodded, moving to go through the door; Yukio following behind.

When they all arrived, the rest of the Exwires were gathered. Mr Tsubaki with them, currently getting his hand seen by Shiro.

Stood in front of them was a woman with fiery red hair tied back into a pony tail. Dressed in skimpy clothing she stood there with her hand on her hip and an exasperated expression. Once Shiro was done tending to Mr Tsubaki he moved to stand by the red-headed woman; a tired look on his face.

The woman looked up as they approached, expression changing to a somewhat sly one.

"Chicken!" She called out towards them; Yukio flinched "Ya finally made it!"

Now it was Yukio's turn to have a tired look "Shura…" he seethed as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders dragged him over to Shiro. She looked around expectantly but then huffed in disappointment.

"Damn Clown is late."

"He's on his way, you know he likes to pick his times to appear." Shiro sighed.

"Right, well everyone follow me. Might as well get as much information as possible without that demon's interference for the moment." She led them all into a large white room, doors closed behind them. "Take a seat, kiddies." She gestured to the floor.

"Is it really necessary for them to be here," He gestured to the exwires "you were just as much a witness as them, weren't you?" Yukio sniped at Shura.

"And I'm sure they want answers as much as I do. I'm sure they realise whatever is said in this room, does not leave this room." She eyed them threateningly all nodding in response. "Good!"

All eyes turned to Shiro and Yukio. It was the first time they'd seen the Paladin in person. They should've been in awe but under the circumstances that feeling had been replaced by fear and burning curiosity.

"So, is it just you questioning us, or are the higher ups gonna get involved?" Shiro eyed Shura suspiciously.

"That all depends on what you're gonna tell me and how high the danger is. I was there Shiro, I saw the demon and the flames, the students were attacked. And it's all connected to you, to Yukio and even that damn Clown."

Shiro remained silent, he'd not seen what happened and can only go by what Yukio has told him. Shura turned to Shiratori and Suguro.

"You two were the first to have contact with the demon, what did he want?" They both flinched at the sudden attention now on them; Suguro glanced at Shiratori who went visibly pale.

"We were looking around for the ghost and he just sort of appeared. He got angry because I didn't recognise him and said I needed a reminder of…of what I did to him…" His fingers grazed the bandage on the top of his head; tentatively looking around at everyone else. Some gazes were shocked and curious others were somewhat knowing. "The last time I saw him… I remember getting into a fight with the guy; it was stupid early in the morning and he kicked my ass. But something happened after that, I missed the whole day. Sometime after, I found out I'd been possessed by some demon. I'd caught him and tried to kill him. I don't know more than that. When I woke up, I was laying in an alley and that was when I started seeing demons."

"So, you've met that demon before AND you were possessed?!" Izumo yelled. Shiemi gasped in shock from behind her. The Kyoto trio were silent – already having learnt this part of the story.

"I used to do some bad shit okay?! And he wasn't a damn demon before!" Reiji snapped back "At least he looked a lot more human than he did today…" He shuddered, looking over to Yukio and the Paladin "Was he possessed?" He almost felt some sympathy for the guy if he was, having gone through the same situation.

"Well that is the million-yen question, isn't it Shiro." Shura raised an eyebrow her old mentor tapping a finger to her chin. "What's your side of the story? From what I saw he looked an awful lot like the kid you asked me to train a few years ago."

Shiro nodded "Yes, that would be Rin, Yukio's twin brother."

"Wait, twins?" Konekomaru spoke up, glancing towards Yukio. It made sense now that they thought about it. They had been confused when they'd seen the photo of his brother but Yukio had never specified how much older his brother was. They had guessed at maybe a year or so but minutes never crossed their minds.

"Yes, we're fraternal twins." Yukio stated simply as if it was obvious.

Questions started pouring from the Exwires after that statement one after the other.

"So, he's human, like you? He must be possessed, right?"

"That's so terrible!"

"Wait, he's possessed by Satan?!"

"If he was possessed by Satan, why was he casually talking to Mr Okumura?"

"Yeah! Why wasn't he burning everything?!"

"Enough!" Shura shouted over the Exwires; they all fell silent.

"Shiro," she glared at the man taking note of the ever-increasing wrinkles appearing on his face "if you don't tell me what's going on right now. I will take my findings to the Vatican and request reinforcements to kill the kid." Shiro flinched "If he is a vessel for Satan or something else… I need to know now. You need to trust me, Shiro." She pleaded.

"He's not a vessel." His voice was a strangled whisper. "He's not possessed." He said a bit more strongly.

"Then what-?" Suguro started but Shiro continued, interrupting him.

"Rin is half demon. Fathered by a demon, born of a human woman."

Gasps radiated from the Exwires.

"But then Mr Okumura—"

"Is human." Shiro stated simply "Yukio was weak in the womb and did not sustain any demonic power."

"So those blue flames?" Shura pushed for more.

"They belong to Rin. Rin and Yukio's biological father is Satan." Shiro looked at the fearful expressions around the room at the news.

"I take it, this ties in with your possession by Satan three months ago?" Shura offered; Shiro nodded and gasps sounded throughout the Exwires.

"Yes, Satan possessed me and used my body to summon and throw Rin into the Gehenna Gate." He lifted his injured hand; showing the exwires the severed limb. "Rin has been in Gehenna for the last three months." His form shook slightly before he steadied himself again.

Shima looked at Yukio's pained expression and remembered the thing that had been bugging him all this time. "Those nightmares you were having, were because your brother was in Gehenna…" Yukio nodded.

"I had a bad feeling that night and returned home to check on things…I was too late. Rin was already too far into the gate and I failed at pulling him out. I was just lucky I could save my father." His fists clenched at his side. He had been too weak to save his brother.

"Rin's powers were sealed at birth and for the first 15 years of his life, has been raised as a human child with no knowledge of what he was or of demons at all. When the seal weakened, his powers broke free. I then told him the truth and that he was to go into protection. But he got angry that we kept the truth from him. Satan was coming and I was pushing him to leave before something happened. But in doing so, he thought he was being kicked out for being a demon. Everything went wrong from there and Rin was lost to Satan and Gehenna before we had a chance to make things right." He took a shaken breath before continuing

"Satan broke the item that sealed Rin's demon heart; forcing his rebirth into a demon. Lord only knows what Satan's been filling his head with. He's a good kid, he's just-"

"Didn't seem that good to me…" Suguro cut in.

Shiro glared at him "My son," he had to make that statement very clear "has been stuck in Gehenna with the god of demons and his lackeys for 3 months. Feeling nothing but anger and betrayal for what we did, can you blame him?" Suguro quieted and grumbled to himself. Honestly, he was more pissed off about getting kicked in the ribs.

"So, what is the plan then?" Shura asked; Shiro looked at her confused. "I suppose you wanna catch the kid, somehow? I'll hold off my report if you can rein the kid in. I'm sure that clown is keeping things under wraps for now."

"And if I can't?" Shiro asked; a forlorn look in his eyes.

"Then I'll have to get the higher ups involved, which could mean they'll try to kill him." Shura gave him a pitied look.

"Now now, we can't have that, can we?" Shura's eyes narrowed towards the sound of the new voice.

The rest turned towards the voice to see the demon king walking through the doors, a Cheshire grin on his face.

"You finally decided to show your face." Shura seethed "So what's your involvement in all this, Mephisto?" The demon smirked.

"Such suspicion! My plans were completely in the order's interests, of course!" He paused as everyone turned their attention to him; Shura narrowed her gaze. "To raise a weapon to use in the fight against Satan. What better weapon than his own son, with the same blue flames." he sparkled; waving his hands around in a form of grandeur. Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose; visibly uncomfortable with the demon's enthusiasm in this situation.

"And how's that plan going for ya now, clown?" Shura turned a sideways glance at him.

"Well up until 3 months ago, perfectly. But things are not all lost, yet." He said with a calculating gaze "First we need to catch the boy, without the interference of certain individuals…" He glanced towards Shura; she had been sent by those very same individuals to spy on him after all.

"I won't report anything if you can catch the kid, before he does something serious…" She turned her gaze to the demon king "But I'm not doing it for you." The demon grinned back before eyeing Shiro.

Shura moved away to finish questioning the exwires and taking statements for her reports. She may not have been sending them now but who knows how things would unfold. And she'd rather not have to deal with a bunch of paperwork later.

Mephisto moved closer to Shiro and Yukio.

"Mephisto."

"Sir Pheles."

"I believe we may have our work cut out for us." Mephisto dropped his voice down as the three of them conversed; watching the others intently as they were being questioned.

"Do you have any sort of plan to catch him without hurting him." Shiro said, glancing at him.

Mephisto said nothing, sporting a hungry grin.

After much wandering around, Rin found himself outside what looked like an abandoned dorm building. This area seemed to be clear of exorcists with not so many people walking around; he let out a sigh of relief. He eyed the building with curiosity, he needed somewhere to hide but was this too obvious? The only other place he could go would be the monastery; his hands were idly fumbling with the key still present in his pocket. He couldn't go back there though. Not with the seals against demons and the place crawling with exorcists; albeit ones that helped raised him but still exorcists.

He wanted to sneak in and just sleep in his own bed, get his own clothes…he shook his head; shoving the bubbling feelings back down. This was exactly what Satan was testing him against, his feelings for his family and his home. Yukio had caught him by surprise but he wasn't going to let them be his weakness, not now. He had a mission and he was going to prove he was useful to Satan; anything to keep him complacent enough to wait for another body that wasn't his.

Rin moved towards the dorm and reached for the door handle. It was locked. He could just break the door down but that would attract unwanted attention. Before he had a chance to think a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Hey—"

Without thinking he grabbed the hand and pulled, throwing the offending person against the wall of the dorm with a thud; his other hand gripping the person by the neck as he snapped his teeth and growled.

"W-w-woah-wait! Don't hurt me! I-I was just gonna tell you that place is empty." The boy stuttered.

"I was aware of that." Rin frowned; dropping the boy back to the floor. He quickly scampered to stand back up again moving back a bit to put some distance between himself and Rin, but didn't run.

"A-ah I thought you were new and looking for the boy's dormitories…I-I was going to say that t-they're over the other side of the campus." He said as he pointed in another direction. Rin tucked that bit of information away for later. The boy was obviously just an unassuming human and no threat, Rin relaxed his demeanour putting his arms behind his head.

"Ah, thanks…I guess. I was actually just looking for somewhere to hide from my overbearing brother. You kinda caught me by surprise, sorry about that." He grinned "I didn't hurt you, did I?" The boy rubbed his neck a little but visibly relaxed.

"N-no I'm fine. Is your brother a student, maybe I've seen him?"

"Yeah, he's a student." Rin vaguely remembered when Yukio had spoken about coming here…before the rest of the truth had been revealed. Damn exorcists.

"What's his name?" The boy pressed.

Rin snapped out of his thoughts and turned back to the kid. "Oh, it's Yukio Okumura…" The boy's face lit up in recognition.

"Oh! The new student representative! I remember he gave a speech at the opening ceremony at the start of the term! Wow he's your brother?" He looked at Rin curiously, he seemed to have a proud sort of smile on his face before snapping back to a grimace.

"Yeah, anyway I gotta go." Rin started to walk away before the boy called to him again.

"I'm Sei Godaiin by the way. Um, it was nice to meet you…" he extended his hand out towards Rin.

"Rin." Rin eyed the hand held out to him before finally reaching out and shaking it.

"Rin." Sei repeated "If you ever need any help, feel free to ask." He continued before walking off in the other direction towards the boy's dorms. Rin watched him until he was out of sight.

He turned back to the abandoned dorm in front of him. In the end deciding to wander around the back out of sight of any more humans who wanted to correct him or maybe accuse him of breaking in.

After finding a back door to the dorm, also locked. He decided against breaking the door down just in case someone heard and came to inspect. He gripped hold of the handle, flames forming at his hands and travelling to the lock and melting it away, leaving the rest of the door intact. Rin smiled to himself. It'd been a whilst since he had actually not burnt something on purpose.

"See, I can choose to not burn things when I feel like it, Iblis." He said smugly to himself as he entered the empty dormitory building only to be met with a strong musty smell.

Rin scrunched his nose up at the dust stifling the air as he pushed the door closed behind him. He let out a relieved sigh. It was quiet, no one had followed him. He could hide out here for the time being until he figured out a way to find Amaimon – or hopefully for Amaimon to find him and save him the trouble.

He made his way through the dorm towards what looked like a kitchen and dining area, disturbing the dust as he walked. Rin groaned in frustration; he pondered how long he would need to stay here and if it was worth the hassle of cleaning at least one room to stay in. Then there was the need of food. He'd eaten that Sukiyaki only a few hours ago and that wasn't going to keep him happy for long. Maybe he could pose as a student and find an empty dorm in the other building…but that ran the risk of running into Yukio and his exorcist students.

He really was terrible at this. He had no food; his temporary hiding place was a coal tar breeding ground and Iblis had only given him so much money. He might've been better off being chucked on the streets than taken to Gehenna for all it did him for survival. His only other option was the monastery…his hand tentatively fiddled with the key in his pocket again.

He frowned; as long as he held on to this key, he was still holding on to his old self. He removed his hand from his pocket, leaving the key alone. Instead he pulled out his phone and dialling the number for Iblis; after a short conversation explaining his current situation the call ended. Iblis still couldn't penetrate the barriers without Samael knowing she was here. She needed to remain low until Rin needed her.

As soon as the phone was back in his pocket a 'pop' sounded behind him causing the dust in the room to cloud up. Rin jumped back whilst waving his hands to clear the dust from his face; coughing as he did so.

As the dust settled, stood in front of him was Samael; holding what looked like a handkerchief over his face. Although not even that could hide that damn grin. Rin froze in place as he eyed the demon in front of him.

"Well well, I seem to have found a rat scurrying around my precious school."

"Samael." Rin growled.

"Please, I don't go by that name here in Assiah. Call me Mephisto~"

Rin supressed the urge to roll his eyes, even his chosen name was as clowny as he looked.

"Fine, Mephisto. What do I owe the visit this time?"

Mephisto grinned widely.

"I do believe that's my question to ask you. Since you are in my territory after all. What pray-tell has our dear father sent you for? That is assuming you're not just here to visit your dear brother. I heard you made quite the impression on his little class." Mephisto's eyes narrowed; Rin grinned back.

"Oh that? I was just hoping I'd get Amaimon's attention. I only wanted to play. Your exorcists just happened to be in the way. I had no intention to kill anyone if that's what your worried about."

"I see, so it's Amaimon you desire? I will be sure to let him know; he's been quite excited to play with you since hearing of your merge. I'll try to see if I can arrange an…appropriate setting for you both."

"Good. I'll be waiting." Rin smiled. "But ya know, I need a place to stay in the meantime. Think you could arrange something?" Rin leaned back against a nearby wall watching the demon closely.

Mephisto grinned back at the boy, raising his hand.

"Eins, zwei, drei!" With that he snapped his fingers and pink cloud engulfed Rin's vision. He blinked his eyes rapidly as the pink sparkles cleared and the room came back into view. The room was now clean and the dust cleared.

Rin looked at the demon more surprised than anything, he was half expecting a trap.

"I've left you some food in the kitchen to do with as you wish." The demon turned towards the door, looking at Rin from the corner of his eye "I heard you were quite the cook, hopefully Gehenna didn't knock that out of you." Rin frowned, his hand again falling to the key in his pocket.

"Thanks…"

"I will be in touch, little brother." With those parting words, the clown disappeared in another cloud of pink smoke and Rin was left alone in the empty dormitory.

I'M NOT DEAD!

Working 2 jobs and caring for 2 kids, my updates are slow as hell - I'm sorry! But I do get there eventually.

Updated on Status - 20/12/2020

Just an update so people know I'm not dead, this hasn't been abandoned in anyway. I know it's been 5 months and it's bugging the hell out of me. I've been trying to write the next chapter now for a while but my brain is just dead at the moment so I apologize.

I have been getting a lot of overtime work from my second job recently which has been cutting into my 'free' time, even when I've had holiday from my main job it's been carried over so it's almost like I haven't had much time off at all. I also have a qualification to study for in between lol. 2021 will hopefully see some improvements as my job situation is changing around but updates will still be kinda slow.