Cast Out of Hell: Test Stress
A/n at the bottom
Warning: Violence ig, body horror, body dysphoria, body dismorphia
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:19)
Both Mephisto and Rin agreed that it was better if Rin didn't take the Magic Circle: Art of Sealing class with the rest of the students. It could potentially just be too dangerous. There were too many things that could go wrong. If Rin even was a tamer the demons could be hostile, high level or even Satan himself reacting to Rin's DNA.
So, while Rin's classmates were having lessons with Neuhaus-sensei, Rin and Mephisto were in another classroom on the other side of the building.
Mephisto handed Rin a piece of paper with a circle on it, "Just fill it with whatever you want, the contents of the summoning circle doesn't really matter, the blood is what is important and that you put effort into drawing the summoning circle."
Rin stared at the paper for a moment or two before ey got to work. First, ey drew an inner circle and then drew the star of David with a fire in the center of the star. For the outer ring, Ey drew four arms grabbing each other. Outside the original circle, Rin wrote four Kanji, redemption, love, forgiveness, and faith
"Very interesting Rin, now you need a drop of blood to activate the circle and if you are a tamer a chant should come to mind," Mephisto grinned at the sort of angel.
"If you're sure," Rin mumbled under eir breath before pricking emself with a needle provided so kindly by the headmaster.
"Come seek redemption for your sin, Oh Angels, damned by their fall from above"
The words came from Rin's mouth before ey even knew what ey were saying. With a puff of white smoke not dissimilar to Mephisto's own two demons appeared.
One demon had the legs and head like a stag, arms of an unnatural length that dragged on the floor when it walked, and the wings of a crow, darker than black stepped forward, but before it spoke Rin drew a triangle on the ground and bade it step into it. The demon agreed and stood in the center.
"As I can tell you recognize me as the demon Furfur and I have come not for redemption, but atonement, I cannot say I shall never lie and therefore I shall be at your beck and call without question no matter what. I shall never question your orders if you should place your faith in me."
Rin nodded and the two traded a feather each as a show of good faith.
The other demon simply stood and did not step forward. It looked almost human; the demon wore medieval armor, but when Rin looked closely the armor seemed to shift and move in a way that was dizzying.
When the demon spoke it did not say much, "I am Zepar and I offer my assistance to you, Son of the Morningstar." as the demon spoke it kneeled in front of Rin.
Rin tilted eir head from side to side in thought as the other demons in the room held their breath, "What do you mean by assistance?"
The shifting of Zepar grew more confusing, "I do not understand the question,"
"Simple there are connotations to different words being my service or being at my beck and call are similar to each other, but just offering your assistance is weaker, not as binding as the others," Rin explained.
The demon nodded its head in understanding, "Then I offer you my loyal service if I should ever betray you for another, be it human or demon, may I forfeit my eternal life."
Rin grinned at his familiar and cradled its armored face. Rin noticed the armor was warm and had a slight pulse.
For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:6)
Rin noticed that while ey were gone something happened between Shiemi and the girl with the weird eyebrows.
"Hey, Shima, Miwa, did something happen while I was at my doctor's appointment," Rin asked eir classmates.
"I'm not really sure, but Shiemi seems to think that they're friends," Miwa answered.
"Yeah, I don't know either…" Shima trailed off as he stared at Rin's shirt where ey had unbuttoned due to the heat in the old building.
Rin had a sinking feeling in eir gut. Ey grabbed Shima by the shoulders, "Do you think it's my fault that she thinks friends are supposed to be like that? I mean whenever she offered to help me study I agreed and I never had the chance to make her lunch as a thank you. Does she think friendships are unbalanced like that?" Rin continued to shake eir classmate until Yukio managed to calm Rin down.
"Rin, why don't you talk to your friend instead of harassing your classmate?" Yukio suggested to his sibling, "Also apologize to Shima,".
"Oh yeah, thanks Yukio," Rin grinned at eir little brother, " Right, Shima, what do you want as an apology? You three gave me this comb," Rin touched the hair accessory.
Shima grinned pervertedly, "How about a kiss?"
"Okay," Rin nodded eir head once and leaned towards Shima. Yukio couldn't help but let his mouth fall open as he watched his sibling's lips make contact with one of his students… umbrella?
"Now, now, Shima-kun, you wouldn't be trying to defile my dear niece's lips?" The way Mephisto laughed at the end made it sound like a joke, but the dark aura the headmaster was exuding made it clear it wasn't as did the way he gripped Shima's head.
"Eh, Mephisto, why are you here?" Rin asked, "And you interrupted my apology to Shima!"
"I'm sure just words will suffice, wouldn't they Shima-kun?" Mephisto punctuated by gripping Shima's head harder.
"And as for why I'm here I had your summoning circle sewed into all of your clothing and wanted to tell you~" the demon king grinned.
Rin noticed that Shima's head was starting to make a strange creaking noise, "If you say so Mephi-nii," Rin smiled at the demon king who dropped Shima's head in favor of nursing his new nosebleed.
"Shima, I'm sorry for shaking you and also the headmaster's actions," Rin smiled lopsidedly at eir classmate.
Shima tried to return the sentiment, but due to the pain, it came off as more of a grimace.
"I didn't even get to talk to Shiemi after all that," Rin sighed, "Wait why are we even holding a cram session in our Dorm Yukio?"
"Because Rin, we are the only ones that live in our dorm and it means that our study session won't bother anyone. Ah, here they are,"
Rin watched as Shiemi, Kamiki, and Paku approached the entrance. Shiemi was carrying Kamiki's overnight bag. Paku stopped Shiemi to talk to her, but whatever Paku said didn't seem to sink in as Shiemi just shook her head. Shiemi continued to struggle with the bag as she neared the door.
And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)
As the group of students finished up the packet of papers Yukio had handed them over an hour and a half ago. They split into two different groups: the ones that couldn't stand to be in the room a moment longer and those that could. Paku, Shiemi, and Kamiki headed towards the baths; Rin went to get something to drink for emself and the boys still in the study room.
"A bath with those three, we should take a peek," Shima stretched and made his way towards the door.
Bon grabbed his shoulder, "Haven't you learned your lesson with Rin and Mephisto?"
"But that was Rin and this isn't," Shima pointed out.
Konekomaru found fault in his reasoning, "You're still a Buddhist Priest and there is a teacher here!"
The three then looked at Yukio realizing that he was still there. All were thinking the same thing: He's a teacher, but he's also our age and if he did have a relationship with a student would he be in the same amount of trouble?
"Shiemi, am I a bad friend?" Rin asked the blonde girl next to him as they chose drinks from the refrigerated vending machine.
"What? No, of course, you're no, Rin. Why would you think that?" the girl flushed and waved her hands about.
"Well… I'll be honest you're my first friend… and I don't know if I'm doing this right. You seem to like being told what to do and being ordered around. Is that how friendship works? Because from what I read, friendship is supposed to be more balanced. I mean… I get that different-" Rin started to ramble, not sure what ey was trying to say.
"Rin!" Shiemi cut in, "I get that you're worried… I mean… you're my fir-first friend too. So, I guess both of us are trying to figure this thing out. You seemed to be getting closer to the other students in class and I wanted to show that I could do that too,".
Rin couldn't help but snort, "Closer, you mean the fact that Suguro doesn't try to bite my head off every time I speak anymore? Like, yeah, Shima talks to me but… Shima is kind of… like… that. And Miwa is so timid I mean he never initiates conversations. Honestly, Shiemi, you're the only person I talk to besides Mephisto and Yukio."
"So I guess we're both equally new to this," Shiemi said, amazed.
"Guess so, tell you what, let's get those study obsessed weirdos their drinks and then we can have a nice long chat and get to know each other better," Rin offered.
As the two made their way back to the study room. They heard a scream coming from the direction of the baths. Before Shiemi could blink Rin had dropped the drinks and was sprinting towards the baths.
Rin flung opened the door to the baths where Paku passed out on the floor, Kamiki was about to be attacked by her own summons, and a demon of decay and rot was standing in the changing room.
"Eyebrows, rip up the summoning paper!" Rin shouted, getting in a defensive position in front of the two girls.
Ey reached for a weapon, but could only find a mop and summoning two very high class demons didn't seem like a good idea.
The demon of decay leaped at Rin, but as soon as the teeth of the demon sunk into eir arm; the demon screeched in pain. The noise caused eir wings to strain against their harness and Rin instinct was to sooth pain.
The demon's mouth began to sizzle like someone dumped holy water right down its throat.
Then the boys and Shiemi ran into the bathroom.
But everything was fine now, aside from Paku. Kamiki had ripped up her summoning circle and the demon was dead.
"Rin what happened?!" Yukio asked.
"I'm not exactly sure… when I got here Paku was already passed out and Eyebrows was cornered. I tried using holy water, but spilled it all over my arm. Then when it went to bite he this happened," ey gestured at the demon that was slowly starting to disintegrate.
Shiemi treated the passed out Paku with her Green man summon. Yukio surveyed the scene before the students.
One thing was certain in Rin's mind, eir brother was not happy.
The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly. (Proverbs 15:14)
All the cram school students spent the night at the dorm. It was strange watching them all stumble around half asleep. There was no actual school, but there was still cram school.
Rin sat in their room staring at their clothes. Ey didn't have to wear eir uniform, but it felt wrong not to.
"Yukio, should I wear my uniform?" Rin asked.
"I would." Yukio said not looking up from his paperwork.
"I know you would, nerd. But I don't want to wear three layers if I don't have to." Rin complained, flopping onto eir bed.
Yukio didn't even look, "Then don't."
Rin rolled eir eyes. If they had a choice ey wouldn't.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure everybody wants a peek at this," Rin pulled eir shirt down to reveal an eye where eir Adam's apple should be.
Yukio didn't hide his flinch as well as he thought he did. It hurt. Rin knew that ey were blessed by God themself. But it still hurt that eir brother thought ey were repulsive.
Rin put on eir uniform without any more conversation.
Rin retreated to the highest point of the dorm room, the stairwell roof. Ey layed on eir stomach. Ey had so much to think about.
Why was a mid-level ghoul able to get onto the dorms? What was going on with eir little brother? What was Mephisto up to? Did all three correlate somehow?
Rin flipped on eir side.
What was up with Yukio? Did he have to act like that when he saw eir body? It wasn't like it was fun for em to be wearing such hot clothes all the time. Ey weren't exactly comfortable being able to feel the eyelids flutter on eir skin. Eir back ached with how confined eir wings were.
Shiemi's face appeared in Rin's sight. Ey let out a small scream.
"Shiemi, what are you doing here?" Rin sighed, holding a hand to eir chest.
"Oh, I was washing the sheets everyone used last night. I figured either you or Yuki-chan you have to. So I thought I'd give you two less work to do." Shiemi smiled as she hung the white sheets on the clothing line she had set up.
"It's not so bad, but I appreciate it. Do you want any help?" Rin asked, standing up from the concrete roof.
"No, I honestly wanted some time to think." Shiemi said her back to Rin.
Rin headed to the stairwell, "Say no more, I'll leave you to your thoughts."
Rin opened the door to the roof access. Ey turned around, "Hey, after we're done with the cramming for the test, you wanna go shopping with me. I don't have a lot of clothes that aren't a uniform."
Shiemi turned around, her eyes shining, "I'd love to!"
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ( John 8:44)
The weight on Rin's legs got heavier and blood wasn't flowing there anymore.
Ey wanted to scream at the two that put em in this position, but yelling was what got the whole class in the situation. Kimiki and Bon had shouted at each other and Kimiki had even tried to hit Suguro, but Rin ended up getting hit in the crossfire.
Thus the whole class was punished.
"Hey, Miwa," Rin whispered trying to catch eir classmate's' attention without Yukio noticing.
"What?" Miwa hissed back not wanting to get in trouble.
"Do you think we could get our class to unionize?" Rin asked.
The two looked at each knowing that someone was always fighting with someone at any given point in the day. They laughed at the idea, forgetting Yukio was lecturing them.
Yukio coughed. They both froze. They turned to look at their teacher.
Yukio smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes, "I'm glad you two are learning how to get along. Why don't you show your classmates how it's done while I'm gone."
"Gone?" a few exorcist hopefuls spoke up.
"For about three hours," Yukio confirmed.
The class groaned. Yukio smiled as he left the room.
A second later he stuck his head back in. "Nee-San, you can talk about your plans to unionize once you're actually an exorcist."
Once Yukio left Bon made a snide comment to Kamiki.
"Nope, you are not doing this again, not with me in the middle! I don't want to get hit again!" Rin shouted.
Kamiki ignored em. She and Bon continued to yell at each other. Then the lights went out.
The room was engulfed in darkness. There was some shuffling and people bumping into classmates. The heavy clunk of the possessed rocks being pushed off of laps. Shima and Bon managed to pull out their phones and get the flashlight feature working.
"Did Okumura-sensei cut the power too?" Miwa asked.
"No, there's light coming in from outside." Shiemi pointed out.
Shima stood up, "Let's check the corridor."
He slid open the door. There was a large ghoul standing right outside the door. Shima slammed it shut and sped-walked to the group.
The ghouls hand burst through the fragile wood and paper.
Rin's wings strained against their bindings. The urge to fight, defend, protect welled up inside Rin.
The ghoul's head bulged and twisted as if something was crawling under its patchwork skin. The seams pulled apart with the force spraying a dark liquid around the room, including the students.
Shiemi acted quickly. As the ghoul's head bubbled she had called her familiar, a green man. A network of roots sprang from the tiny demon; protecting her classmates from most of the spray.
Even so everyone, but Rin began to cough and feel dizzy. Another ghoul entered the room.
Ey looked at their friends feeling helpless. Rin had tried calling Yukio. It went straight to voicemail. Ey grit eir teeth.
"Okay… I know this building better than anyone else. I'll go through Shiemi's barricade and see if I can either draw them off or run and get help." Rin said.
"What? That's crazy talk!" Kimiki shouted, "You barely handled yourself against the other one last night and… and you're more likely to trip over your skirt."
"If that happens I'll take it off." Rin told her as ey climbed over the tree.
Rin ran to the basement where ey knew the breaker box was. One of the ghoul's was hot on eir tail.
The ghoul lunged. Rin barely dodged in time.
"Come now, where are those blue flames I wanted to see. There's no one but us around. So show me, demon." A voice snarled from the dark.
Rin whipped around. Ey knew that voice.
"Yes, I know who you are, Okumura Rin, daughter of Satan!" The voice mocked.
Rin sighed, "There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to begin."
The ghoul pounced at Rin. Ey allowed the ghoul to dig its teeth and claws into eir flesh. It screeched in pain as the blood burned its skin. It reached out to the person who summoned it but they were gone.
Rin called to eir white flame and soothed the ghoul as it passed. It wholly and truly ceased to exist.
Ey turned to the breaker box and began to flip each and every breaker. Once ey were sure power had returned to the whole building ey slide down the wall and sat huddled on the cold cement floor.
This is why ey never trusted teachers.
But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts-murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them. (Matthew 15:18-20)
"It was all a damn test! Mephisto you seriously-" Rin grumbled.
"Now, now, no need to get so testy." Mephisto grinned, as he wrapped bandages around Rin's torso and arms.
Rin groaned. They sat, with just the noise of self adhering bandages sticking and sticking to itself.
"I need a weapon… like a sword or a pole. Letting myself get attacked isn't going to work in the long run." Rin muttered.
"You had a sword." Mephisto mentioned.
"It wasn't my fault that thing broke. It was made to house something demonic, not whatever I am."
The snip of scissors.
"Rin… I'll see what I can do. Now go see how your classmates are doing." Mephisto shoed em off.
Rin listened to eir classmates tell em how they defeated the ghoul.
"So, how'd you do it, Rin?" Konekomaru asked.
Rin blinked, taking a second for eir brain to catch up, "Oh, well, I kind of used a holy water bomb. I thought it was really cool so I stole one off of Yukio's desk today. Perks of the teacher being your little sister, huh."
Bon grumbled a little bit about Rin having the upper hand, but was obviously relieved that Rin didn't die.
Yukio told Rin to share a room with Shiemi. The way he said it made Rin think twice about arguing.
Ey couldn't sleep though. When the boom of the holy water grenade woke Shiemi everything fell into place. Rin dashed out of the room before Shiemi could even rub the sleep out of her eyes.
Rin followed the sound of gunshots up the stairs to the roof. There was Yukio and Neuhaus-sensei facing off.
Rin ran at the giant mass of rotting limbs and torsos that Neuhaus-sensei had summoned. Ry managed to knock it off its course of attacking Yukio. While the two grappled Yukio took the opportunity to disrupt the summoning circle. All while his gun was trained on Neuhaus-sensei.
"What is this even about?!" Rin asked.
"I'm a survivor of The Blue Night. I was passed only for mere moments. I lost not only my eyes, but my family too. I can't forgive any demon, but especially the daughter of the demon that possessed me!" Neuhaus-sensei snarled at Rin.
A summoning seal that had been carved in his arm activated and tried to grab at Rin.
Ey dodged and tackled eir teacher. Ey used eir knees to pin down Neuhaus-sensei arms and to staunch the blood flowing from the cut he'd used to fuel his summoning circle. Rin's hands gripped Neuhaus-sensei shoulders and slammed them into the hard concert of the building.
"If it was about me all along… Why did you involve everyone else? What was the point of hurting Paku?" Rin's vision blurred as tears stung eir eyes.
The white flame sparked at eir figure tips in response to the surge of emotion ey felt. Neuhaus-sensei pushed em off him.
He stared in horror at Rin, "What are you?" He gasped out.
His eye was staring at where Rin's collar had been ripped and the fluttering gold eye that sat between eir collar bones was staring at the teacher.
Rin quickly held the collar of eir shirt together. Trying to hide the full body flinch ey had at the disgusted look on eir teachers face. More horrified at what eir were now than when he thought they were a child of Satan.
Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word (Psalms103:20)
tbh guys i dont got a lot to say on this im gogin to try continuing this series but with my updates who knows when that'll happen just enjoy what ive got