"Speech"

Thought

"Telepathy"

'Familiar bond'

Three years later, Twins age ten.

As Rin and Yukio stopped doing their daily strength and control exercises, Rin looked up to his father. "Hey, can you teach me how to use a sword?"

Shiro jumped, looking at the boy in shock before frowning in thought. Hmm…I don't want him to have to fight…but I know that the demons in the area are getting more active. It's only a matter of time before a king comes, and at that point…I can't protect him. Not completely, and just knowing hand to hand and magic won't save him either. Both of them. 'Syl? You awake?'

'I am now. What's happening?' The dragoness replied over their bond. 'Do I need to leave the hanger to help?'

Shiro felt a flash of guilt for waking her. He saw Rin snap his fingers in front of his face and struggled not to smile. 'Rin is asking to learn how to use a sword and…I don't know whether I want to let him or not. On the one hand, he will never need to if I have anything to say about it. On the other…that would need a lot of luck.'

He feels Sylvia's own conflicting emotions about it as she thinks. After a few minutes of contemplation, she tells him, 'we probably should. Let him learn how to use a katana, that way if the worst comes to pass, and he uses it… he will know how to use it. If he starts swinging it like a bat that would be bad.'

Shiro sighed, agreeing. He looked at Rin. "Very well, on one condition."

Rin rolled his eyes and indicated for Shiro to continue.

"Go ask Yukio if he wants to learn how to use anything." Rin grinned, soon running off to find his brother, and Shiro sighed and placed his head in his hands as he sat down. 'What am I going to do? What if something happens…you know the demons are close to locating him. If it's a king…what do I do?'

'Same as always. The best we can. It's all we can do, but…maybe we should write a letter. Just in case the worst comes to pass.' Sylvia replied sorrowfully. 'We give the letter to Mephisto, and hope he gives it to the boys if we fall.'

Shiro shook his head, resigned, 'Odds are that won't happen. Likely not in his plan, and you and I both how he is with his plans. Instead, I will give it to Shura.'

Shiro sat there in contemplation while he waited for his sons to return. It wasn't long until he heard the door to the hanger bang open, and he looked up at an excited Rin and a nervous Yukio. "So Yukio," he began. "Are there any weapons you want to learn how to use to defend yourself?"

Yukio looked to his brother for reassurance, before he replied, "Um…maybe…I could learn how to shoot?"

Shiro restrained the urge to leap to his feet, and instead shifted and reached out to put a hand on his son's shoulder, looking into his eyes. After a moment Shiro sighed at the hope he saw. "Yukio…that's a bit different than learning to use a sword, so I will need to set some ground rules, you understand?"

Yukio's eyes widened in surprise. "Yes dad. What are they?"

Shiro held up four fingers. "First, you will never practice without any of the priests there. Second, so long as you have a gun in your hand, you will not drop Mana Skin. Thirdly, you will not mention it to anyone outside the monastery. I'm only doing it because I think you can handle it. Lastly, whoever is with you while you practice you will obey instantly and without question."

Yukio nodded rapidly. "Ok dad, I promise."

Shiro looked into his eyes for a couple moments longer to show how serious he is, before getting up. "You both will start next week. We need to get some supplies for it to work. Most swords would not be able to handle more than one or two spars with your strength, and I need to get a training gun for Yukio."

Mephisto cursed as he finished reading a report tallying the casualties from a demon attack in a small town near Kyoto. He leaned back in his chair thinking. 'That is actually a little bizarre.' he leaned forward and skimmed through it again. After a few moments of consideration he started grinning. "Well then, this is an interesting development. Maybe I should keep an eye on this one…hmm." He paused as he thought about it, "Actually it might be about time to step forward in my plans."

The Demon king nodded and started shifting through more files, until the phone started ringing. He looked up at the phone blinking in surprise. After a moment, he looked at the number before picking it up. "Mephisto, did something happen to the boys?"

A slightly staticy voice came through the line, "No, but they have expressed interest in learning how to use weapons. Could you send some wooden warrior sparring swords? And maybe increase the number of exorcists too, the demons are getting more active. I think they are starting to narrow down where we are."

'No. It's too soon.' Mephisto scowled. "Good to know, I'll see what I can do about them. It's unlikely a King would underestimate you while seeking the sons of Satan. So, you want a pair of swords, with a few enchantments so the sheer strength doesn't shatter them. Anything else while I'm playing errand boy?"

A large burst of static and when the line clears, "Maybe a training pistol? I'd get it myself but sorta busy here. There are a lot of kin of insects here."

Mephisto rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Oh fine, I suppose I can do that. So to summarize, sparring swords, pistol and get the entirety of all eight demon kingdoms off your back?"

After a moment, "Okay, forget the pistol, I'll handle it. That is asking for a lot, even from you."

Mephisto smirked at the success of his plan. "Why, thank you Shiro, I mean it's not as if I'm going to do what I can to distract all the kingdoms," he said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He hung up without another word and frowned. "I did not expect that. He is actually going to allow them both to learn…and on top of that…why are all my siblings so bothersome?" Mephisto stood up. "Eins, zwei, drei." With a snap of his fingers he was above the western coast of Australia.

He pursed his lips before summoning a knife. He began to chant in his native tongue, the language of Gahenna, as he slowly drew the knife across his palm, drawing blood. He held it out and squeezed his fist, so his blood would fall to the ground below right as he finished casting his spell.

He fought against the sudden wave of exhaustion that came from such a powerful spell. With a flick of his wrist he warped the fabric of time and space, as had become second nature over the eons, and he was back in his office, and he allowed himself to close his eyes and rest for five minutes. He then sat back up and started filling out paperwork to transfer a large amount of Japan branch teams to Australia for when the requests would start pouring in. "I wish it was unnecessary, but Australia is naturally deadly enough. The people there are strong, they will survive the fallout of such a strong surge of demon activity. It was the only way to distract the other kings from where the twins are…quite unfortunate."

After filling out enough papers to send the teams to Australia, he turned on the intercom, "Get me in touch with the armory, I need a couple things."

After a few minutes an exorcist picked up. "Armory, what is it?" he asked blandly.

"I am in need of a couple wooden swords for warriors in training." Mephisto smirked as the exorcist fumbled with his words. "Don't worry, I know you are often overtaxed, and on top of that have requests that have not been cleared with officers. You aren't in trouble. I am merely doing a favor for a friend, so there's no need to rush. As soon as you can it would be appreciated, but do not rush yourselves. It is going to be a katana."

The exorcist took a deep breath and replied calmly, "Yeah, ok. Understood, we will get to it as soon as possible."

"Much appreciated, now, I'm afraid I have many important things to do so I must bid you farewell." Mephisto hung up the phone and leaned his head back with a small smirk. "Humans, so easily frightened, so weak, yet at the same time, so very very strong. If they band together they are capable of leveling mountains, and taming seas." He shook his head tiredly. "The only weakness of the human race is their physical, and magical weakness. If that was overcome, they could do anything. Either that, or they would wipe themselves off the face of the Earth, or maybe even destroy the Earth itself. I can't wait to find out which it will be."

A month later

Shiro looked at the package on the porch of the monastery before smiling. Mephisto had kept his word, as the demons had seemingly vanished overnight, and here were the swords. Then he pursed his lips. 'But at what cost really? All he did was change the focus of demons on a worldwide scale to Australia rather than just distracting one area. He instead brought a different area to a worldwide much demon activity, and the exorcists often don't have time between fights to put out any fires they started in the battle…was it worth it?'

'Shut it Shiro, you had no way of knowing how he would have done it, it's foolish to worry about things that can't be changed. We must live in the present, especially in our line of work. Go on, show the boys.'

Shiro shook his head with a smile. 'Really Syl? Little harsh don't you think?'

Some amusement drifted over their bond. 'You're not upset, besides, harsh is the only thing that will get through that thick skull of yours.'

Shiro rolled his eyes and walked inside after picking up the box, "Boys, get down here!"

After a little racket from his sons probably tripping over their own feet in their rush, and running down the stairs. They came to a stop in front of him and looked curiously at the box. "Your swords came in, Yukio, you will need to learn a little too. I won't be able to match Rin's strength to help him learn how to use a sword other than by example."

Rin looked hopefully at his younger brother. Yukio glanced at him in turn as he bit his lip. "If you think I can…"

Shiro nodded. "Ok boys, come outside with me, we need to go over a few points before we get started." The boys obediently followed the paladin into the yard, and watched him open the boxes.

He pulled out a wooden katana with a series of runes running down the side. "Do you see the runes on these swords?" They nodded, and Shiro continued, "These in particular enhance the durability of the object they are applied to, since it was an enchanter who carved them on, with their magic, they actually work. If one of you carved it on a sword it wouldn't work, but since an enchanter placed it, you can push a little mana in it." The sword in Shiro's hand started to glow ever so faintly as the wood of the runes darkened.

"It becomes much more durable, the more mana, the greater the effect, but runes have an upper limit as well." The runes darkened a little more. "If you go beyond the limitations of the rune, in reality nothing particularly bad happens, but it wastes your reserves. But what can be done, depending on your magic, is you could condense an attack through the blade, but these aren't designed to do that. But something to note," he took the hilt in both hands and held it up like a bat as he faced a tree. "The fact that they are more durable doesn't mean immune to damage." Shiro swung it as hard as he could at the tree, the blade bit a few inches deep, and after a few moments of struggling he pried it out, and the sword was dented slightly along the blade.

"If you ever get a metal sword it will be able to survive better, because the enchanters would have worked on it through the entire process, of melting, mixing it to be the proper alloy, forging, and the final enchantments would be made more potent because they would have primed it in the earlier stages." He handed Rin the sword and got the other and handed it to Yukio. "This week, we will work on getting you able to get the proper mana in the swords for these enchantments for an hour each day. And Yukio gets to practice with this." he pulled out a small pistol. "For an hour after that."

So, another chapter done, hope you all enjoyed! It was a bit slow at first, took a fair few sessions… then one day I just doubled it, good to see that problem is dealt with. Dunno why I could only get a few paragraphs at a time for a bit there. Anyways still hoping for some teachers to put into the story, and on top of that, we have a winner, everyone congratulate ShadowWolf223, the person who got two elements. And now to the reviews.

ShadowWolf223: Glad you enjoyed.

Raygha Raikouga: as we discussed, I do remember, and to be clear to all who donated any OCs I have a record on a document, as well as the PM conversations you sent them to me saved. There is no need to worry if I forgot about your submissions.

IndigoisBlue: Wow, I am honored to have garnered such a reaction from you. I in fact did not realize I did well with the action scenes, typically what I do is picture it in my mind and slow it down and type out what I "see," if that helps clarify at all. It isn't perfect though, and we all have room to grow. You really think so? Honestly at times I worry I'm putting too much into the worldbuilding at once. I know how bad world building can be done and I really am attempting to avoid that.

Yes. yes. both of them are, even if I might be focusing a bit more on Rin than maybe I should, maybe next chapter I will attempt to enter the mind of Yukio to show him off a little to my readers. I will try to continue living up to your expectations.