.Rin Okumura. History.

[flaming_twin]

December, 1996, Japan. Holy men across the world were dying suddenly and violently as Satan, the lord of the underworld Gehenna, attempted to find a body stable enough for him to possess.

While it all seemed very sudden and random, there was a reason for this attack - his wife, a human woman by the name of Yuri Egin, was going to be burned at the stake by the Vatican for willingly allowing herself to be impregnated by Satan and refusing to give up the unborn babies. He was fighting for a way to save her, but had no way to physically enter the world of Assiah in order to do so. Eventually Satan was able to find a person capable of holding him long enough to rescue her from the execution, and Yuri was able to escape in to the night, hiding in a cave with other demons and goblins that she considered friends. It was there that she gave birth to two twins - Rin and Yukio.

A Paladin named Shiro Fujimoto had been ordered to kill Yuri and her half-demon children, and went with another man named Mephisto Pheles to do that task, but upon finding Yuri was saddened to find that his once-friend was too weak to keep living after childbirth and the attempt on her life, and passed away soon after telling them the names of the babies. Rin, the eldest twin, was covered in the blue flames of Satan, but Yukio, apparently born weaker of the two was not.

Shiro knew what his orders were, but his reluctance to kill Yuri soon filtered in to a reluctance to kill the babies, especially when Rin let out a laugh in his sleep that made Shiro smile as well. Instead of killing them he chose instead to adopt them and raise them as humans. Mephisto was surprised but rather amused by Shiro’s choice, interested himself in seeing what the boys would turn out like when given the chance to live as humans despite being half-demon. He even went so far as to make a wager - if the boys ever awoke to their demonic powers, their lives would belong to him and Shiro would lose.

Agreeing, Mephisto took a sword - the Kurikara - and sealed Rin’s flames and his demonic power away, and from there Shiro took them to live in a church located in a quieter part of True Cross City with himself and several other priests, all keeping the secret of Yukio and Rin’s true origins. With that in mind, he never treated them any different than any other parent would treat their sons, his own often cynical and cold personality softening in to something more kind, warm and loving over the years. He came to love both boys equally, and did his best to raise them to the best of his ability, and gave them the last name “Okumura” in order to keep them further hidden from the Vatican.

Unfortunately, while Yukio grew up timid and quiet, unable to stand up for himself very often, Rin held a temper that was quite frightening at times, coupled with a strength that seemed inhuman, to the point where teachers and other students were often scared of him. They called him a demon, and this only served to anger Rin further. He would get in to fights, injuring other children and even teachers from time to time, but Shiro was always the one to come to him and calm him down with words and a fatherly hug, going so far as ignoring injuries that Rin even managed to give him. Because of this Rin admired Shiro as a small child, and wished to be like him when he grew up. Shiro told him to use his strength to help people, rather than hurt, and while it didn’t always work and backfired more than once, he did what he could to follow this advice. He protected Yukio from bullies, encouraged him to chase his dream of becoming a doctor (since he really had no dreams of his own) and taught himself from a very young age how to cook in order to help around the church and give the others there something far more edible to eat.

In the end, though, none of this stopped Rin from becoming a delinquent. As soon as he hit a certain age he became rebellious and difficult to handle, to a point where Shiro had to simply sigh and shake his head at Rin’s behavior. Yukio tried to admonish him and set him on a better path, but he, too, gave up after a while and simply tended to whatever wounds Rin would receive when getting in to fights and scrapes. He dropped out before even making it high school and began taking part time jobs, but once again his temper got the better of him more often than not and he wound up fired frequently because of it.

One of his main rivals was a boy named Reiji Shiratori, whom he often found with his group of thugs harassing people and things weaker than himself. One day in particular he came across them torturing pigeons and put a stop to it by beating them up. It was while he was on route to return to his current delivery job, though, and once the fight was over he returned home only to find that he had been fired yet again. Shiro, naturally, lectured him about his current path in life, reminding him that some day he would have to make it on his own. His brother was going off to the prestigious True Cross Academy for high school, and Rin was going to be left behind. Eventually Shiro himself would be gone as well some day. Rin waved off the lectures in annoyance (after getting angry and “mysteriously” causing the heater in the church to break suddenly - not that he was aware he was the cause of it) and went to Yukio to bandage his wounds.

Yukio asked if he would be alright, but Rin could really only shrug and say he’d manage to find a way to deal with things, admitting he was a little worried but when it came to Reiji he hadn’t done anything wrong. Two of the other priests came in and mentioned that there was an opening at a local grocery up the road, one of them offering to lend him a suit to use for an interview. He agreed to go, and as he was leaving he came across Shiro speaking to a small girl and her mother, saying that if she ever needed help she could come to an exorcist like him. After they left, Rin approached him and commented that it must be hard to be an exorcist, since he fought things that “didn’t exist”. Shiro countered that demons did exists, in the hearts of people, but then changed subjects to Rin getting an interview for a new job, noticing how he had forgone the tie he was given with the suit.

Shiro offered to tie it for him, and they discussed how Rin was growing up, though he pointed out that he only seemed to be doing so physically rather than mentally. Rin tried to counter that he WAS a grownup already, but Shiro was less than convinced, instead telling Rin he should go show him how much of an adult he was. Rin swore he would do just that and went to the interview, where despite his less than impressive CV, he was hired after showing the owner he was not only a hard worker but a good cook that could turn even cheap food in to something tasty.

He went and made a call back to the church to Yukio to tell him he got the job, and shortly after hanging up he saw the little girl that Shiro had been speaking with earlier in that day chasing her scarf as it “floated” away. He caught it for her and handed it back, only to see that a strange little creature was attached to the end. It yanked the scarf away from him and went flying away with it, prompting Rin to chase, and the little girl to follow him. This ended in disaster as it went in to the store, causing a display of boxes to fall over and nearly crush the girl. Rin grabbed her at the last second, but it was too late, she was already injured.

Despite his rescue, no one else saw the creature, and he was blamed for the accident and fired that very day. Yui, the girl, was taken to the hospital, and Rin wandered away from the store, refusing to go home after such a failure. He hid in a park until Yukio found him and urged him to come back after a short lived lecture about his behavior. When they arrived the found Shiro talking to the father of Yui. He addressed Rin directly and said that Yui was fine thanks to him, mentioning that she was a “careless” child, falling and having a lot of accidents. Rin argued that it wasn’t her that was the cause of it, but something bullying her. When he tried to tell them who was responsible, though, they took it to mean children at her school, completely missing that Rin wasn’t talking about something human.

Yui’s father tried to take her to speak to the staff at her school so the ones he thought were responsible could be punished, but it was Yui who stopped him, telling him that she was being harassed by evil ghosts that would come in to her room at night, hurt her and steal things from her. Her father dismissed the idea as her imagination, but Rin tried to argue in her favor. It lasted all of thirty seconds before Shiro bopped him on the head and told him to knock it off, approaching Yui directly. He gave her a charm to ward off demons, telling her father to not blame her for the things that happened to her.

They left, and Shiro forbid Rin to go out for a while, as the shop owner had decided to give them a bill for the damages of what Rin had broken in his escapade. He was also denied sukiyaki. A terrible punishment indeed.

The next morning Rin woke to find Yukio already gone, a note on his table saying he would be back later in the day for the rest of his things. Rin opened the curtain to his room and found strange black things floating all over the place. Confused, he ran outside to see even more of them, but no one walking by the church seemed to notice them.

And then Reiji showed up, just to make Rin’s day worse. He taunted Rin, and while he tried to ignore the boy, he couldn’t ignore that a lot of the strange black creatures were congregating around him more than others. Baited by the taunting, and concerned about what he was seeing, he left the church against Shiro’s previous orders and followed Reiji to a deserted alleyway.

Reiji asked how much money Rin wanted to keep his mouth shut about their fight. He was, apparently, trying to get in to True Cross Academy - the same school Yukio had been accepted to - and didn’t want any rumors floating around about his activities. Rin denied any bribe to keep silent, saying he would simply do it on his own, and tried to leave the alley way. Reiji only taunted him further, bring Yukio in to his taunts and waving money around, saying it was pathetic that Yukio had to “borrow” to get in to the academy.

Rin lost it, running back and punching Reiji across the face, saying he could bad mouth him as much as he wanted but to leave Yukio out of it. That sparked something odd in Reiji, causing him to suddenly transform, growing horns, claws, a tail and sharp teeth. Some how his cronies never saw this, only Rin did, but it was enough to make him freeze and cause him to get shoved to the ground by the other three teens. Reiji grabbed a metal pole that had been sitting inside a firepit inside a barrel, intending to stab him through the eye with the hot end of it. Rin panicked and screamed, suddenly unleashing bright blue flames from his body that knocked his attackers back away from him. He stared at his hand, thinking he was burning, only to realize that the flames were actually coming from him.

The three human lackeys ran away scared, but Reiji, fully possessed, stayed and spoke to Rin directly. He introduced himself as the demon Astaroth and said that the blue flames were a sign of a spawn of Satan himself. He claimed Satan was waiting for him, and held out his hand for Rin to take.

At that moment Shiro arrived, reciting a scripture that banished Astaroth from Reiji. He explained what Rin was seeing - the demon, the coal tar floating around, all the things that were signs of the other world, Gehenna. He said that there would be those who would come to hunt Rin down, now that the truth about him had been revealed, and he would need to hide.

Rin, confused, demanded to know what he was. Shiro told him in no uncertain terms that he was not human, but a child born of a human and a demon - Satan’s son. And that the demons of hell would stop at nothing to bring him home. They were attacked again, forcing Shiro to drag a bewildered Rin along as they ran for the safety of the church.

As soon as they arrived the other exorcists began placing wards up all over, trying to keep out whatever might try to get in to get to Rin. Shiro dragged Rin to a small basement storage area where he had locked away the Kurikara and gave it to Rin with explicit instructions to never unsheathe the blade. Astaroth, once more possessing Reiji, stormed the church with his minions, attempting to take out the exorcists. He failed, still leaving Rin with more questions than answers. Shiro didn’t give him long enough to ask any of them, though, telling him he needed to leave, hide, get away where he couldn’t be easily found. He even gave him a cell phone that only had one number in it, saying only that it was “some one who would help”.

Rin lost all composure at that point, swearing up and down that Shiro was tossing him out for not being a good son like Yukio. He screamed at him to never say he was Rin’s father again. Shiro was shocked at Rin’s accusation and harsh words, and the strength in his heart weakened, allowing Satan to possess him.

Satan intended to drag Rin back to Gehenna with him and opened the gate which would lead them there, forcibly grabbing the boy and tossing him inside it. Rin struggled against it, desperately trying to keep himself from getting dragged in. Shiro managed to break Satan’s hold on him, proclaiming that Rin was his son no matter what happened before killing himself to keep Satan away from Rin. The gate was still active, though, and Rin reluctantly unsheathed the Kurikara for the first time, unlocking his demon power and destroying the Gehenna gate. Yukio returned to the church to see the destruction, and find Shiro dead with Rin in tears, now with a tail and pointed ears that came as a result of unlocking his power as a demon. There wasn’t anything anyone could do at that point - Rin was a demon, and Shrio was dead.

Later, at Shiro’s funeral, Rin stayed behind after everyone had left, standing in the rain without an umbrella with the sword in it’s casing on his back. He used the phone Shiro had given him with the single number, and much to his surprise he heard the ringing of the phone he was trying to call near by. He looked up to see an oddly dressed man surrounded by other men in exorcist coats, answering a pink cell phone. He introduced himself as Mephisto Pheles, the principle of True Cross Academy and once friend of Shiro. He said the Vatican was looking for Rin, namely to kill him now that they knew he was a son of Satan, and he was there to help them do that. Rin demanded to know why, since Shiro had claimed him as a friend, but Mephisto didn’t give him much a straight answer aside from “it’s my job”.

With that, he gave Rin three options - let the exorcists kill him, kill himself, or succeed in killing the exorcists and be on the run for the rest of his existence. Rin chose none of these options and instead, much to Mephisto’s surprise, demanded to be taught as an exorcist. He said he didn’t want anyone else to die, and was dead set on “kicking Satan’s ass” for what he’d done. Mephisto’s surprise became amusement and he agreed, just to see what would happen.

The next day, Rin packed his things and said goodbye to the priests at the church, leaving with Mephisto and Yukio to True Cross Academy. Yukio was the freshman representative, which was a surprise to Rin, but not as much as the surprise that came later - Yukio was not just a student in the academy, he was also a teacher. Before this information was found out, Mephisto had given Rin a warning - don’t lose your temper, and don’t reveal that you’re a demon.

Seeing Yukio as his teacher made Rin realize something though - he had been the only one who didn’t know what he was and what was going on. Shiro knew, Yukio knew, the priests probably knew, too. Rin was very upset by this realization, and confronted Yukio right there in the class room in front of all of the other new exorcist students. When he refused to drop the subject, Yukio had the students leave so he could speak to Rin directly. While they argued, a vial of rotten blood, something that attracted hobgoblins, dropped on the floor and shattered, forcing them to dispatch the demons that arrived in the room. Yukio accused Rin of being responsible for Shiro’s death, saying that he wouldn’t have been possessed unless Rin had said something to him to weaken his resolve. He pointed his gun at Rin, saying it would be better if he just died.

Rin disagreed, and said that he could call him whatever he wanted to, but his little brother shouldn’t have pointed guns at him. A giant hobgoblin appeared behind Yukio, unseen by him, and was taken down by Rin who looked for all the world like he was going to attack his brother first.

With the hobgoblin dispersed, the argument ended and Yukio realized his brother’s anger wasn’t ill placed - he had a right to be upset about not knowing, and given that Shiro had died because of what he was, they were both suffering from grief. Yukio asked him how Shiro behaved in his final moments, and Rin answered with a proud smirk “He was unbelievably cool.”

Later, Rin found out that they were sharing a dorm, much to his dismay. Worse than that, they were the only ones occupying an old dormitory on the campus, so Yukio could ‘keep an eye on’ Rin. He was not happy, but there was little he could do about it.

A few days after that, Rin accompanied Yukio on an exorcist call, and though he was told to stay put and not touch anything, he still wound up accidentally meeting Shiemi Moriyama, the daughter of shop keeper of the exorcist supply shop they were visiting. She was being possessed by a demon that had taken advantage of her weak resolve after her grandmother died unexpectedly. Rin befriended her when he broke the gate that surrounded her beautiful garden and found out that she had been unable to walk for some time because of the possession. He helped her with planting her flowers, and later with Yukio spoke to her mother about what had happened to her grandmother and why she was obsessed with her garden to the point of risking her health for it.

It wasn’t until the demon actually showed itself and put Shiemi in danger that they were able to help release her from her. The next morning, Shiemi was introduced as a new student to the exorcist class, having seen Rin and Yukio’s bravery and wanting to become stronger herself.

Then came their first test in the class, which Rin failed miserably. Being compared to another student, Ryuji Suguro (aka Bon) who got much higher marks didn’t help Rin’s attitude any, and sparked a rivalry between the two of them. Rin was able to one up him later in P.E. though, when being chased by a Leaper demon he proved he was actually faster than the normally more athletic Bon. Bon kicked him in order to get ahead, resulting in another fight that was broken up by their teacher. Bon was pulled aside by the teacher while Bon’s friends, Konekomaru Miwa and Renzo Shima, explained some of Bon’s past to Rin, revealing that Rin wasn’t the only one who wanted to defeat Satan.

It didn’t deter Rin any from his own goal, and he even went so far as to turn Bon down to a challenge later, stating that he had his own goals and he wasn’t about to get killed over a stupid bet. Bon, unfortunately, took this to mean Rin didn’t take him seriously at all, and went ahead with it anyway, going down to confront the Leaper and touch it as per the bet. The Leaper, which fed off negative human emotions, instantly felt Bon’s hesitation and anguish and jumped to attack him. Rin jumped in to stop it, letting it bring it’s maw down on him long enough to use his demon telepathy to tell it to back off, thus saving Bon from getting devoured.

Later that day, Rin attempted to study in the classroom but struggled to keep his bangs out of his face. Bon approached him and said that he never properly thanked Rin for saving him, and handed him a hair clip, saying he used it to keep his own bangs back when his hair was still growing out. Rin was naturally shocked at this turn and blurted out he thought it was a bad omen, to which Bon wasn’t amused at all. Still, it seemed to do well for both of them because the rivalry turned in to friendship not long after.
Eventually the Exwire exam approached, and Yukio offered to have the students of his class stay and study at the dormitory for a week where they could be supervised and free from distractions. The lack of distractions didn’t last long, though, because it only took one night for things to go wrong. Shortly after the girls from the class went off to take a bath, Noriko Paku and Izumo Kamiki were attacked by a demon. Paku was injured within the first few minutes, but Izumu tried to fight back with her summoned familiars. Unfortunately an argument with Paku not minutes before had weakened Izumo’s resolve and revealed her fear, causing her familiars to turn on her. Rin entered the washroom and tried to fight back against the demon that was attacking after saving Izumo from her familiars, but he couldn’t reveal his powers and was forced to keep his sword sheathed with Izumo looking on.

Because of this he was pinned and the demon started to strangle him, but Yukio arrived thanks to Shiemi going for help and shot the demon, chasing it off and freeing Rin while Shiemi treated Paku’s wounds. Rin noticed Izumo crying, upset that she had fought with her friend and then was unable to help her when she needed it. He couldn’t do anything for her, really, but noticing she was still in her undergarments from getting interrupted while changing, he pulled off his sweatshirt and told her to go change, leaving himself shirtless. He was forced to hide his tail behind his back and sneak off after that.

The next morning Izumo found him and returned his sweatshirt after washing it, thanking him for saving her but warning him not to tell anyone he saw her crying. He agreed, feeling as though he had strangely made another friend.

Before the end of the study week was up, another argument erupted in the class between the students, and they were given a punishment of sitting in a room with heavy Baryon stones on their laps. The stones would get heavier and heavier as time passed, making it difficult for them to move. While they sat there, Yukio lectured them on the importance of teamwork as exorcists, that no exorcist should ever fight alone. He left them then, but as soon as he was gone the power went off and the Naberius demon from before arrived and began attacking the students. Shiemi had her familiar, Nii-chan, put up a barrier to protect them, while Rin took off to lure it away.

Unfortunately it split in to two without Rin’s knowledge, leaving the other students behind to deal with one half while he fought the other. Rin headed for the dorm’s power control to try and get the lights back on, but was ambushed by the Naberius and thrown back away from it. Rin let out his flames, exposing that one of the teachers, Igor Neuhaus was hiding in the shadows. Igor admitted he was the one responsible for the Naberius’ release on the dorm, and that he was trying to expose Rin as Satan’s son. He chased Igor up to the roof to confront him, angered by his actions and that he put innocent people in danger just to get to him. They fought, and Rin was stabbed by Igor, but his demon regeneration kept him from getting too injured. Yukio joined him on the roof and was able to take down the Naberius with Rin’s help. After that, he sheathed his sword and said that he would fight Igor indefinitely if he had to, so long as he stayed away from people that had no reason to get hurt. Igor was shocked by Rin’s resolve, and fled the scene.
It was later revealed (or at least Mephisto made it seem like) that the attack was actually their Exwire exam, and that everyone passed with flying colors, moving the students up to the next rank of exorcist. Spring moved in to summer, and the heat set in quickly.

One day Yukio got an odd call to a demon attack that was happening on the grounds of the school. Rin joined him on the assignment, and they found out that the attacking demon was actually Shiro’s old familiar, a black cat sith named Kuro. He had gone berserk finally learning of Shiro’s passing, growing to a large size and rampaging over the entrance to the school. Rin could hear Kuro’s cries telepathically and understood what he was going through. He encouraged Yukio to let him try and calm the beast, quite literally facing Kuro head on by headbutting him when he charged at Rin after claiming him a liar when he tried to tell him Shiro was really dead.

The headbutt was enough to knock him back, and Rin quickly told him that it was okay to feel sad at losing his master, that he knew Kuro’s pain and that he wanted to be friends with him. Kuro saw much of Shiro in Rin, and broke down crying at his loss. Later, Yukio pulled some strings to let the school accept Kuro as Rin’s new familiar.

There were reports of a ghost haunting Mephyland, Mephisto’s theme park located on the outskirts of the campus. The park was closed down and the students were ordered to find the spirit and either get the older exorcists to exorcise it or convince it to leave some how. Rin and Shiemi found the spirit first, surprised by the fact that it was a little boy spirit that was terrible mischievous and a bit mean. They split up to chase after it once it got away, and Rin paused to give their teachers a call and let them know they found it. Suddenly, a hand came down and yanked the sword off his back. He turned and demanded to know who the thief was. He answered that he was Amaimon, the demon king of earth, and “sort of” a brother to Rin.

Rin then demanded to know what Amaimon wanted, and was told that he just wanted to “play”. He then began taunting Rin by opening and closing the sword repeatedly, causing Rin’s demon form to activate and deactivate over and over again. Rin got furious and began attacking Amaimon, chasing him all over the park in order to get his sword back. Amaimon stated he didn’t understand what his brother (Mephisto) and his father (Satan) saw in Rin since he seemed to be weak, unaware that Rin was actually holding back out of fear of being seen with his tail out and his powers active. It wasn’t until Amaimon punched him hard enough to knock him through the rolling coaster structure that Rin finally snapped and snagged Amaimon by the throat, flames going wild.

Amaimon was impressed by this sudden display and retaliated by causing an earthquake that knocked many structures and debris down. Near by Shiemi screamed as metal braces came down on her through the roof of a blown up ball pit, causing Rin to snap out of his rampage and use his flames to save Shiemi and knock the debris back. Amaimon got bored with his game and knocked Rin down hard again, stepping on his back while threatening to snap the sword in two just to see what would happen. At that moment another student known as Yamada appeared and chased Amaimon off, forcing him to sheath the sword and return Rin to normal. Battered, bruised, and a little afraid of how quickly he lost control, he sat on the ground staring at his hands until Shiemi found him and hugged him suddenly, glad to see he was alright. She hadn’t seen the fight and assumed his injuries were from the quake, but he snapped at her to get away, scared that she would get hurt by him. She yelped and jumped back, making him calm down enough to smile weakly and apologize for his outburst. It was then that Yukio appeared, and Yamada revealed that he was not a student, or even male. In fact he was a high class female exorcist named Shura Kirigakure, sent to investigate Rin and Mephisto. She was also under orders to kill Rin if he truly was the son of Satan and proved it to be so. Amaimon’s attack had done just that.

Ignoring his still healing injuries, she dragged him away to a private place to speak with him, sparing only enough time to let Mephisto she was wise to the fact that he was up to something, even if she didn’t know what that “something” was just yet. She pulled Rin in to an interrogation room in an area beneath the school and locked the heavy metal door, where she proceeded to attack him with her sword even while still holding on to his. Rin refused to bow down to her, and used what he could of his powers to keep her from destroying him on the spot. She admitted that she was once an apprentice of Shiro’s and had once been tasked with training Rin, but had refused Shiro’s request at the time. Rin’s unwillingness to back down, even after she impaled his shoulder with her sword, made her realize that Shiro wasn’t raising a weapon - he was raising a son.

Though torn between her duty as an exorcists and the duty Shiro wanted her to do, she finally chose instead to train Rin as opposed to killing him. She kept his sword for the time being, forcing him to practice with wooden one instead.

Summer vacation rolled around, but the exorcists weren’t allowed to rest. They were forced to participate in a three day camping trip that would be a training exercise for real combat. They were given a task by Shura and Yukio once they got in to the woods of retrieving stone lamps and bringing them back to the camp. There were a few catches, though -there were demon moths in the area that were very dangerous and could easily disable an unwitting exorcist in training, there were only three lamps to the seven students in the class. Yukio warned there was a very good chance many of them would fail, and Shura even went so far as to pull Rin to the side and give him an additional warning - his flames would be a dead give away to what he was, especially at night, and he needed to keep himself calm and controlled or else it would all be over for him.

They got started and all quickly split up, all of them thinking that working together for that task was not going to be an option. It didn’t take long for them to get attacked, and as soon as Rin heard Shiemi scream he went to help her, accidentally releasing his flames when he found her surrounded by moths. He quickly calmed himself down after realizing what he’d just done, and tried to wake Shiemi. Bon stumbled in to the clearing, asking what the blue light was and what had happened to her. Rin lied and said he’d been blinded by it and didn’t see what caused it, and Bon helped get Sheimi on to his back so they could carry her back to camp and continue on the assignment. Shima also arrived, and they all received a text from Konekomaru saying he had found the lantern. Rin carried Shiemi and they all went to see it.

It became very obvious that this was no easy task at all. It wasn’t just some tiny lantern - it was a very large Peg Lantern, a type of demon that was awoken by having it’s fire lit, and liked to consume people, especially young women. And they had to get it back to camp some how. Shiemi woke up as they were looking at it, and they all realized quickly that the assignment had been misleading - it would take cooperation of some kind to get the lanterns back.

Konekomaru devised a plan for them to get the lantern back to camp using a cart and Rin’s strength, with Shiemi feeding the lantern so it wouldn’t go out, an seal on it so it wouldn’t move, and the three Aria-in-training chanting to keep the moths at bay. They were nearly back to camp when their path brought them to a swamp filled with bugs, and a broken bridge that wouldn’t carry the weight of the lantern. Bon formulated another plan, using Shiemi as a lure on top of Rin’s shoulders. He carried her across the swamp (mostly ignoring the bugs - it was gross but it had to be done) while Konekomaru released the seal on the lantern, causing it to chase Rin and Shiemi across. They just barely made it across and Rin managed to throw Shiemi to the other side to keep the lantern from grabbing her.

Just when they thought they were in the clear, a giant moth demon burst from the swamp and grabbed Rin. He yelled for the others to leave him, but Bon refused and freed Rin by throwing a seal on to the moth. When Rin demanded to know why they didn’t want to leave him behind, they all admitted to being his friend, and that friends helped each other, just as he had helped Shiemi and Bon. Rin was grateful for this information, but worried silently what they would think if they knew he was Satan’s son. Safely across the swamp, they headed back for the camp site.

Once again the peace did not last long at all, as Amaimon unleashed his pet hobgoblin on the camp. Shura protected the students by casting a circle barrier, and dousing the students (except Rin) with holy water. She then pulled Rin to the side and returned his sword to him, encouraging him to fight Amiamon if it came down to that. Rin was uncertain, but any hesitation was quickly set aside when Shiemi started walking out of the circle. Amaimon had managed to get a bug inside her and was controlling her with it, allowing her to be kidnapped easily. Rin chased them down, demanding to let her go, but Amaimon refused unless Rin showed his proper strength and fought him again. He even went so far as to threaten things like “marrying” her, kissing her and when he decided he no longer needed to use her, ripping one of her eyes out.

Enraged, Rin was about to take Amaimon on when his friends showed up, launching flares at Amaimon and eventually hitting his hair, causing the spiked part of it to puff up. The boys started laughing, calling it broccoli. Angered by their mocking, Amaimon attacked them, breaking Konekomaru’s arm, throwing Renzo in to a tree and choking Bon. Bon said he wasn’t angry with Amaimon, he was angry at Rin always going off on his own, trying to play hero, and that he should be able to rely on the people he considered friends.

Rin knew he was taking a huge risk, but in order to save his friends he had to reveal himself as a demon. Shiro had always told him to use his strength for kindness, and he was going to do just that. He unsheathed his sword and attacked Amiamon, freeing Bon from his hold. Yukio arrived and got the students to safety with Shura’s help.

As Amaimon and Rin fought, though, the kurikara began to crack and break, letting out more and more of Rin’s power, but causing his control to falter. The longer it went on, the more beast like he became, and soon enough he was able to throw Amaimon back with the power of his flames. Mephisto arrived then, applauding Rin’s abilities while locking Amaimon away, attempting to get him out of battle before things got even worse. It was too late, though. Rin was completely out of control, and he sliced through Amaimon’s prison, allowing him to escape and run away.

There was no reasoning with Rin - he was completely enraged and becoming violent and nearly unstoppable. He even went so far as to attack his friends and brother until Shiemi fearlessly approached him, hugging him tightly and calling his name. His flames subsided and he fainted in her arms.

It was then that a new Paladin by the name of Aurthur Auguste Angel arrived and took him in to custody while ignoring everyone’s protests, stating that there was going to be a disciplinary trial against Mephisto regarding his involvement with keeping Rin’s true identity secret.

He was placed in a crystal that kept him unconscious, unaware that he was even in a trial facing the Grigori while Mephisto pleaded his case and Amaimon attacked the court. His friends and brother were off attempting to get the sword repaired so he could continue to live a somewhat normal life, but all of this was going on without his knowledge. Inside, he was faced with his own demon heart. Eventually they returned with sword just as Amaimon broke Rin out of his prison, and getting the sword back allowed him to defeat Amaimon for the last time. He collapsed again, exhausted but back to his old self. The Grigori, having heard Mephisto’s testimony and choice to use Rin as a weapon against Satan, decide to let Rin live under the condition that he pass his exorcist exam within the next six months, and that he not let his flames go out of control again.

Later, when Rin was awake again, he was informed of this by Shura and Yukio, and told he would have to up his training, which included learning how to control his flames better through exercises where he would try to light two out of three candles at the same time. It wasn’t easy for him at all, and more often than not he over did it, but he refused to give up knowing that his life was now on the line. The school year continued on as normal, though Rin had to deal with his new friends not really trusting him all that much know that they knew who he was.

The next several weeks were filled with various frustrations - between his unsuccessful training, the lack of trust from his classmates, and Yukio growing tired of Rin’s behavior, he was just not having a good time. But eventually one thing came around, and that was his friends after he was able to free Konekomaru from a demon that had managed to possess him. Soon enough they all began trusting him again, and some of his school life actually returned to normal. Shiemi even went so far as to hold a birthday party for the class (after initially just wanting to do one for Izumo, but changing her mind after Izumo learned of the plan and pointed out that others had missed birthdays that year, too) that Rin and Konekomaru helped made the food for.

Sadly their fun on that day was cut short when Yukio recieved a call regarding the church they had grown up. It had been attacked and several of the priests were injured. They ran to it, finding the church covered in demonic webs that wouldn’t go away. Several of the priests were wrapped in cocoons, and only had a few hours to live inside them. Angered by his friends being attacked, he ran off and tried to find the person responsible, eventually being attacked by a strange masked person, the same one described as attacking the church.

When he tried to confront the person, his sword was sealed with web, making it impossible to get it out. Yukio and Shura arrived, saving him and chasing the masked person off. They returned to the church and Yukio rallied the other exorcists to go find the person. Rin wanted to find him as well, but Yukio refused to let him run off again, wanting to keep his brother from danger. The attacker had made it clear to them that they were after anyone who was connected to Satan, which included Rin and Yukio. He argued that he could handle it, but Yukio refused again and shot Rin with a tranquilizer dart in order to knock him out and keep him from running off.

He woke up later in different place with Shura watching over him. Angered by Yukio’s behavior, he grabbed his sword and tried to run off yet again, but was stopped by Shura who told him that his lack of control caused problems for everyone. She forced him back to his candle training, telling him to stop thinking of them as candles and start thinking of them as the people he wanted to protect, and the only way he could do that was with his flames in control. With control came trust, and if he gained that then he could become a proper exorcist.

While he was working on it, he received a call from Renzo’s mobile. The masked person had taken his friends hostage and demanded an audience with the son of Satan, stating that he would kill his friends if Rin didn’t show up. Rin had no choice and went to where they were being held. Unfortunately Yukio arrived before Rin could and broke the deal, forcing the man to wrap the other three students up in his webs, instead using Yukio as a hostage.

Rin and Shura arrived with other exorcists, attempting to attack the masked person, but all but Rin were able to escape his webs. Shura instructed Rin to use his flames, and even though Yukio told him not to he listened to Shura instead, finding that his flames could actually burn through the webs and not injure anyone. He realized during his training that his flames were his own power and not Satan’s, giving him a level of control he hadn’t had before and letting him help as opposed to hurting. He freed his friends and the other exorcists and knocked the masked man out of the window. He gave chase, but the person escaped. Neuhaus was also there, captured by Shura and stating that the man was actually a woman, and his wife at that.

It wasn’t something Rin could deal with right then, so instead he returned to the church and freed the other priests, speaking to them once they were alright. Several stated that they noticed how much Rin had grown up in the past few months, and how they wished Shiro was there to see it. Rin waved them off, wondering instead where Yukio had gotten off to. No one seemed to know, though.

The next day Rin went with Shura and another teacher, Tsubaki, to interrogate Neuhaus about his wife. His family had died when he was possessed by Satan on Blue Night sixteen years ago. He survived, and wound up preserving his wife’s body in a lab, but she was revived and possessed by a demon some years later. Exorcists had attempted to burn the lab down and kill her, but Neuhaus at that point protected her, running away with her and cutting his ties to the academy by doing so. But Michelle remembered being burned alive by Satan’s flames, and the demon within her was driving her to take revenge out of anger for it by going after Rin and anyone connected to him. He revealed that she wouldn’t live much longer as a possessed corpse and would eventually rot and die.

Shura then gave Rin a seal to help track Michelle, and he went off on his own to look for her. Shortly after he received a call from Shiemi saying she needed help. He arrived at the shop only to find the seal reacting to Michelle’s presence, and found them together in a secret garden beneath the house. He took out his sword, preparing to attack her, but she grabbed Shiemi and threatened to kill her. Her threats didn’t last long, though, because she passed out shortly after due to injuries inflicted on her during the fight with Rin.

Rin informed Shiemi that Michelle was dead, possessed, and responsible for attacking their classmates and teachers. Shiemi objected to hurting her, though, saying that her Greenmen familiars still sensed good in her. Rin relented and headed back outside to call Shura, only to be confronted by Angel leading an army of exorcists.

Angel attacked Rin, refusing to give the half demon the upper hand in the fight and effectively beating Rin in to the ground. Michelle woke again and captured Shiemi once more. Angel attacked Michelle with every intent of killing her, paying no mind to the fact that Shiemi was there, but was stopped when Shura and Neuhaus arrived and protected them. Rin unleashed his demonic power on Angel and fought him back, defending Michelle despite what she had done. A soldier in the exorcists attempted to fire on Rin during the battle, but Michelle instead took the hit for him, gravely injuring herself in the process. Rin demanded to know who shot her, but none would own up to it.

Neuhaus took up his wife’s body then, stating that he wanted nothing more than for them to live in peace in the fabled Garden of Amahra. Angel ordered them both executed, but the Greenman familiars saved them by protecting them in a massive vine barrier, aiding in their escape. No one knew what really happened to Neuhaus and his wife after that, but chances were she finally died from being shot, and he escaped somewhere out of the Vatican's reach.

They returned back to the academy, learning that there had been a new pop appointed, a man by name of Ernst Fredrick Egin. What Rin didn’t know was that this man was actually his and Yukio’s grandfather, the father of their mother. Yukio, however, did know as he had spoken to the man directly and had been promoted to Paladin, in charge of a new operation under Pope Egin to go around slaughtering demons with new weapons that sucked out their blood and stored it. Learning of Yukio’s promotion and the new operation both dismayed and shocked Rin, and Yukio left out many key points as to why he was doing what he was doing and left Rin with more questions than answers. Yukio’s behavior had also started to change without much explination, and Rin could only wonder what was wrong with his younger brother.

Yukio ordered exorcists and exwires alike to participate in exterminating the demons. Rin went along with Kuro, watching worriedly as they burned coal tar demons. They all had their reservations about what was going on, but Yukio refused to listen to any of it, even after a boar demon attacked them and Rin realized through his demon telepathy that it was the king of the forest and only attacking because they were killing his kin. Yukio killed it quickly and when Rin confronted him about it, he swore that every demon on earth must die. Rin was shocked at this and asked if Yukio wanted to even kill Kuro, their chef demon Ukubach or Izumo’s familiars, to which Yukio responded by pointing his pistol at Kuro.

Frightened, Kuro ran away, and Rin burst in to flames in an attempt to stop Yukio, swearing that exorcists were not murderers. Yukio responded by growing claws on his right hand and slashing at Rin, knocking him unconscious. Yukio ordered Rin to be taken away and put in to a holding cell.

He woke in the cell with Mephisto imprisoned on the other side. Mephisto explained to him that Neuhaus had been one of his students and that he had also been in charge of the lab where Michelle had been. Rin realized then that Michelle had been brought back to life as a way to frame Mephisto, imprison him and keep him away while the new pope took control. Hearing this revelation, Mephisto transformed in to his dog form and escaped the prison, leaving Rin behind.

Rin was scheduled to be executed at dawn on the roof of the academy. Ernst claimed that the plan had been to destroyed Gehenna to save Assiah, and he had convinced Yukio that by doing so he would be releasing Rin and Yukio from their demon ties and make them human again. Really, this was a massive lie - he was instead going to kill Rin, using his blood to bring Satan to Assiah. And Yukio didn’t realize this until it was too late.

Rin was taken and strapped to a cross in the center of a circle, surrounded by the enchanted guns that had drawn out the blood of the demons that had been slain. Some exorcists were chanting as others watched readouts on computers and the rest stood guard. Ernst took the kurikara and released Rin’s demon form, then stabbed him with the sword and released his blood, activating the circle which shocked and tore at Rin with arcs of power while opening a large Gehenna gate. Rin screamed and howled in pain, trashing at his binds, but Ernst refused to stop. Yukio arrived and tried to stop Ernst, eventually offering himself as a sacrifice instead of Rin. Ernst said it didn’t matter which son he used, since either had the demon blood, and mercifully released Rin and let Yukio lay him unconscious on the ground.
When Rin woke again, he saw a terrible sight - Yukio had given himself over to Satan’s possession. He was covered in massive amounts of blue flames, with his ears long, teeth sharp, and a tail lashing about. As Satan he spoke crudely, and attacked his friends and other exorcists.

Rin, who was being held on Bon’s back until he woke up, leaped off and went running towards his brother, screaming his name and demanding to know just what the hell he was doing. Any response was met with mocking laughter, vulgar language and threats of violence. Satan stated that Yukio’s body had been ready to become his vessel, and that he’d been waiting for them to grow up so he could take advantage of their dual connection to Gehenna and Assiah. Furious, Rin attempted to attack Satan, but was still too weak from being tortured, getting knocked back easily.

He went on to say that he would use Yukio to bring Assiah and Gehenna together, and create a ‘new world’, but Rin was only going to be in the way. He raised Yukio’s gun to Rin’s head, intending to kill him. Bon interrupted, demanding Satan fight him instead. Satan turned on Bon an intended to burn him, but Tsubaki jumped in the way and took the flames himself, surviving thanks to Izumo’s quick thinking and a dousing of holy wine from her familiar. Konekomaru and Renzo put up a shield and Bon attempted attacking with Renzo’s staff, but Satan blew them all back, shattering the shield and knocking them all out. Satan launched a massive fireball at them despite Rin’s protests, but Shura arrived and cut it in half, ordering Shiemi to get the injured to a safe place, Rin and Shiemi behind.

Shura thought it was Yukio that was attacking, but Rin corrected her saying it was Satan, not Yukio right before Satan started attacking again. Shiemi used the distraction to haul Rin away while Shura took a hit from Satan, transforming in to spirit snakes in order to escape.

While the students hid in a nearby building, blue fire rained down on the academy from the rooftop. Rin filled Shura in on Satan’s plan, and commented that Satan wouldn’t likely move from the gate since he needed it, and Rin already posed a threat having destroyed a gate once before to save Shiro. Renzo also commented that it was a bit like “kick the can”, in that Satan would do his best to keep the “can” (gate) away from everyone else, and Shura agreed that this gave them a bit of an advantage. Not even Satan could watch everything at once, if they attacked from all sides. But there was a downside - no one, not even Rin could rightfully face Satan at his full strength. Their first move had to be destroying the gate.

Rin didn’t like this plan. It meant abandoning his brother, the one thing he refused to do over anything else. Shura swore there was no way to save anyone possessed by Satan, but Rin disagreed - Shiro had managed to free himself at the last minute, but was forced to kill himself in the end. Rin was convinced Yukio had to be stronger than that, that he was still in there somewhere and his demonic nature was probably protecting him in some way. More than that, he trusted Yukio to not abandon him either. He stood with every intent of leaving and going to bring back Yukio, alone if he had to.

Shura stopped him and said she would help him after all, and the two formed a plan that they could only hope would work, unaware that Shiemi had overheard their conversation and followed behind them back to the roof top.

Shura went and confronted Satan alone, keeping him distracted while trying to give Rin an opening to attack. Easier said than done, since there were demon statues that turned at the tiniest motion around the perimeter. Shura was running out of energy and time, and Rin was about to jump in when Shiemi actually got there before him, screaming for Satan to stop, demanding to give Yukio back. Satan just laughed and launched flames at her, which her familiar stopped with an un-burnable vine. Satan just broke through it physically and grabbed her by the throat, choking her until she passed out. Furious, Rin broke down the fence and blew his cover.

Satan laughed and dropped Shiemi to the ground, challenging Rin again. Rin, instead, threw his sword to the side, declaring that he wasn’t going to fight his brother no matter what happened. He started screaming for Yukio again, ignoring whatever beating Satan gave him. Satan swore Yukio was gone, but Rin wouldn’t have any of it, screaming louder each time while demanding that his brother wake up.

And it worked. Suddenly Yukio’s hand lifted, and half of him returned, enough for him to speak to Rin again, begging for his older brother to help him. Rin ran forward and grabbed on to his hand, only for Satan who was still controlling the other side to shoot him in the stomach. Rin collapsed, in too much pain to remain standing. Yukio screamed, horrified at what he’d just done, and put the gun to his own head rather than let Satan shoot Rin again, swearing that he would take his own life to keep Satan at bay and protect his brother and Assiah.

Rin woke up then and punched Yukio, knocking him back. He started crying, saying he wouldn’t let Yukio leave him behind, asking him if he knew how it would affect all the people that cared about him and that he didn’t want to feel like how he felt when Shiro died again. Surprisingly, Yukio started crying, and his emotions were enough to drive Satan back completely. Rin hugged his brother, glad to have him back.

Their moment didn’t last long, as Satan still had his trump card - the Gehenna gate that was still open. He laughed maniacally and began lifting it in to the air, turning it over so that he could rain fire down on Assiah. He sent demons after Rin and Yukio, keeping them pinned down and unable to reach the gate while it rained down dimensional rifts that would merge the two worlds. Rin was fighting at half his usual strength, still injured and recovering from the beat down Satan had laid on him.

Shiemi woke, getting the attention of some of the attacking demons. They launched fire breath at her in Shura at a moment when they couldn’t easily get out of the way of the blast, but Angel suddenly arrived and slashed the fire away, declaring that he would defeat the foul demons that attacked them. He told Yukio and Rin to stay put and that he would “take care of this” on his own, but Rin snapped to not order him around and followed, both of them attacking at once. Their powers were impressive, but not enough to reach the gate. Yukio stated it wouldn’t be enough if they just attacked on their own, and that they had to work together. Shura agreed, and Angel stated that while it would be a stain on his record to work with demon offspring, they had no choice if they were going to save the world.

They all started attacking, Angel launching himself in to the air with his Zodiac Slash attack, which gave Rin the advantage by using him as a launch, jumping on his back to move up towards the gate. He let out the biggest wave of blue flames he could manage, thinking that he successfully burned the gate. As he fell back down, though, the gate started breaking the burned parts off, revealing it to still be intact and working. He landed hard on the roof, just as another beam came down, destroying the the area.

Luckily everyone managed to stay alive, though knocked out long enough for the gate to start moving over the city, causing even more destruction. Rin woke first, and went to check on Yukio, shaking him awake. Shura, Shiemi and Angel managed to escape, leaving Rin and Yukio behind.

When they looked out and saw what was going on, Yukio apologized for everything, saying it was his fault that it was happening. Rin agreed, stating that he had been headstrong and stubborn, claiming “you’re a terrible little brother, not even telling me that you could see demons, or that you were a teacher at a cram school. Or about you becoming Paladin! It really is tough having such a smart little brother!” while reaching out and tweaking his nose roughly.

He grinned then, asking Yukio to depend on him like when they were little kids. Kuro arrived, transforming in to his larger size and saying that he wanted to help and he wasn’t going to run away anymore. They got on his back and they rode off towards the gate. As they neared they were ambushed by more demons, unable to get close, but just when it seemed like they wouldn’t be able to succeed a bright light shone from the academy, confusing the demons who viewed it like a sunrise.

They used that as their chance to get close, but again they were blocked when a demon exploded near them, knocking Kuro back and causing Rin and Yukio to fall. The kurikara was closest to Yukio, and he grabbed it, activating his and Rin’s demon forms when the sheath fell off. The grabbed each other’s hands, their combined power forming a massive blue phoenix that allowed them to fly up and strike the gate with the sword. When Satan demanded to know why his sons would destroy his dream, they told him they didn’t care about his dream, just about protecting their friends and their world and would do whatever it took to do that. The gate exploded, raining pieces down on the city and bathing all below in a warm blue light.

They returned to the school, Rin a little worse for wear still, and found their friends coming out from the ruined buildings, also alright and mostly unscathed. Bon threw a fit about them worrying him, taking it out on Rin naturally, and Shiemi yelled at them for being reckless and to never scare her like that again, hugging them both tightly while crying. Everyone was safe. The fight was over, Assiah was saved.
A month later, class resumed as normal, Mephisto returned to his position as head master of the school, and more students that had been affected by the attack joined the exorcist cram school to learn how they could help, should Satan ever return again. Yukio was demoted back down to his previous rank and returned to his position as a teacher with the school. And Rin took it upon himself to advocate for talking to demons before hunting them down, while still working towards his own goal to become a full fledged exorcist.