Chapter Text
Chapter three
Rin's eyes snapped open as he sat up in a cold sweat, some of his unruly raven locks stuck to his head, and some of his hair bounced around as he jolted upright. After a few seconds of panic, he realized the nightmare he was having was over. He closed his eyes again, heaving in and out, trying to even out his ragged breathing.
The nightmares never go away; vivid images of Yukio, Shura, and all of his classmates being burned alive by the blue flames emerging from him against his will or an infinite loop of the night his father died.
Rin only gets any actual rest when he's in class, and that's not very convenient if you ask him.
The raven-haired teen rubbed the tiredness from his eyes the best he could and sat up to inspect his room.
'Yukio must've left early... I don't really want to talk with him right now anyway.' Rin cringed as the memories of yesterday's fallout with Yukio flooded into his brain.
"Rin?" a voice called from outside the cracked dorm door though it didn't sound verbal.
Rin froze a bit but then relaxed as he recognized the voice ringing in his head.
"Oh, hey Kuro," Rin smiled as Kuro jumped onto Rin's bed. Kuro always seemed to make him happy. He was still there for Rin even when everyone else had left and would never judge him for being a demon. Rin's biological father killed Shiro, Kuros previous owner, so Kuro has a massive grudge against Satan, but he still didn't hold anything against Rin. It was comforting.
Kuro started to paw at Rins arm. "You're going to be late if you don't hurry, Rin! Doesn't your first class of the day start in fifteen minutes?"
Rin's eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped as he exclaimed, "Whaaa! Seriously?! How long was I asleep for!?" He jumped up from his bed. Kuro mewed in protest against the sudden movement as Rin sprinted to the sinks to brush his teeth.
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"I made it!" Rin sighed to himself in relief when he got to class right before it started. He was extremely thankful to whatever god existed that everyone in the classroom was too busy mingling to notice the way he had almost knocked the door off of its hinges when entering the classroom. They must've been talking about something interesting as hell because the door almost flying off of its hinges wasn't exactly quiet. He really needs to learn how to control his strength. He grimaced at the memory of shaking his old boss's hand, only to accidentally break it and get fired. Yikes.
Rin made his way to his usual seat, dropped his bag next to his desk, and then plopped gracelessly into his chair to stare out the large window to his left. This window's view always made him realize just how large the campus is; large buildings with beautiful carvings in every crevice, fountains, the occasional mural, and hundreds of students rushing to get to their classes on time. Rin's sleepy sapphire eyes stared at the bright blue sky and watched as the few clouds in the atmosphere passed by.
Rin didn't know why but he'd always found such simplistic things beautiful and was often captivated by them; the sky, water, mountains, flowers, Bon- wait, what no. Now's not the time to think about that. Rin shook his head a bit, trying to clear his thoughts like an etch-a-sketch.
'He wouldn't want me anyways…he said it himself I'm a monster. Even if Suguro did want me, he's a priest's son; I couldn't burden him with the baggage-no the storage unit of emotional and physical baggage I have' Rin thought that the tail end of that thought, though bitter, was a bit funny and laughed a little at his joke.
Rin continued to stare out the window as a few minutes pass by. The class's English teacher walked speedily through the tall door and made her way to her desk; she was just a bit late, as always, but no-one minded it. She started to unpack some of her supplies. "Alright, class, settle down. Now let us start the day off with roll call," she announced.
The rest of the school day proceeded as usual. Rin went to each class, spaced out or slept, went to lunch, ate his bento under one of the large trees in the mostly empty courtyard outside of the cafeteria, and went to his last few regular classes.
Now all he had left was cram school.
"At least we have something interesting to do today," Rin huffed to himself as he entered the cram schools hallways.
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Bon was anxious.
After yesterday's talk with Shura, all the exwires concluded that they needed to apologize to Rin for ostracizing him and try to help their friend through whatever he's going through at the moment because it's evident that Okumura is in some sort of turmoil. They need to get him out of it ASAP. The problem is how and when; many wanted to apologize as soon as possible, but they were all pretty nervous, and on top of that, Okumura was pretty damn good at avoiding severe topics. So after debating, they all concluded that if they apologized before their mission, the bus ride wouldn't feel as tense as the last one; in the previous bus ride, the air in the bus was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Bon was hellbent on getting to Okumura no matter how many times he would dodge Bon's attempts at talking to him.
'I swear to god Okumura is about as dense and stubborn as fucking concrete,' Bon sighed to himself as he walked down the cram school hallway next to Shima and Koneko.
The Kyoto trio entered the large classroom to see that the only people there were the Okumura's. Rin was not-so-quietly sleeping at his desk, not a big surprise, and Mr. Okumura was at his desk at the front of the classroom briskly packing something into his briefcase. Weapons if Bon had to guess.
Bon raised his hand in greeting as he walked to his desk, "Morning, Mr. Okumura."
"Good morning," Yukio replied with a smile as he nodded his head in greeting, "you might need to start gathering your mantras and making sure you all have your supplies ready because this mission is not going to be an easy one."
'Well, that's comforting,' Bon thought sarcastically as he nodded and sat down, shima and Koneko trailing behind him.
Suddenly Rin's head shot up, and he seemed to have stars in his foggy azure eye's" a mission with some action! Awesome!"
Shima chuckled a bit, then sighed and leaned back in his seat. "At least one of us is excited,"
Rin laughed and scratched the back of his neck. "Hehe yeah, I am; I like getting on the field; it's sorta like therapy, ya know?"
"I think that you need actual therapy, Okumura." Bon deadpanned
Rin choked out into a coughing fit at Bon's comment.
" I don't need therapy, you over-grown rooster," rin said, eyebrows scrunched and voice hoarse due to his previous coughing fit.
"I do agree with Mr. Suguro here, Ni-san." Yukio chimed in from his seat at his desk.
'Those had to be the first words Yukios said to me since yesterday. Are you kidding me?' Rin thought incredulously
"Who's side are you on?! I don't need therapy, you four-eyed mole face! I'm perfectly stable-"
"Oh, cut the shit, Okumura, we all know that you desperately need therapy for many reasons!" Bon exclaimed, shifting his body in his chair to face rin and stare at him, a hint of annoyance in his chocolate eyes.
Rin visibly flinched at Bon's voice's loudness, and everyone noticed...damn his sensitive hearing, even if most of the reason he jumped was his severe PTSD. He wasn't about to admit that to himself.
The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Yukio made a mental note to force his older brother to get a therapist when this mission was over.
Bon's brown eyes softened apologetically "ah man, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- "
"It's nothing really- I just have really sensitive hearing," the raven explained, managing a small fanged smile and an empty chuckle while motioning to his pointed ears. Everyone sensed Rin's lie, but they let it slide.
"Ah, ok...if you say so."
The rest of the exwires started filtering in, and after about five minutes, all of the exwires and Shura were sitting in their usual seats, not-so-patiently waiting for Yukio to tell them about their mission. Yukio gulped and braced himself for Rin's reaction to the mission's location. He just hoped Rin wouldn't make a scene like he did the first day of class.
"Alright, now that everyone's here, I'll begin my briefing of the mission," yukio stated, "We will be traveling to the city right outside of True-Cross-town to visit a monastery. Rin and I are very familiar with it, and it's a pretty well-known monastery that the previous paladin owned.
Yukio looked up from the Manila folder he was reading from to glance at rin. Yukio felt a pang of guilt strike his heart when he saw the look on Rin's face. A glimpse of thinly veiled horror etched its way upon Rin's face, but he was trying to hide it, making him look distant and unfocused. To anyone else, he probably just looked a little glassy-eyed and spacey, but yukio knew that wasn't the case.
Rin didn't want to go back there.
He didn't want to go back there ever again.
Yukio didn't say a word to Rin as he just sat there with a vacant, closed-off look. Yukio knew that Rin probably felt betrayed, but Rin probably felt scared more than anything. yukio knew there wasn't anything he could do about it.
The rest of the exwires thought about what Shura had told them, and most of them all had the same thought 'Is it that monastery?'
Yukio internally sighed and continued," once the sun sets, said monastery suddenly gets infested by all kinds of rot demons ranging from ghouls to coal tar. These are all pretty low-level demons, so the priest would typically take care of matters on their own, but the numbers and skill level of these demons just keeps increasing with each passing day, so they called for some backup. We will split into three groups of three; two defensive fighters and one offensive fighter. Bon and I will be defending Rin, our offensive fighter. Shima and konekomaru will be defending sheimi, kamiki, and one of the monastery priests defending Shura. The rest of the priests will try to divide themselves amongst us. Of course, the defensive fighters can fight offensively and vice versa. Nevertheless, your main focus is to make sure our most offensive soldiers don't get too badly injured before getting to the bottom of what's happening at the monastery. Now, are there any questions?"
At this, Konekomaru's small hand shot up.
"Yes?"
"You said this was a strange occurrence, a mystery to the priest at the monastery. Do the priest have any leads, and if so, what are they?" the bald teen questioned.
"That's an excellent question. The only leads that the priest has been that all of these demons are related to the rot's demon king, Astaroth. Astaroth has attacked the monastery before, but the paladin and priest exorcised him. He won't show up anytime soon," Yukio articulated. "If that's all, then you are all to grab your bags and make a line at the door where I will lead you all to the van."
The exwires looked at each other, stood up, and nodded in understanding.
As Rin stood up and picked up his bag, all of the exwires gathered around his desk.
'Uuuuhhhhhh….' Rin's anxiety began to skyrocket 'what did I do this time?'
"What the hell is going on?" Rin cocked his head to the side, trying to look intimidating, but he just ended up looking like a confused puppy.
'He's so fucking cute- wait, what the hell am I thinking? Now is not the time for this.' Bon ran a hand through his two-toned hair in an attempt to get rid of that train of thought.
"Well... we all wanted to say…" Bon started
"We're sorry," All of the exwires said as they bowed at a 60-degree angle, expressing their guilt and remorse.
"WHA-WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING?!" Rin cried, trying to get the exwires to stop bowing.
'What are they even apologizing for? I'm the one who did something wrong…'
"Hey! Hey! You guys don't need to apologize! You didn't do anything wrong!" Rin exclaimed, trying to get them to stop apologizing.
"Don't make us repeat ourselves." Kamiki chided as she stood up, crossing her arms, snapping her head in the other direction, and puffing out her cheeks.
"I-I don't know why you guys are apologizing, though!" Rin sputtered
"We were ostracizing you, Okumura. You didn't deserve any of it; you can't help what you are, and we should have realized that earlier than now. Especially me... I'm sorry for being afraid of you when you've done so much to help not only me but everyone else as well." Konekomaru said in a quiet voice, still bowing, gaze fixed on the floor. Rin stood up and put his hands on Konekomaru's shoulders to gently lift him out of his bowing position and looked the bespectacled teen in the eyes. Rin's eyes stung a bit, but he fought back; Hell no! He wasn't about to cry in front of everyone.
'I don't deserve friends...I lied to all of them. I'm a monster. A demon. Why would they apologize to me…?'
"I-thank you...I don't deserve you guys...you know that?" Rin's voice was full of emotions he couldn't even begin to list off.
"We promise to make it up to you, Rin," sheimi declared, her doe-like emerald eyes sparkling with determination. A chorus of different types of agreement rang throughout the room, showing that they were all going to try to make things right.
Rin just nods; appreciation evident in his movements. Rin didn't know if he trusted their apology, but the thought was friendly, so he'll go along with it and just pretend he isn't a monster.
"Alright, alright, enough of the sappy shit," Bon said as he glanced at the clock; It was almost time to leave.
"Yeah, we're probably pissing Yukio off, so we should get going," Rin laughed, throwing his bag over his shoulder suddenly feeling just a bit lighter. Rin flashed a fanged smile that didn't quite reach his eyes; this smile was dull compared to his usual smile that used to be so bright that the exwires swore they would go blind, the smile that would put the sun to shame.
They all realized just how much they miss that smile.
All of the exwires grabbed their bags and made their way up to the door to wait for Yukio's orders; they all made some light-hearted chatter while waiting. All of the Exwires were feeling as if a weight had been lifted off of their shoulders. All of the awkward tension that had been amongst the exwire's since the incident with Amaimon had faded away; thing's seemed to almost be back to the way they were before everything happened.
"Can I have everyone's attention, please?" Yukio requested, and all of the exwires turned to face him." Thank you. You will all be trailing behind the person in front of you and filling the bus seats instead of picking a random seat to encourage bonding. More than likely, you will be sitting next to the person in front of you."
Wait, Rin was right at the end of the line, and the only person in front of him was Suguro.
Fuck.
Rin knew that they had just said they were all ok with him being satan's son, but Rin still doubted that. He hated making people uncomfortable, even though he tended to do it a lot without even realizing it before it was too late, so he didn't want to disturb Suguro.
The line started moving as yukio led the class to the van. Rin sighed; he had a horrible feeling about this mission, even ignoring the fact that he had to sit next to Bon and go back to the monastery… there was something off about this mission that Rin couldn't place. It made Rin feel uneasy, so he just tried to shrug it off.
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Rin was snapped out of his thoughts by the loud slam of the sliding van door opening.
"Alright, everyone, get in." Yukio asserted, stepping to the side to count every student as they got in the van
Sheimi was the first one, followed by kamiki, Shima, Konekomaru, Bon, and last but not least, Rin. It kind of looked like a small fancy school bus. There were four rows of two-seaters on the right side of the bus, and on the left, there were four rows of single-seaters. There was a small walkway separating these sides. Sheimi and kamiki sat in the back two seats, then a row in front of them was shima and Koneko. Rin took the window seat and watched intensely as bon plopped next to him without a care in the world as chatter filled the bus.
Rin turned to face bon "Aren't you scared of me?" Rin asked, voice slightly wavering and barely above a whisper, the sun shining through the window and hitting his wide azure sapphire eyes, making them a bright arctic blue as they searched Suguro's face.
'How can one person have so much beauty and not even know it?' Bon thought to himself as his stomach filled with butterflies. So what if he had a small crush on Okumura? Rin is fucking adorable.
Bon started to break out into laughter. "Jesus, Okumura, we just went over this! Besides, I've had scarier nightmares about cupcakes!"
"Hey!" Rin yelled, offended.
"We aren't scared of you, Okumura. Get that through your thick skull," Bon chuckled.
Rin's offended and confused face morphed into a soft smile.
"Thank you," Rin said softly, looking at his lap.
"What did you say, Okumura?"
Rin lifted his head, amber eyes burning into azure. "Thank you, Bon; it means a lot" Rin smiled, this one a bit brighter than the last one, and at this point, Bon swore there were actual butterflies in his stomach.
"Yeah, it's no problem." Bon smiled back.
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The bus started to leave True Cross, and rin felt a little weird as they crossed the border. Bon noticed Rin's visible uncomfortableness. "What's the matter?"
"Oh, it's nothing." If looks could kill, Rin would surely be dead by now as Bon was giving Rin a death glare and threatened, "So help me god I will throw you out of the window next to you if you don't tell me what's happening."
Rin sighed in defeat. "I just feel a bit weird, is all. It's kinda like when your foot falls asleep, and then you try to walk on it; I feel all sparkly and shit."
Bon hummed and paused for a second before snapping his fingers. "It's probably the wards at True cross. We just left, so it wouldn't be weird if you felt odd leaving True crosses borders after being in them for so long."
"Oh yeah! I forgot about those!" Rin gasped in realization.
"Here, take this charm. It should help with the weird feeling," Bon said while handing Rin a three-leaf clover just like the one that Father Fujimoto gave that little girl who was being teased by a hobgoblin.
"Sweet! You rock, you know that?" Rin’s eyes sparkled, and he beamed at Suguro.
Bon felt his chest ache.
God, Ryuji was in love, wasn't he?
He was the type to fall in love with the moon and everything else beautifully unreachable; Rin was that beautifully unreachable thing.
If he could be near Rin for as long as possible, nothing else seemed to matter; so for the time being, he would just enjoy the raven's presence.
The rest of the ride was spent talking about manga, upcoming assignments, and plans with the occasional eyebrow wiggle from Shima. Rin and Suguro had decided that they should hang out more; Suguro said he'd help Rin study after class if Rin makes him dinner as payment, and Rin graciously accepted the offer.
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After about an hour van pulled up to the monastery, and the exwires flooded out of the small bus. As soon as they all got out of the bus, the exwires began to stretch their limbs to wake themselves up from the long car ride; god True Cross was big. The exwires drank in their surroundings as they all followed yukio to the front gate. The sun was begging to set, painting the sky a brilliant red and orange with tranquil layers of pink. Yukio pressed a button on the right side of the large front gate, and the exwires watched as a priest emerged from the front doors of the building started to walk towards the entrance. Pink sakura petals fell as they waited on the priest. Bon remembered that Yukio had said that he and Rin were familiar with this place, so he turned around to find rin spacing out in a worrying way. Bon gently grabbed Rin's shoulder, and Rin jumped at the contact, his lapis-blue eyes widening as he looked to see who had touched his shoulder but then softening as he realized it was Suguro.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare ya, man," bon apologized, worry evident in his voice." Mr. Okumura said that you two were associated with this place? How so?" Bon's brown eyes were becoming deep honey in the setting sun's light.
Rin just stared at him like an idiot.
'ohmygodSugurolookslikeamodelholyshit,' Rin thought to himself as he took in Bon's appearance. Bon's bi-colored hair was blowing softly in the wind along with his white button-up. His tan skin seemed to glow as sakura petals fell and danced in the light of the setting sun. Bon was also really tall and muscular. His eyes- a honey-gold color in the light of the setting sun-were warm, sweet, and comforting to look into; they were so smart and kind. They were so...human.
'He looks like he gives good hugs, ' Rin thought to his touch-deprived self.
'... and I'm short, pale, admittedly a bit scrawny, and the son of satan. What's not to love?' Rin thought sarcastically.
Rin was snapped out of his thoughts by bon calling his name repeatedly "hmm? Oh, sorry, what was your question?"
" Mr. Okumura said that you two were associated with this place?" Bon questioned a little more than worried for Rin.
"Oh yeah, this where Yukio and I grew up," Rin answered as he looked away from Bon to face the monastery.
'Oh god, so this place is that monastery.' bon thought worriedly' shit. This is not going to be fun.'
"Do you feel alright, Okumura? You seem a bit skittish," Bon questioned the raven-haired boy with worried eyes.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm good! Thanks for asking, though!" Rin pulled a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, and the taller boy narrowed his eyes.
"Ya know you should tell the truth more often; I can tell when you lie. You keep better track of what words you say, and everything you do say seems heavy. That's the nice thing about telling the truth. You don't have nearly as much to keep track of." Bon blurted.
"Wha-"
The priest finally arrived at the gate and opened it. He then gave a small bow which all of the exwires returned "thank you for coming; Your help is much appreciated."
Yukio shook his head" you don't need to thank us! You guys are family to Rin and me. How could I say no? It also benefits my class; this should give them valuable field experience." Yukio smiled at the priest, and the exwires walked silently behind them as they started to make their way towards the building.
The monastery was a whitish-grey building with a faded greyish-blue colored roof, shingles, framing, and porches. It was a good-sized monastery with a large courtyard, and many buildings then stemmed off the main building in the center.
As soon as the exwires entered the building, they were in what seemed to be the sanctuary. It had a friendly, warm atmosphere and warmly toned furniture. They were greeted and joined by three other priests who had run up and hugged the Okumura's. The priest then introduced themselves to the Exwires.
"Alright, let's hurry; we only have until sundown to get preparations done." Yukio announced," You all remember the plan, right?" a chorus of "yes sir" rang out, and yukio seemed content with it" Then let us get started."