Chapter Text
The journey home was not too long, despite the fact that he had been halfway across the world as of then.
Rin quietly snuck through the window, breathing a sigh of relief when no loud noise was made. Kuro balanced on Rin's shoulder, surveying the room for any sign of life and/or movement.
The two demons slowly made their way upstairs and to bed, glad that they had made it back safely.
When Rin awoke, he was met with the feeling of someone choking him.
Of course, it was impossible to panic because the person choking him was crying out in relief, and they were none other than Lizzy.
"Lizzy, you're choking me," Rin rasped out.
The woman quickly let go of him, but gripped his shoulders. "Never scare me like that again! Leaving like that was unnecessary and rash! Where did you go? Are you hurt? You are in so much trouble!"
Rin couldn't help but laugh at the internal conflict Lizzy was struggling with. "I'm fine, Lizzy. You worry too much. Besides, I found what I was looking for, so that's a plus."
"What were you even looking for?" Lizzy asked once she'd calmed down some.
"The first step to take me home," Rin replied, "That's all."
Lizzy knew she would get nothing else out of him.
Rin furrowed his eyebrows at the disk. It was almost like some sort of tracker, glowing brighter the closer it got to him. He figured it was connected to his heritage, AKA Satan, to be more precise.
The disk seemed to react to the hell fire rather well, and Rin knew that this artifact in itself would be important in the near future for getting him home.
How he knew was beyond him.
How exactly it helped in getting him home...
Rin didn't have so much as a clue.
"Lizzy, this is mental," Rin said.
"Mental?" She asked, "I think it's very fair. You are still a teenager, Rin. It's against the law not to send you to school, and I don't have time to home school you with my job. Besides, I'm not the most qualified person for the task, anyway."
"What about my job?" Rin stressed. "I work everyday of the week, excluding Saturdays and Sundays."
"I am your boss," Lizzy said, "I'm sure I can cut your time down to after school or just the weekends."
"I don't like school. People are mean and it's no fun, especially when everyone hates you. I was made fun of, and the kids call me a demon. Even teachers agreed." Rin frowned.
Lizzy sighed. "Well, this is your chance to start fresh. Nobody knows you. You can create your own image, a new one, a better one, the real one. Whoever thought you were a demon obviously never saw you for who you really were."
Rin nodded, and the conversation was over, but Lizzy's voice rung in his head.
"You can create your own image, a new one, a better one, the real one. Whoever thought you were a demon obviously never saw you for who you really were."
Lizzy just didn't get it, not that she could. He'd been lying to her ever since he met her.
Rin wore masks all the time to protect himself. The real Rin was only shown to the people he trusted with his life. Rin wouldn't trust anyone but Kuro, Yukio, and his friends.
As for the fact that Rin wasn't a demon, whoever said that saw the truth, and Rin had foolishly denied it. It's ironic that the roles were now switched.
Lizzy didn't understand, but that was okay.
No one ever did.
Rin's mind was in over drive as Lizzy pulled up to the school on Monday.
"Ready?" She asked, leaning over the chair to face him.
"No," he deadpanned.
"Well, too bad." She shoved him out of the car and tossed him his backpack. "See you at three!"
She drove off, and Rin was left on the curb, grumbling and cursing to himself.
"Rin Okumura?" The secretary asked.
"That's me." Rin sighed.
"Here's your schedule, locker number, and locker combination. Have a good day!" Rin nodded and mumbled his thanks before walking out.
Kids in the hall stared at him as he made his way toward his locker. Rin looked at his feet, hair dangling in his face. Their lingering stares felt judging and uncomfortable.
His head snapped up, and he glared at the students, fangs bared and raging flames in his eyes. A growl rumbled in his chest. "Stop staring, damnit!"
The kids quickly looked the other way, pale with fear.
Rin cursed to himself. 'I really am destined to be dubbed a monster at every school I go to.'
"Hey, Rin!" A voice called.
Rin looked up to see Danny, Sam, and Tucker. "Hey. You go here?"
"Duh." Tucker rolled his eyes.
Rin blushed slightly. "Sorry. I just didn't expect to see you here."
Sam laughed. "The tips of your ears are turning red."
Rin tried to fight down another oncoming blush. "Shut up!"
Danny grinned. "Well, I'm personally very happy."
"Why?" Rin asked.
"One, you're here, and two, I'm pretty sure that scary display you put on just a few moments ago made the whole A-List piss their pants, even if they refuse to admit it." Danny grinned.
Rin flashed the trio a sad smile. Danny's grin faded when he saw this. "I'm used to people being scared of me. It's not that much of a surprise." Rin chuckled. "Honestly, the real surprise is that you guys actually talked to me, and are apparently happy that I'm here."
"Why is that so much of a surprise?" Sam's voice was surprisingly soft.
Rin shrugged. "When the whole neighborhood knows you as the 'demon child', from age five, and kids, teachers included, call you a monster, it starts to become the norm."
Danny frowned. "Rin-"
"But I'm here to start new!" Rin cut the half ghost off. "I'm just going to have to try and be less scary."
"You're not scary," Tucker said.
"Everyone just doesn't know how to mind their own business. I would have done the same thing in your position." Sam smiled at him.
"Thanks." Rin smiled.
Danny took a peek at Rin's schedule. "You have the same classes! We can show you around!"
"I'd like that." Rin nodded.
'Maybe there's hope for me.'
The day went by easily, and Rin sat with the trio at lunch.
"So, where were you?" Tucker asked.
"What do you mean?" Rin asked.
"You were gone for a while. We didn't see you around, so we went to your work place. The boss, Lizzy, was worried and told us to come back in a few months," Tucker explained.
"Oh," Rin replied quietly. "I wasn't gone for as long as I thought I was going to be. I was just looking for something."
"Where do you live?" Sam found herself asking, realizing that Rin found the topic uncomfortable.
"I, uh, I live farther away from the school," Rin said vaguely.
"It's okay, Rin." Danny laid a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Lizzy told us you were homeless. She said you were living with her."
"Yeah, so what?" Rin turned defensive.
"It doesn't matter, Rin. We're not going to push," Danny assured him.
Rin relaxed. "Okay."
"Hey, what's your favorite thing to do?" Sam asked.
"Cook!" Rin exclaimed happily, his tone much lighter than before.
The trio noticed this, and continued to ask him questions about his hobby.
Rin slashed his claws at Satan's chest, drawing blood.
Satan hissed and glared at the boy. "Human ties are your weakness. Let's see what happens when those ties are cut."
Rin didn't have time to respond as Satan appeared in front of Yukio, too fast for his brother to pull out his guns.
"Yukio!"
Rin didn't know how, but he'd somehow appeared right next to his brother as Yukio was impaled by Satan's hand.
Yukio wobbled, clutching the wound as blood dropped from his lips.
Rin caught his little brother, holding him close. "Yukio."
"K-Kick his a-ass, R-Rin," Yukio murmured before his eyes closed.
"Yukio!"
His vision blurred as he remembered Shiro Fujimoto dying the same way.
Rin's fault, Satan's hands.
Rin screamed. The feeling of blood coated his hands, warm and wet. It was on his arms, his hands, under his nails.
Tears dripped from Rin's eyes as he desperately tried to wipe them away, only to smear his brother's blood across his cheeks and lips. He could taste it.
The scent of Yukio's blood, the feeling of it, the taste, and the sight made Rin shake.
From then on, everyone knew Satan was as good as dead.
"YOU BASTARD!"
Rin jerked, a scream escaping his lips.
The whole science class turned to stare at him as the video of a dissection took place on the screen in front of them.
Rin's eyes shot down to his hands. He saw blood, Yukio's blood.
Rin could remember how long it took for all of the stained blood to come off his hands, how long it took to dig it out from under his nails.
Two weeks was too long.
Rin stood up, chair crashing to the floor. Reality didn't exist anymore.
The flashback was more real than before. He looked around frantically, but all he saw was the bloody battlefield he and Satan had fought on, the bodies of the innocent scattered, and his red-stained hands.
He could almost feel it, smell it. The taste of metal coated his tongue.
As Rin glanced around, he tried to run, but he kept tripping over the bodies surrounding him.
In reality, he bumped into desks and tripped over chairs. Students clambered away from the delirious boy.
Satan stood before Rin, holding up Yukio's unconscious form. "Pathetic, isn't it?"
He dropped Rin's little brother into the bloody grass, and Rin growled in rage and anger.
The whole class heard it, and they backed farther away. The teacher strode toward the boy to calm him down, but Danny stopped him. "He's not in his right mind. Just call the office. They have his guardian's number. She should know what to do."
The teacher nodded and hurried out of the room. Danny needed to stall Rin, so he took a step forward. "Rin, it's not real. Calm-"
Rin lunged at Danny, a raging fire burning in his eyes.
Danny dodged. "Rin-"
It seemed the wrong thing to do because Rin growled again. "Don't mock me!"
Before anymore damage could be done, a scream was heard. "Rin Okumura! Stop! It's Lizzy! You need to calm down!"
Rin paused and seemed to sway. The hazy look in his eyes vanished. "Lizzy?"
Lizzy nodded and helped Rin stand upright. "Come on. We'll take you to the office."
"Lizzy, I-" Rin paused, cut off by Lizzy.
"It's okay, Rin."
Rin was taken to the office, Danny, Sam, and Tucker following after quite some arguing.
"What happened?" The nurse asked.
Lizzy glared at the science teacher. "He showed the class a dissection video."
"It's qualified for the curriculum." He frowned.
"Maybe so, but Rin suffers from PTSD." Lizzy glared harder.
"The school was not informed of this," the nurse said.
Lizzy sighed. "I didn't expect it to affect his school life."
"Yes, well, the school will have to be more cautious with their studies." The nurse sent the science teacher a look.
The science teacher scoffed, but promised to be more careful and left to attend to his class.
The nurse said she would be right back and left the room.
Lizzy, Danny, Sam, and Tucker stood there in silence before a mumble was heard from Rin in the corner of the room.
"What?" Lizzy asked gently.
Rin looked up at her, then back at his hands. "I still see it sometimes, the blood on my hands. I see it right now. It's red, glistening. I can feel it's warmth and wetness. I can smell it. I even remember the metallic, slightly sweet taste of it. It took two weeks to get the red tint off my hands and the blood out from underneath my nails."
"Oh, Rin." Lizzy sighed before hugging the boy.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker could only swallow thickly, all with the same thought.
'What had happened to this boy?'