Chapter Text
Shiro had barely any time to understand that the twins were real.
Yuri just died mere hours ago. The chaos surrounding the Blue Night and the twins birth has left everything unstable. Chaotic. A bloody mess wrapped up in blue flames from Satan. And Shiro was exhausted, injured, and devastated all at once. And now responsible for two infants who are nothing alike.
Yukio was quiet.
Rin was not.
Shiro remembered clearly how Rin had been the loud one out of the two.
That was the stupid thing his mind kept returning to. Thinking back to that night all those years ago.
Not the deaths. Not the flames. Not Yuri’s face. Though Yuri’s was always at the back of his mind.
No, what Shiro remembered the most was the crying.
One baby had been screaming his tiny lungs raw while the other made weak unhappy noises from somewhere beneath the blankets.
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you.” God, Shiro was tired. After burying Yuri, he took her twins and continued on with a heavy heart. Finding a small abandoned cabin hidden away among the mountains. Using the tools and resources still inside it to keep him and the twins warm and sheltered from the snowy environment.
But that warmth and safety apparently met nothing to the screaming bumble of joy that was Yuri’s oldest son. The white haired newborn hadn’t stopped wailing since the passing of his mother. And nothing that exorcist tried had made him stop.
Shiro had no idea what he was doing. Or what he as going to do with the kids.
He knew how to kill demons. He knew how to stitch wounds and set broken bones. He knew seventeen different ways to exorcise a possessed corpse and exactly where to put a bullet if there wasn’t enough time for any of them.
He did not know how to care for two newborn babies.
“Would you quit moving?” Shiro was having a hard enough time struggling holding the kids as it is. The constant wiggling of the oldest of the pair wasn’t helping.
The white-haired one would not quit moving.
Rin’s—Yuri had named him Rin- face was red with fury. One tiny fist had escaped the blanket Shiro had wrapped around him. Waving it blindly through the air as though looking for something to punch.
Despite himself, Shiro snorted at the newborns antics.
“You’re a mean little bastard, aren’t you?” He had put Rin down into the twins makeshift cradle while still holding onto Yukio. Shiro needing at least one hand free so that he can check to see if Rin needed a diaper change or something.
As the exorcist reached for him, the baby suddenly caught his finger.
Shiro went still.
Rin’s entire hand couldn’t close around even one of his fingers. Yet he held on anyway. With all the might a demonic newborn could muster. Tiny claws and all.
For those few seconds he held on, Rin stopped crying.
Shiro stared down at him. The baby’s face was still red and scrunched up. His little mouth trembling as if he hadn’t quite decided whether he was finished screaming yet. Tiny claws pricked harmlessly against Shiro’s skin.
Shiro didn’t move. Waiting to see what the infant would do next.
Rin didn’t move either. Piercing blue eyes squinting at Shiro as if trying his damnest to actually look at him. The newborn having yet having the ability to open his eyes fully.
The silence between them felt strange after hours of nonstop crying. Almost peaceful even.
Then Yukio made a small noise against his chest. Causing Rin’s eyes to shift towards his younger twin.
Those bright impossibly blue eyes turned toward his brother, and Rin’s fingers tightened around Shiro’s.
Yukio made another weak little whine.
Rin immediately began crying all over again.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Shiro pulled his finger free. Causing Rin to scream louder.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Worst thing that’s ever happened to you.” The Paladin adjusted Yukio against his shoulder and reached down to pick Rin back up.
Then he felt the wards around the cabin break. Freezing Shiro dead in his tracks.
Every single one of them. The barriers Shiro spent time putting up to ward off any demons from coming close to him or the twins.
They all just broke. At once.
Even the paper talisman above the cabin’s door split cleanly down the middle. Shiro had his gun in his hand before the two halves of the paper even touched the floor.
The cabin exploded.
Wood shattered. Glass burst from the windows. The entire eastern wall buckled beneath the force of the impact. Sending splintered boards and snow crashing into the room.
Shiro turned his back to it. He dropped over the cradle. One arm locked around Yukio. The other covered Rin. Something struck his back. Pain tearing through his shoulder. Shiro grunted but didn’t move until the debris stopped falling.
Rin was screaming again.
Yukio had joined him.
Good.
Crying meant breathing.
Shiro raised his head to try to spot their attackers.
Cold air poured through what remained of the wall. Snow blew across the floor. There were people standing outside. At least they looked like people.
But if they felt the need to break his barriers, then they weren’t fully human. Couldn’t be.
Who or whatever they were, there were at least six that he could see. Probably more. All of them were dressed in white. Blending almost perfectly in the snow.
Shiro’s eyes narrowed. Calculating. He had to get the twins out of there. Before something awful happened to either one of them.
One of the maybe demons raised a weapon.
Shiro was quickly to grab his gun and fired first. Making the figure drop. Startling the others. Buying himself just enough time to grab Rin and run the hell out of there.
Everything erupted into violence.
Shiro kicked the cradle onto its side as the first volley tore through the room creating enough cover for them from the bullets that ripped into the cabin’s still standing wooden walls. Glass shattered. Something metallic struck the now busted stove and burst into a cloud of black smoke.
Shiro kicked open the cabin’s back door as he hoisted the children higher and tighter into his arms. One beneath each arm.
This was fucking ridiculous. Shiro couldn’t fight like this. Couldn’t protect Yuri’s kids like this.
Rin was screaming directly into his chest.
“Kid, I’m working on it!”
The snow outside was nearly knee-deep.
Shiro ran anyway. What other choice did he have?
Gunfire followed him into the trees.
Shiro ducked behind a pine as a bullet tore through the bark where his head had been a second earlier. Yukio was crying now too. His little face pressed against Shiro’s coat.
Two infants.
He had two goddamn infants.
Who attacked a man holding two goddamn infants?
Someone who didn’t care if one of them died.
The thought made Shiro’s blood run colder than the snow beneath his boots.
Or someone who only needed one alive.
He looked down.
Rin.
The white hair.
The blue eyes as bright as the flames the ruler of hell was famous for.
Satan’s son that inherited his flames. They had to be after him.
“Shit.” Shiro hurriedly stuffed the kids in his makeshift baby carrier made of torn fabrics. The twins securely, or as secure as Shiro was able to make it, wrapped around his chest. He needed his arms free if he was going to get them out of this.
A branch cracked behind him. Shiro turned and fired. The attacker fell backward into the snow.
Another came from his left.
Shiro briefly thought about using the sword. But couldn’t. Knowing damn well that using Kurikara would make it very clear to their attackers which infant inherited Satan‘s blue flames.
Instead Shiro pivoted. Catching the man’s wrist against his forearm, and drove his boot into his knee hard enough to hear bone break. The man screamed. Shiro shot him before he hit the ground.
Something hissed through the air.
Shiro twisted.
Too slow.
A dart buried itself in his thigh. Shiro ripped it out immediately. His leg starting to feel numb.
“Shit.” This wasn’t poison. It was a paralytic. Designed for him maybe? Was the Vatican attacking them?
He didn’t have time to wonder. Not with two screaming infants strapped to his chest.
Shiro ran.
The trees blurred around him. Snow lashed against his face. His injured shoulder burned every time he moved, and his left leg was already becoming sluggish.
Rin wouldn’t stop crying. And Yukio’s cries were growing weaker.
“Stay awake,” Shiro growled.
He didn’t know which one of them he was talking to. Maybe himself.
The trees opened ahead.
A ravine.
Shiro stopped so abruptly his boots slid through the snow.
He turned.
Figures moved between the trees behind him. Too many. They had driven him here. Shiro realized as his eyes widen in understanding.
The cabin hadn’t been an ambush. It had been a herding operation.
Shiro’s jaw clenched.
“All this for a couple of babies?”
A white cloaked figure stepped forward. Shiro couldn’t see their face beneath the hood. Whatever human or demonic features they might have had beneath that damned white fabric.
“Give us the elder child.”
Rin screamed. Shiro’s lifted a protective arm to cover him.
“No.”
“You cannot protect both.”
“Watch me.”
The figure tilted their head. Then lunged forward to attack. And along with them, several other cloaked figures ran towards him as well.
Shiro had to move. And get him and the twins out of there.
The first man reached him and Shiro shot him through the throat. The second lost three teeth to the butt of Shiro’s gun. The third came from behind. Shiro spun and took the knife across his ribs instead of letting it reach Yukio. Pain exploding through his side. Shio ignored it as he drove his elbow into the attacker’s face.
Rin screamed.
Someone grabbed Shiro’s coat. He fired backward to get them off of him. Someone else caught his wrist. Shiro broke their arm.
There were too many of them. Too many hands. Too many weapons aimed at him.
And Shiro could feel the makeshift child wrap loosen with every quick movement he made.
Another dart struck him. Then another. His muscles were starting to slow. His vision blurring. Causing Shiro stumbled.
Shit!
Yukio slipped out of the wrap.
No, no, no!
Instinct took over.
Catch him!
Shiro dropped the gun.
His hand shot downward and caught Yukio before the newborn hit the snow. The newborn crying in distress from all the action. But otherwise safe.
For one second—one fucking second—both of of the twins were with Shiro.
Then a white sleeve flashed across his vision.
Rin was ripped from his place in the now very loose wrap that was barely keeping him attacked to Shiro.
The sound that came out of the exorcist wasn’t human.
“NO!”
Shiro lunged at the attacker that took Rin, Yur-his son, away from him.
Someone struck Shiro across the back. Making him fall to one knee. The Paladin’s limbs felt number by the minute. And his vision was getting blurrier.
Yukio was crying in his arms. Rin was screaming somewhere ahead of him.
Shiro forced himself to stand up.
His leg buckled.
He ran towards his kids cries anyway.
The trees tilted and spun around him. But even so, Shiro strained his eyes to spot for movement. Once he spotted it, he sprinted towards it. Despite the protest his body was screaming at him with.
White cloth flashed between a set of trees. A bundle held against someone’s chest. White hair visible above the blankets. Mouth wide as the infant continued to cry out for him.
“RIN!”
The baby’s eyes opened at the sound of his name. Shiro would forever be haunted by those eyes for years to come. Of Rin’s little face, red and wet with tears. With one tiny arm that worked its way free of the blanket.
Reaching for Shiro.
Shiro reached back. For one insane moment, he thought he could make it.
His fingers brushed the edge of Rin’s blanket.
Then the figure carrying him turned. Flashing a blade towards the bundle within the exorcists own arms.
Shiro jerked backward to protect Yukio. Using both of his arms to shield his son. The knife cut across his hands instead.
The kidnapper that held Rin then sprinted further away for him. Rin’s cries slowly fading away the further they went.
“No!” Shiro reached for his gun. Wanting to stop their attackers from taking his child. But he couldn’t. Because his gun was gone. Shiro had dropped it.
Dropped it to catch Yukio.
The hooded figure disappeared further into the trees. Rin’s screaming grew even more distant.
Shiro staggered after them.
“Rin!”
His legs finally collapsed beneath him. Shiro hitting the snow hard. Able to only twist his body at the last moment so Yukio landed against his chest instead of beneath him.
The world spun harder around him. Shiro tried forcing his way up and around to dig one hand into the snow and dragged himself forward. Crawling his way to his son’s rescue if he had to.
One arm. Then the other. Yukio tucked against his chest. Rin screaming somewhere in the dark.
“Rin!”
There was no answer. Only the wind as it blew more snow around them.
Shiro crawled faster anyways. Towards the direction he last saw Rin being taken to.
Branches tore at his face. Blood dripped from his hand into the snow. His muscles were barely responding anymore.
But Shiro could still hear him. He could still—
The crying stopped. Causing Shiro to freeze.
“No.”
Silence.
“No, no, no.”
He dragged himself another foot.
Then another.
“Rin!”
Nothing.
The forest was silent.
Shiro stayed there on his hands and knees, staring into the trees. Waiting. Listening.
But nothing happened. He couldn’t hear Rin’s crying anymore.
Against his chest, Yukio began to cry. A thin, frightened sound. Shiro looked down at him. The newborn’s face was red from the cold. His blankets were coming loose. Yukio needing warmth if he were to survive.
He needed shelter.
Shiro looked back toward the trees. One of his kids was gone. The other one was still here. Desperately needing to get out of the snow.
Shiro failed them. Failed Yuri. And she wasn’t even cold in her grave yet.
Shiro bowed his head in shame and regrets. Cursing himself under his breath. And made the hardest decision of his life.
He gathered Yukio against his chest and forced himself onto his feet. His legs barely holding him up. Shiro looking toward the direction he last saw Rin one last time.
“I’ll find you.” The words came out rough. Yukio continued crying against his chest. Shiro stared towards the trees where Rin had disappeared “I’ll find you, kid.”
He didn’t.
Not that night.
Not the next day.
Not the next year.
Shiro only found his own brief up blood in the snow. The bodies from the people he had killed. The weapons used in the ambush. And a scrap of Rin’s blanket caught on a branch.
Nothing else.
No organization claimed responsibility. No ransom was demanded. No body was ever found.
Rin Okumura simply disappeared. And Shiro hated himself for not saving him that day. Using that self hatred to fuel his efforts to continue looking for him.
For Yuri’s son.
For his son.