Flames of the Hell Spawn

Chapter 23: Ancient History

Ask and ye shall receive!!! I've returned from the depths of Hell (school) to bring you this...

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Assiah: 350 years ago, Mephisto's house 

Rin awoke in a bed that wasn't his in a room that wasn't familiar. His head felt like it was being crushed and his entire body ached, from his head right down to his tail. He started to sit up. A motion his screaming muscles rejected. Reluctantly, he stayed where he was, trying to figure out what had happened in the meantime. He remembered going on a mission with Yukio and the other exwires, only to have it go horribly wrong.  A demon he had never seen before had ambushed them. He remembered it started trapping the others and he pulled out his sword then... and then... 

A sharp pain hit his head. He couldn't remember. Everything was blank. His memories just stopped after he grabbed his sword.

He stayed there for awhile, just staring up at the ceiling. Rin didn't know how long he laid there, his head was pounding. A door opening grabbed his attention.

"I see you're awake, good. There are some mixed feelings about what to do with you my boy. Some of the exorcists want you contained, but most want you dead. I've managed to convince the Grigori, for now, to let you stay with me." Said a familiar voice.

"Me-phist-o." Rin hoarse voice choked out. He hadn't realized how dry his throat was until he spoke.

Mephisto cleared his throat. Perhaps he should have started off the conversation with asking how Rin was doing. The boy was rather injured.

"How are you feeling?" Mephisto asked.

"Wh... What happened?" 

"I suppose an explanation is needed." He sighed. Mephisto explained to Rin about what the spider demon had done to his brother and fellow exwires.

Rin was adamant that his flames could break the casing that trapped his brother and friends. But Mephisto reminded him that his flames had done nothing against the demon. It was nothing like the Michelle Neuhaus incident (1). Rin wouldn't be able to help this time.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" Rin's voice cracked.

"Nothing. You're under strict house arrest until the matter is resolved, then there will be another hearing to decide what to do with you." Mephisto explained.

He looked over to the upset expression on Rin's face.

"But for now, get some rest." He turned around and left the room. 

The King of Time and Space was a lot of things, cunning, deceitful, a trickster, an observer, but he was also an older brother. And as such he was concerned over his younger brothers situation. The best thing he could do for him at the moment was to let him rest.

-------------Break----------------

Weeks turned into months and soon the one year anniversary of the spider demon incident was approaching. Rin's morale had gone drastically downhill. Besides Kuro, Mephisto was his only source to the outside world.

It was late afternoon and Rin was sitting on the couch staring at the wall, like he often did, when Mephisto came bursting through the door with a large pile of books in hand that he dropped on Rin's head.

"What the hell!" The startled Rin jumped into a sitting position.

"I thought you might be bored and brought you something to do." Mephisto said with a wink.

Rin looked closer at the books and found that they were all books on Gehenna, Assiah and exorcism. After Mephisto left, Rin picked up one of the books and started reading. He wasn't normally one to study, but it was better than doing nothing.

Over the next few years Mephisto had brought Rin more books and even begun to tutor him in the ways of Assiah, Gehenna and sword play. Eventually Mephisto convinced the Grigori to let Rin accompany him when he went out. Rin never thought he'd find himself saying this, but he actually enjoyed the the demon kings company, after he had accepted that they were brothers. Sometimes that little fact still made his head spin.

 There came a point that where ever Mephisto was seen Rin would be right there with him. He was like Mephisto's shadow. 

For a while that was fine, but Rin eventually fell back into depression. Almost a century had pasted and things didn't seem to be changing. His twin and friends were still trapped, he didn't even know if they were alive and the exorcists didn't seem to be doing much to help them anymore. 

Mephisto noticing the state Rin was in, deiced to bring in an old friend to cheer him up.

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The King of Earth was surprised to say the least, to get a call from his elder brother to come and 'cheer up' their youngest. He wasn't sure what that entailed, but it had been nearly a century since he last fought with his littlest brother.

The King of time and Space wanted to keep Amaimons little visit a secret from Rin and the exorcists. He wanted to surprise the young halfling, hoping the sudden presence of the Earth King would shock him out of his depressed state. 

Mephisto gave Amaimon the key so he didn't have to sneak around or accidentally set off any alarms. Rin was, not surprisingly, laying on the couch completely dead to the world. Sucking on a lollipop, Amaimon jumped onto the back of the couch.

"Hmm... I'm bored." Amaimon said. Rin slowly glanced towards the voice. The first thing the earth king noticed was the empty look in the youngest eyes. It confused Amaimon, it wasn't a look he associated with the half demon. He was hot headed and quick to fight, not lethargic and empty.

 "Hey." Amaimon jumped off the couch and stood. "I said I'm bored." He poked Rin's face. 

"Go away." Rin's defeated voice said. 

Amaimon hummed and knelt in front of Rin. 

"But I want to play." When his persistent prodding of Rin's face and whining about wanting to play didn't work Amaimon switched tactics. He took the lollipop out of his mouth and shoved it into Rin's, effectively startling the young demon. Amaimon grabbed Rin by the wrist and yanked him off the couch and towards the door. 

"Wait! I can't leave without Mephisto!" Rin struggled to get away. 

"But brother gave me a key, it would be a shame not to use it." Amaimon said with a hint of a smirk, though Rin couldn't see it. 

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1- I wasn't sure if I should mention the Michelle Neuhaus incident. If I remember correctly it was only ever shown in the anime. I was really torn for a while about referencing it, but I decided to add it just so Rin had something similar to compare the situation to. 

 I know it kind of bounces around but I could write a whole new story about what happened to Rin afterwards, which I am in the process of doing. It's going to be a lot more detailed about what actually happened, these are just more like the main points. Don't expect it to soon though. I'm also working on a one piece fanfic that's been swimming, gnawing, clawing, and any other word you can think of for distraction, in my head for a while now and it's been making it difficult to write other things. So I figured I'd start getting it out of the way.  

There is also going to be a second part to this that focuses on how Rin ended up in Gehenna. But I'm currently swamped with homework and not sure when I'll get that one posted. I didn't want to leave you guys hanging though so I managed to get this part done. 

As always thanks for reading!!!! You guys are the best!!!!