Double Edge

Being both a demon and a human, Rin has the strengths of both. He also has the weaknesses.

(Set sometime after the whole Kyoto incident)

Shock

'Oi, Shima-San, you're not supposed to use the computer without the teacher's permission!' Konekomaru muttered.

'Relax~ I'm doing homework. Okumura-Sensei won't mind.'

It was nice sunny day outside, with light pouring through the stained glass windows, painting colourful patterns on the floor. Everyone was in class now, waiting for Yukio to arrive. Rin finished reading his Shonen Jump magazine and put it away in his school bag.

'What homework?'

'Scripture.'

'That doesn't look like any scripture I've ever seen.'

Bon joined his friends at the computer desk (the only one their cram school had. It was fought over greatly) and read over Shima's other shoulder.

'This is just poetry.'

'There might be new sutras in here,' Shima argued. 'The ones we already know started somewhere.'

'Yeah right.'

Rin didn't have anything better to do while they waited for Yukio to arrive so he walked over to the Kyoto trio and peered over Konekomaru's shaved head. The website Shima was on had dark colours and gothic fonts, but Rin thought it was a bit flashy. Honestly, it was kind of too goth, like whoever designed the site was trying too hard.

'Are you looking for new verses?' he asked.

Shima grinned up at him.

'Yeah. I'm sure there's something on the Internet we could use for exorcism, even if it's just ideas.'

'You're right! I find a lot of recipes online.'

'Exactly! The Internet is vast source of information, rivaling libraries!'

Someone snorted nearby, Izumo by the sound of it.

'This doesn't look anything like a proper scripture,' Bon said, frowning. 'The spelling's not even right!'

'Don't be so harsh, Bon. Someone put their feelings into this.'

'Some idiot who should get their spelling right before publishing.'

'Maybe it sounds better read out loud?' Konekomaru suggested. 'The best sutras always do.'

'One billion heartbeats

'Calling

Calling'

As Shima read the misspelt poem out Rin began to feel dizzy.

'One million heartbeats

Singing

Singing

One thousand heartbeats

The words burned and hissed in his ears, sounding nothing like Shima's voice. Icy cold flooded Rin's body and the edges of his vision darkened.

Thump!

'Screaming -'

'Rin!'

Moriyama-San's panicked cry cut Renzou's chanting off as Okumura-Kun collapsed suddenly

'Okumura?' Koneko-San crouched and turned him over. Okumura-Kun's skin was pale and clammy, smeared red with blood leaking from his eyes, ears and nose.

'Whoa!'

'Shit!'

'What the hell!?' said Bon. 'Did something attack him?'

'I don't see anything unusual in here,' Izumo-Chan said, surveying the classroom carefully.

Moriyama-San kneeled by Okumura's side, already asking Nii-San for something to help with bleeding and fainting.

'Rin, can you hear me? Wake up! Oh, I hope this will do it...'

Bon joined Izumo-Chan in searching the room for an unknown threat while Takara sat and watched the chaos and Koneko-San anxiously helped Moriyama-San wipe blood off Okumura's face.

Fuck, Renzou thought, what the hell could have made Okumura-Kun collapse like that? So suddenly?

Wait.

He whirled around in his chair to face the computer screen.

Screaming

Screaming

'Oh shit...'

'Good afternoon everyone - what's going on here?'

'Sensei!'

'Yuki-Chan! Rin's hurt!'

Okumura-Sensei strode over to the computer desk, his eyes widening in shock as he saw his brother sprawled on the ground.

'Nii-San... What happened to him?'

'We don't know, Yuki-Chan! He just fainted.'

'We thought a demon could have attacked him, but there's no sign of one in the classroom,' Izumo-Chan reported.

Okumura-Sensei felt Okumura-Kun's pulse and checked his vitals, muttering to himself.

'Um, guys?' Renzou's stomach twisted itself in knots. 'I know this sounds crazy, but, uh, I think this might be my fault.'

'What do you mean, Shima-San - Oh my god,' Koneko-San gasped. 'No way, that sutra?'

'What sutra?' asked Sensei.

'It's not really a sūtra. Even if it had been, it never occurred to me that...' Renzou pointed to the computer.

Sensei mouthed the text and looked down at Okumura-Kun again.

'... How much of this did you read aloud, Shima-Kun? At what point did he collapse?'

'About here, the start of the third verse.'

'I see.' He felt Okumura-Kun's vitals again, face pale.

'I'm like, so, so sorry. I had no idea...' Renzou felt like shit.

'You can't blame yourself, Shima-San,' said Koneko-San. 'How could you have known this would happen?'

'We were all careless,' Bon said gravely. 'We should have been more careful in class when we knew we were using real sutras.'

'I'm going to take Okumura-Kun to the infirmary,' Okumura-Sensei decided. 'I'd like one of you to write down the URL of that website, then you all can read the next chapter of your green textbook.'

Bon and Renzou carefully placed Okumura-Kun on his brother's back and held his tail out of the way as Okumura-Sensei stood up. It was softer than Renzou expected. The short, dark fur was smooth and thick, like a cat's.

'Yuki-Chan, I'll go to the infirmary with you,' Moriyama-San said. 'I'm still looking after Rin.'

'OK. Thank you, Moriyama-San,' Sensei said quietly. 'If I'm not going to be back by the end of class,' he told everyone else, 'I'll send a text.'

I'm not gonna be able to focus at all, Renzou thought, watching them leave.

Koneko-San and Izumo-Chan returned to their seats quietly. Renzou looked at Okumura-Kun's blood on the floor.

Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Beep.

Hmmmm...

Sh...

'You're printing it off?'

'I don't have your memory, Bon.' He folded the print out away and deleted the computer's history. 'What if I forgot which poem was dangerous?'

I never want this to happen again.

After nearly an hour of trying to read, Bon's cellphone received a text from Okumura-Sensei telling them class was dismissed.

[How's Okumura?]

Buzz buzz!

[He hasn't woken up yet.]

XXX xxx XXX

The blue sky, dimming in the evening lit a gap in the infirmary curtains. It crept under Rin's eyelids through his lashes.

His whole body felt chilled and cramped, except his head, which burned inside and out, as though he'd washed his hair in holy water. Inside his mouth was the bitter taste of blood.

One thousand heartbeats...

He flinched, and moaned as the movement sent pain shuddering down his body.

'Nii-San? Are you awake?'

'Yukio?'

Rin slid his eyeballs over to look at his brother sitting next to his bed, trying to read a textbook.

'Hey Yukio. How come I'm in the infirmary? What happened?'

The frown lines in Yukio's forehead smoothed away. He looked around the large, elaborately decorated room anxiously and said, quietly,

'You almost died today, Nii-San, hearing your fatal verse.'

'... Eh? Fatal verse? I have one of those?'

'Yeah, we found out when Shima-Kun nearly killed you by accident.'

'Shima did? Oh yeah, he was chanting something -'

Screaming...

'Ngh!'

'Nii-San, are you okay?'

'Yeah. Hey, what time is it? How long was I unconscious?'

'A few hours.'

Only a few hours? Not bad.

'So, when can I go back to our dorm?'

'Not until tomorrow at least.'

'Aw...'

Something shifted against Rin's side and he noticed Kuro snuggled against him, under his blanket.

'Cool, I didn't know they let cats in the infirmary.' He moved an arm to stroke Kuro's fur.

'They don't. I smuggled him in.'

'Pft! Really?'

'In my briefcase.' Yukio sounded way more relaxed now, even though it must have been hard for him to communicate the idea to Kuro.

Rin chuckled.

'I haven't missed dinner have I?'

'Are you hungry?'

'Ah, not yet. Do they still have sukiyaki on the infirmary dinner menu?'

'How often are you admitted here, Nii-San?' Yukio asked, looking alarmed. 'Have you been getting into fights when I have overnight missions?'

'Just how delinquent do you think I am?' Rin winced as his head throbbed with pain again and lowered his voice.

'I know the menu because the cooking club sometimes helps make the school meals.'

'You do? I wouldn't expect that at a prestigious boarding school.'

'Nah, it just means the cooking club is prestigious too.'

XXX xxx XXX

A couple of specialists checked Rin before they let him eat and he felt asleep five minutes later. He didn't wake up until mid-morning, and slept again after a late breakfast. In the afternoon most of his cram school classmates visited him.

'Hey Rin. Sorry about nearly killing you.' Shima rolled his beaded bracelet between his fingers.

'Don't worry about it. It was an accident.'

'I know, right? No one saw that coming. Not even when we were using real sūtra did we think about it being dangerous for you. But we're gonna be a lot more careful now, of course, and Bon's already trying to work out what kind of scripture is the most risky and... yeah.'

... What were you supposed to say when someone nearly killed you by accident? Shima hadn't been reckless either; they really hadn't even considered the danger. Not even the scripture teacher.

'OK.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah. I understand. Still, you could treat me to lunch from the cafeteria.'

'Sure.' Shima's whole body slumped in the fancy chair.

'There's this really nice looking sandwich they have once a month with pork cutlets and stuff. A senpai from cooking club said he had it once and it was like something from a five-star restaurant...'

XXX xxx XXX

Small

'Everyone watch out! It's Okumura!'

'Get back!'

With great satisfaction, Rin watched his classmates run away from him as he approached.

'What a monster.'

'Don't try to take him head on!' someone yelled. 'He's too strong!'

'You're gonna die, Arai!'

Arai was six centimetres taller than Rin, and several kilos heavier, but his face was pale with fear.

Damn, Rin loved P.E.

Today was really sunny and warm so they played cricket on one of True Cross Academy's fields. There was another class playing soccer on the next field and a baseball game further ahead.

He grinned at Arai and stretched his arms.

'You ready?'

The taller boy grit his teeth.

'Come, Okumura!'

'Nice. I like that spirit! Here I go!'

Rin took his arm back and launched the heavy red ball at his classmate. Arai jumped and swung his cricket bat as hard as he could.

WHACK!

'There it goes!'

'Run, Arai!'

'Over there! Catch it!'

'Nice throw, Okumura!'

Because he had prioritized strength to match Rin's bowl, Arai's aim was thrown off and he only got a couple of runs before Rin's teammates threw the ball back to him.

'Be careful!'

'Try hitting to the left!'

WHACK!

Hmm, he didn't wimp out on the second bowl.

'Good batting!'

'Run!'

'Holy shit!'

Well, P.E. hadn't always been so fun, Rin thought as he watched Arai sprint towards him. Not when he was a wild little brat. But now he was getting the hang of toning it down so he wouldn't hurt his classmates. He could crack Arai's skull open if he wanted.

Now, time to crush him with an amazing bowl! They hadn't seen anything yet!

Rin stretched out into a long stance and pulled his bowling arm all the way back. Arai and the poor wicket keeper behind him flinched. He shifted his weight forward and flicked the ball with less than a quarter of his earlier strength.

As expected, it completely threw Arai off and he sent the ball right into Rin's teammates' hands.

'Out!'

'Yes!'

'No!'

'Alright Okumura!' Nobuaki came up and clapped Rin on the back. 'Keep it up, man! Mizuno's up next; he's no pushover!'

'I'll bowl him over - owch!'

There was a sudden stinging pain in his left arm as Nobuaki ran back to his spot on the field. Rin forgot about it as he took Mizuno on and threw him a harder ball than he gave most of his classmates.

But as the batters started their run, Rin's arm began to swell up and burn.

'Oi, are you OK?' Konomi asked as he reached Rin's side of the run again and the ball came back. 'What's wrong with your arm?'

'I don't know.'

'It looks like you got stung by something. Are you allergic to something?'

'I don't know, I've never been stung before.'

Rin's whole arm was turning red and his throat felt thick.

'Someone get sensei! Okumura's having an allergic reaction!'

A confused panic spread over the field and Rin wished he could say he was fine and ask Yukio about allergies later.

'Is something from with Okumura? Is he sick?'

'He's been bitten by something, look at his arm!'

'Are you OK?'

Their P.E. teacher ran back from the girls' cricket game with the class rep in tow.

'Sit down, Okumura-Kun. How do you feel?' he asked. 'Are you dizzy?'

'Um, my arm hurts,' Rin said.

'Ok, are you having trouble breathing?' Kishimoto-Sensei grilled Rin about his symptoms and allergies in the family while the class rep pressed an ice pack from a first aid kit on his arm.

'Nobuaki-Kun and I will escort Okumura-Kun to the infirmary and tell his Home Room teacher about this incident,' Sensei decided. 'Haruno-Kun, look after the class until I come back.'

'Yes, Sensei.'

'Okumura-Kun, can you walk?'

'Yeah, Sensei,' Rin said as he stood up. 'Let's go.'

XXX xxx XXX

'Sorry I'm late.'

'You're usually on time for class,' said Shura. 'Which is pretty weird, actually. You're not the type at all.'

Rin couldn't deny that.

'Anyway, I've got a note so you can't give me detention. Here.'

He handed Shura the note the nurse from the regular student infirmary had given him (actually his first time there and not the special exorcist ward) to read. Her eyes popped open in shock.

'No way! You had an allergic reaction to a bee sting!? I don't believe it!'

'What?' Bon exclaimed. 'A bee sting?'

'Wow,' Shima murmured. 'How unexpected.'

'He was the student we heard about during P.E. today.'

Shura marched over to Rin and grabbed his arm wrapped in gauze. The skin around it was still red and swollen.

'Woah~ I didn't think you of all people would be weak against bees.'

Rin pouted.

'Everyone's got something they're weak against!'

'Yeah, yeah. OK, you can take your seat now.'

XXX xxx XXX

Extra

'Come on, kids! Keep up!' Tsubaki-Sensei called from ahead.

'Haa! - haa! - I hate practising retreat in this forest!' Shima panted. 'Ugh, bugs!'

'I love practising in the forest!' Rin jogged beside Shiemi.

'Me - haa! - Too!' she wheezed. 'It's so - haa! - Green! Oh! Look out, Rin!'

Shiemi snatched his wrist and yanked him back, tripping them both over.

'Woah! Shiemi!? What's wrong!?'

'There's a bee!' she shrieked, pointing at a little black-and-yellow stripped insect hovering in the air.

Bzzz...

'What's wrong with you two?' Izumo yelled back.

'There's a bee! Don't let it near Rin!'

Izumo stumbled.

'Just run around it!' But she came back and hustled Rin past the danger with her own body guarding his.

Inconvenient

Dammit.

Rin glared up the seal winking at him from the toilet door. What the hell was it doing there? Was there an infestation of demons? A ghost haunting the urinal?

Damn, he really needed to go.

Could he make it to the bathroom on the next floor? Rin turned to make a run for it and doubled over as his bladder throbbed.

'Argh, stupid, stupid seal!'

Thud!

Bzz!

'Ow!'

Oh man, kicking the door was a seriously bad idea. God, he was gonna make a puddle right here on the floor!

Wait.

He looked up.

The girls' bathroom.

Should he? It had to better than pissing himself or waiting for someone to let him in.

Throb~

'Uhhh...'

Cursing whoever was responsible for locking him out, Rin crawled over to the girl's room and went in.

XXX xxx XXX

'Ugh, I hate getting my period.'

!?

Rin froze with his fly still open.

'I know, I feel so gross and unsexy.'

'At least we don't have swimming in P.E. next.'

Shit. There were girls out there!

'I have chocolate in my lunch box, want some?'

Oh please don't find me here!

'Thanks, Kaoru-Chan.'

'Oh, hello Noriko-Chan.'

Shit, Rin thought, not her too.

The other girls left and Rin awkwardly waited for Noriko Paku to do her business and leave.

'... Is someone in there?'

No!

'That key chain... Okumura-Kun?'

Shiiit~ His bag was visible through the bottom of the door! Noriko recognised the anime key chain hanging off it.

'Ah, hi Noriko...'

'It's really Okumura-Kun?'

Rin laughed weakly.

'Yeah. The guys' bathroom was locked. Sorry for the intrusion... Please don't tell anyone I had to come in here.'

'OK.'

'Really? Thanks!'

Thank god it was her he met here. What a chilled out girl.

'No one's out there; you can sneak out now.'

Flush~

Zip~

Rin darted out of his cubical and said,

'Thanks, I owe you!' to Noriko before he ran from the girls' room.

XXX xxx XXX

'Oi! Noriko!'

Paku looked up from her desk to see Okumura-Kun waving at her from the classroom door.

'Morning!'

'Good morning, Okumura-Kun.'

He came over to her desk with a large bento box.

'Thanks for helping me out the other day. You like plum sauce, right?'

'Who's the cutie?' Horio-Chan from the desk behind asked.

'It's Okumura from class 1 D.'

'That punk?'

'How does he know Noriko?'

Okumura-Kun's tail was swishing shyly behind him as he heard the girls around them whispering.

'Thank you, Okumura-Kun. I'm looking forward to this!'

Shared

'Nii-San, wake up.'

...

'Wake up, Nii-San. You're not going to have time to eat if you don't get out of bed now.'

'Uhh, alrigh', Yukio, I'm getting up.'

Rin pushed his covers back and coughed. He felt like shit this morning. His throat was sore and his head hurt, and his skin felt weird.

'Hnn, are you OK, Rin?' Kuro asked sleepily from Rin's blankets.

'Did I wake you up, Kuro? Sorry. Ah, I don't feel well this morning.'

'Hey, you've got spots on your face.'

'Spots?'

Rin went to the bathroom and peered in the mirror. Kuro was right; there were red spots on his face, and down his neck... and his chest too. He pressed one. It didn't feel like a pimple.

'Oi, Yukio! I think I'm coming down with something! I'm covered in spots!'

'They're called pimples, Nii-San!' Yukio called back. 'You're not sick, you're going through puberty!'

'They don't feel like pimples!' Rin found his brother in the kitchen to show him.

'See? And I feel sick as well.'

'Oh. It looks like chicken pox.' Yukio sounded really surprised.

'Chicken pox? Didn't we get shots for that when we were little?'

'We did, but no vaccination is perfect. You'd better not go out, chicken pox is very contagious.'

'Awww. For how long?' Rin whined. The weather was so nice outside.

'I'm not sure. I'll look it up.' Yukio poured tea for them both.

'Shouldn't you know this already, being a doctor class?'

'I'm an exorcist doctor. Demon related sicknesses are different from human diseases.'

'Oh. You're probably gonna get it too you know, since you sleep across from me.'

'Not necessarily, I've been out a lot this week. Go back to bed, Nii-San. I'll tell your Homeroom teacher you're sick.'

XXX xxx XXX

He was still tired, despite having an early night before, so Rin spent most of the morning asleep. He woke up to feed his growling stomach at eleven.

'Why are you getting two bowls out, Rin?' Kuro asked.

'I have a feeling Yukio will be joining us for lunch,' Rin answered, stirring the soup. 'He didn't look so great either.'

Ten minutes later Yukio trudged into the kitchen, sighing.

'Hey, Yukio. This'll be done in ten minutes so you can get changed now if you want.'

'You were right!' Kuro exclaimed. 'I saw spots! But how did you know what time he'd come back?'

'Cause I know him really well. Yukio used to get sick a lot.' Rin was glad that despite everything, he still knew his brother's timing for getting sick.

'Now that I think about it,' Yukio said as he came back with his pyjamas on, 'Someone I met on a recent mission was sick. I thought they just had a cold, but they might have been coming down with chicken pox. Ah, that smells nice. Is it chicken soup?'

'Yeah, but I added some herbs I bought from Shiemi. Her shop also sells stuff for normal colds and stuff. Here you go, Kuro.' He put Kuro's food and water bowls on the table.

'Do you know to use them?' Yukio asked, eying his soup nervously.

'Don't worry, Shiemi wrote me a list. I even made you herbal tea last night.'

'... The sun is rising from the West.'

XXX xxx XXX

Shura couldn't believe it. She had been skeptical when she heard Rin was sick and came to see if he was up for some candle training, and here she found him, snoozing under a kotatsu on a warm day!

And Yukio too. The little scaredy four-eyes was sprawled across the heated table, snoring.

Textbooks and paper were pressed under the boys' cheeks and their big soup mugs were in danger of rolling away.

To her own surprise, Shura found herself tidying up. It was something about their pathetically spotty skin and gentle sleeping faces.

'Haa... I'm too nice.'

'Oh my, they really are sick.'

Shura pretended that hadn't startled her and turned to glare at Mephisto.

'Twins getting sick together, isn't it cute? Matching spotty faces~'

'That's the reason you came?'

Mephisto beamed at her.

'Of course! Mind you don't get too close to them,' he added. 'They'll be highly contagious for a week.'

'I've already had chicken pox. Oo, I wonder if their spots are itchy yet? That's nasty.'

'Looking forward to it?'

'Nya ha ha!'

Notes and translations

Bento - A sort of lunchbox meal.

Chan - Honourific commonly added to the name of a girl if she's familiar to you and usually the same age or younger. Can also be used on kids, pets, lovers and in nicknames.

Kotatsu - a sort of heated table with a blanket you slid your legs under. Very popular during winter.

Kun - The same, but more used on males. You might call your female student or employee 'Moriyama-Kun' though, because Chan tends to be more familiar and cute.

Nii-San - (How Yukio addresses Rin, not Shiemi's familiar.) A way of saying "older brother."

San - a polite fit for anyone.

Senpai - Upperclassman. You can call an older student or a senior this.

Sensei - "One who has come before." Any teacher or professional may be called this.

Sukiyaki - A soup or stew cooked in hot pot. Meat is slowly cooked with vegetables in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar and mirin. More on Wikipedia.

Information about chicken pox from Wikipedia and Kidshealth dot org dot nz