Izumo was running through pure darkness. She could feel thousands of creatures crawling on her skin. Bites took out pieces of her own flesh, and stingers would fill her with toxins robbing her of her senses. Each step got slower and slower until she could barely walk. The girl finally collapsed as the poison melted her brain into mush.

"Izumo," A concerned voice called out to her in her dreams.

The pig-tailed girl blinked herself awake. Her back ached from resting on the old wood door behind her. She was in her school uniform, and her skirt had hiked up her thigh in her sleep. In front of her was Paku, who was staring at her friend with concern in her eyes.

She groaned as her consciousness grew clear. Paku bent down and put her hand on her shoulder, "Are you okay, Izumo."

"Paku…" Izumo responded.

"Rin still hasn't shown up?" Paku asked after a brief moment of silence. Izumo tried to respond, but a ball of dark emotions was lodged in her throat. She only nodded vigorously trying to confirm Paku's worries.

Her friend lowered herself to Izumo's eye level. Paku also placed her hand on Izumo's shoulder as a sign of assurance: "I'm sure he's fine. There have been times when he would disappear for days. He's either doing a job for Mephisto or fell asleep in the woods again."

Izumo was uncharacteristically angry with Paku: "He's not!"

She looked back at the door, which she was leaning against. It was the stained white door that led into Rin's apartment. Izumo's face fell. She spoke slowly trying to pick each word carefully, "He hasn't been to his apartment all night. I didn't see him in class yesterday. He didn't even tell me if there was anything he had to get done… Worst of all, I can feel it. Rin's in pain somewhere. Every time I think of him he's further and further away from me…"

Paku tried to say something, but a high pitched meow interrupted her. They both look down and see Kuro glaring at them. It shouted at them both though only Izumo could understand him, "Don't be an idiot! Rin will come back! He's only been gone a day and a half."

Izumo stared at the cat while her anger simmers to down to just embers. She gets up and approaches the cat. She holds out her hands and Kuro uses her arm as path to her shoulder. Kuro rests his head against Izumo's cheek. He says to her, "Shirou left me behind, but Rin still has a lot to do. We'll see him soon."

Izumo scratched behind his ears. She smiled briefly at Paku, "Sorry for snapping at you."

"I understand, Izumo-chan," Paku giggled, and she gave her a little wink, "You just miss your hubby."

Izumo blushed at the statement. She yelped back, "We just started dating!"

Paku offered her friend a hand. Izumo met her eyes and took it gladly. As she was raised to her feet, Izumo felt her stomach groan in pain. She doubled over as the pain overtook her. She tried to think back to her last meal, but could only remember the bread she ate yesterday.

Paku giggled, "Let's get some food! You got too used to Rin bringing you food every day."

Izumo blushed, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

The two began to walk towards the exit of the building. Kuro decided to stay back to look out just in case Rin came back. Paku asks her gently, "What are you in the mood for?"

Izumo wondered for a bit, and she responded remembering another voice, which used to say that, "Sukiyaki."

It was a long walk. Izumo had no Mephisto brand key to the apartments. She had to take a bus, and walk a collective two miles to get to Rin's apartment. She had homework the next day, but she couldn't care less. Her concern just grew worse overtime. It was never relieved not even in her sleep. Lethargy was slowly grabbing hold of her.

All these factors made the walk back even worse. Her legs gave way at the bottom of the stairs so Paku had to give her a shoulder to lean on. The one mile walk took about forty-five minutes to complete due to Izumo's slow pace. She felt terrible for weighing down on Paku so much, but Izumo's sudden anemia was too great a burden to bear.

When they finally arrived at the bus stop, Izumo collapsed on a green aluminum bench. Her head swayed back and forth rhythmically. The Izumo's head dipped down and shot up quickly in three successive movements. Paku slipped her arm behind her friend's back to stabilize her.

"Izumo!" Paku cried, "I'm getting worried. Maybe I should take you to the hospital, or at least the clinic in the dorm."

Izumo bent over and rubbed her eyes. She spoke with exhaustion and anger in her voice, "No, I just need food. I'm starving."

The bus soon came down the street. Its fluorescent glow was a comfort in the dark street since the sun was slowly beginning to fall. The winter season has cut down the hours in the day significantly. Paku helped her friend into the bus and sat her in the front. The only figure in the bus besides them was a hooded figure, who simply was playing on a hand held game.

As the bus ride continued Izumo's condition grew worse. Shivers erupted from her body and her body grew too numb for her to care about her surroundings. Her arms would twitch in random intervals as if she had Huntington's disease. Her vision started to go blurry. Between the white and black waves that masked her vision, she saw an eerie green glow and a mass of crawling bugs before her. In the next image, she would see Paku's concerned face.

As her delirium grew stronger, she heard a high pitched ring that started to grain at her mental fortitude. Her breath grew even erratic. In her panic, she could hear Paku shouting at her in fear. Soon the bus came to a stop and Paku recognized the street that was within the shadow of the school.

Paku collected her friend in a piggyback position, and slowly brought her of the bus. She heard the drive mutter something about drugs and the pathetic state of today's youth. Paku gritted her teeth at his thoughtless remark, and just continued to try to take her friend home.

She managed to make it down a block before her legs began to shake. As she felt her legs about give up, Izumo suddenly put a tremendous amount of force on her back driving her to the ground. After collapsing, Paku felt Izumo clamor towards a gutter. The gut wrenching sound she made and the tremors of her back told Paku what happened. Trying to help her friend, despite her cruel treatment, the girl ran over to hold Izumo's hair back.

Once Izumo began to recover, she swiped Paku's hands away. Not expecting this new treatment from Izumo Paku couldn't fight her sense of annoyance. She had to take a moment to breathe and calm herself before she said anything rude.

As Paku collected herself, Izumo stumbled to the other side of the side walk. Her now dehydrated-self perceived the world spinning wildly. She walked gently forward on the sidewalk. Her tears ran down her face from the strain. Every muscle in her body shivered from chills and pain. She stood on the side walk looking up into the sky. Her foot felt like it was swelling like a balloon.

Paku finally began to walk over to her friend. She placed her hand on Izumo's shoulder, and spoke, "Let's get you home!"

Izumo responds with a horrified scream. Her pupils shrank in horror and her legs buckle. After she couldn't scream anymore, rough pants scratched her strained throat. From her knees to her head, the girl erected herself in a straight line. As this happened, she gave a pitch gasp as if she was in the vacuum of space.

From her current position, she slowly relaxed her butt on to the sidewalk. Her shoulders dropped and her mouth formed a straight line.

Paku shouted out to deaf ears, "Izumo!"

Izumo cried out not caring about her surroundings, "It's gone! Rin, I can't… He's gone!"

Paku tried to speak over her friend's voice, "I can't stand this! Calm down Izumo."

The pig-tailed girl only responded with a muffled cry, "You don't understand. For a while, Rin and I… were connected. Ever since that kiss. Partly even before that. I lived like this for months, but it's gone now. I can't feel him. It's so cold…Paku…"

The girl stood up briefly before trying to lean her whole wait into Paku. The girl managed to bear the weight, but she grunted in effort. She looked down. Izumo wasn't in tears as Paku first thought. Her eyes were cold and empty instead.

Paku's eyes softened, "Oh, Izumo…"

A bright flash of light blinded both girls followed by the purr of an engine. A voice stole both the girl's attention. "Well, don't count him dead just yet girls."

Looking over to the origin of the flash of light and the voice, the girls both saw Mephisto smiling at them in his usual fluorescent glow. His ugly pink limousine purred behind him. The girls were still in shock over previous events, but Izumo managed to shake herself out of it. She ripped herself from Paku's arms and flung herself into Mephisto.

The demon seemed unaffected by her weight. She sobbed into his stomach causing Mephisto to grimace, "Where is he?"

"My, My," Mephisto bent over while presenting her with a pink and purple checkered handkerchief, "Rinny-poo, is such a monster for leaving you behind. I thought two days would be short enough for you, but I suppose teenagers and their…hormones."

Ignoring Mephisto's oddly disgusted face at the word, Izumo insisted further: "I don't care about anything else. Where is Rin?"

Mephisto ignored her question once again. He ushered both girls into his car, and said, "Now, now, we can have that chitchat and piddlywack in the car. Two girls in the streets at night is a very dangerous mix."

After filing into the car, Mephisto stared at both girls intently. Izumo stared back with the same amount of vehemence. She tried to speak, but she was quickly cut off by Mephisto's own words, "I want to hear exactly what you felt just moments ago."

Izumo was at first taken aback by Mephisto's actual use of a question appropriate to the situation. She didn't need to recall the feelings at all. Even if they were borrowed from Rin, each excruciating moment was burned into her.

"It started off with a sickness… Almost like a mixture of a vomiting, exhaustions, and muscles spasms." She paused almost as if she were uncomfortable just sitting down. "But that barely affected me compared with what came after. It was like I was being eaten alive. I felt thousands of little bites all over me. I could literally feel the weight being shed of me. I felt so much pain I could barely move. It was like lighting was running through my body. And just when I felt like I couldn't take the pain anymore it just stopped dead. After that I could only feel cold, and Rin too just seemed cold."

Mephisto just continued to smile at her, but Paku noticed his index finger beat against his cheek more rapidly than before. He waited for Izumo to ask the golden question.

As expected, she asked, "Is Rin okay?"

"Hell, No!" Mephisto replied joyfully.

"WHAT!" Izumo shouted tears brimming at the corners of his eyes.

"JK," Mephisto giggled and winked, "He hasn't died or anything, but unfortunately your so called connection has been cut."

"What do you mean?" Izumo raised her voice because of Mephisto's conversational meanderings.

"Well let's just compare a demon mating rite as a cell phone signal. You two are connected just mildly no matter the distance. Even between Assiah and Gehenna, the connection still exists; however," Mephisto added, "There are pocket dimensions. They don't cut the connection, they just delay it. Rin has been placed inside one of these pocket dimensions and they seem to stretch out time."

"Wait, wait, wait," Izumo interrupted, "Who put Rin in a pocket dimension?"

"…Dimension Grabbers" Mephisto adlibbed, "Nasty little buggers, very rare, very fast, very… dimension-y. Swooped down and took him to another dimension."

Paku shivered, "Are they dangerous?"

Mephisto replied quickly, "Don't worry they are very very rare. Ask any other exorcist they won't even know about them. I actually believe Satan sent them to pollute Rin's mind. They may have taken him to a very desolate or dangerous dimension to mess with his head. Satan may have even brainwashed him into thinking I was the cause. That's why I need Izumo here to calm him down."

Izumo asked with an eyebrow, "But that doesn't explain why I can't feel him anymore."

Mephisto nodded to her question and replied, "I'm not even sure. There hasn't ever been such a high ranking demon getting a mate before. They may have more control over than hobgoblins and coal tar, but I have to say it's good that you were cut off before it was too late."

"What do you mean?" Izumo questioned again growing angrier and angrier at his half-hearted explanations.

Mephisto seemed to stop beating around the bush because he answered her seriously, "Well I can't lie most likely he is dead, but I should have killed you as well. Demon mates are mates through life and death. Anyway your symptoms at best were the concentrated pain of Rin for about one day. He knew he was sending you these feelings and it may have damaged you. He may have summoned the will to snap the connection."

"Wait," Paku added, "Isn't it supposed to be like an absolute connection?"

Mephisto shrugged, "I don't even know at this point. You whole gross human-demon relationship is confusing enough. All I know is the bond is broken."

Izumo realizes once again the cold feeling in her chest. There used to be a constant flame warming her from the inside, but now it's gone. She felt like the molted shell of a cicada- so frail and transparent.

She heard Mephisto's smug voice ring out again, "Why do you seem so upset? Isn't this something you've desired? You can verify if those emotions for Rin are from you or that connection. Do you still love him?"

"Of cour-," The girl paused looking down worriedly. She brought her shaking hands to her chest, and any eye contact with Mephisto was avoided.

Mephisto smiled at her silence, "Don't worry we'll see him soon enough and you can make up your mind."

After that, the rest of the car ride was spent in silence. The girls knew they were heading towards the school. It was the same direction they were walking just moments ago towards their dorm, which was located on campus.

The ostentatious pink limousine gunned through the school gates, and approached the school. In the darkness, the school looked more like a castle than before. It seemed that the castle's owner had finally returned because the lights leading inside suddenly came to life. The two girls fought of the dizziness from their pupils dilating so quickly.

Mephisto took advantage of this because he dragged both of the girls out of the car. As they recovered, Mephisto continued to lead them through the school into his office. By the time they entered his plush paradise, the girls seemed to be coherent.

Izumo finally shouted out after being dragged that long way, "Are you taking us to Rin or not?"

Mephisto sighed with contempt, "Honestly, you people should just shut up and follow my lead."

Mephisto pulled out the familiar green key and plunged it into the same door as last time. He opened the door revealing the stone catacombs before him. Paku stepped back. Despite her lack of experience, even this girl could tell an ominous aura emanated from the tunnel. Mephisto gestured them over to follow him. Izumo desiring to see Rin once more immediately plunged into the darkness.

Paku took a slow step after her friend, but a sudden gust of wind from the tunnel held her in her tracks. Mephisto and Izumo had already disappeared from sight. With her friends gone, her courage also fled.

Inside the catacomb, Izumo finally managed to catch up to her principle. She observed his movements throughout the walk. They were rushed and choppy. His legs rotated in an almost robotic fashion. He would turn a corner so quickly; Izumo had no choice but to run after him.

In his rush, Izumo heard Mephisto muttering, "Oh dear, oh dear, I'm running out of time."

The longer they walked the more the feeling of uncertainty overwhelmed her. Mephisto seemed to have lost any mental edge she thought he had before. His movements no longer seemed human, and now the only reason she followed was due to her fear of being abandoned in this labyrinth.

As they continued to walk, Izumo sensed an ominous purple glow in the distance. Her breath rose in pace. She mostly followed Mephisto to not be alone, but the fear of the glow before her made Izumo second guess her initial instinct. Despite the passing thought of fleeing, the girl found herself before the source of the light.

Izumo had been through a lot these last few months. From meeting Rin to battling demons of all kinds, the pig tailed girl has experienced more than most people in their life time. The girl, despite this, may have lost a year of her life from shock.

"T-two Mephistos," The demon bride stuttered, "Is this a nightmare?"

In response, the Mephisto, which led her through the catacombs, collapsed to the ground. Upon closer examination, Izumo noticed that the pieces of flesh that once was Mephisto converted to pale pieces of wood.

Izumo turned her head from the marionette to its puppeteer. Mephisto was not in his usual garb. He wore white jeans and a black shirt with a pattern of chibi characters on the front. Noticeable trails of sweat were dripping down his face. A grimace of pain on his face had also made itself known to the girl.

In front of Mephisto was a transparent purple box that surrounded a glowing hole in the ground. Izumo stammered off, "What the hell is happening?"

Mephisto talked to her through gritted teeth, "Yes. I'm sorry I couldn't meet you in person had to send my double. I've been a bit busy. You just got here in time. I'm almost at my limit before my body would start to deteriorate."

"What are you even doing?" Izumo questioned.

"Well it has something to do with string theory and quantum mechanics, but to spare you from a brain hemorrhage I'll just say that I'm keeping the pocket dimension that Rin is stable enough for me to extract him in a couple minutes."

Izumo dared to walk right next to gaping hole in the ground. She could not make out anything through the glass like barrier Mephisto had put up. She couldn't make out any shape not even movement. The girl knew Mephisto would bring Rin here soon enough. Otherwise he wouldn't have brought her here. Mephisto must have pissed Rin off enough to need her to calm him down.

There was a long pause and in the faintly lit hall Izumo couldn't have tracked the time. In the long monotonous silence, Mephisto managed to cough out, "Well it seemed like the egg has hatched."

Mephisto's barrier faded into the ground. The purple hue of the room then switched to its original green. Izumo was now revealed to the hole and with it, came a sudden cold wind entering the hole along with a gust of foul-smelling warm air erupting from the hole. From within the hole, sounds similar to metal bending and wooden beams snapping.

Izumo turned to Mephisto and asked, "What's that noise?"

Mephisto was relaxing against the wall behind him. He locked eyes with her and smirked, "The dimension is now collapsing in on itself. Don't worry. Anything alive will manage to get out in time. Soon enough a thousand little buggies will come surging out of that hole along with a mildly aged Rin."

"Mildly aged?" Izumo turned her head to him, "How long was Rin gone exactly?"

Mephisto responded with clear conscience, "One year!"

Izumo's mouth opened slowly. She felt sick. To be gone longer than they've actually known each other. Would he even remember her? Especially since their connection has been broken.

"That's odd." Mephisto muttered to himself.

Izumo spoke through gritted teeth, "What's wrong now?"

Mephisto replied curtly, "The dimension should be the size of small room by now. There should be a lot of critters running out by now."

As if on cue, a single bug crawls out from the hole. It resembled a pill bug but was the size of a cat. It had a blue exoskeleton and long forked antennae with a bright violet color. As it left the hole, it seemed to hesitate. It only made sense. This was the first time it had entered Assiah without a host. Before it was simply a bad feeling, a demon so minor it could only influence the pollen in the wind, but now it had its whole body within the realm of earthly beings.

As its eyes were open to a bright new world, a clawed hand emerging from the hole crushed the bug. Its carcass was then set ablaze with a blue flame. Izumo felt relief instantly. The flame with such a beautiful hue had always reminded her of cheesy smiles and heart-warming jokes. Using that very hand that crushed the demon, the hand pulled up the rest of his body.

Izumo's heart quickened as her eyes were set on Rin's face once more. Her cheeks also grew flush at his appearance. Rin had grown in his year of solitude, and had even bulked up. His arms were bulging but the muscle rippled against the skin. The same went for his legs and chest. His stomach from a lack of food and constant work had been carved into rippling shreds of muscle. The reason Izumo could even observe this was that it seemed Rin had lost all of his clothes over the year either from battles or just overuse.

His hair had been pulled back into a pony tail to cope with its overgrown state. Izumo also could see pieces of flesh and exoskeleton creating a complicated system of holding Rin's hair back.

His face held no distinct countenance. It was almost blank. Besides just seeming a bit more aged, Rin's face had changed in only one way. His eyes no longer held life. They were just a blank blue hue. He looked around the catacomb for brief second, until his eyes rested on to Mephisto. A slight frown emerged on his lips. Ever so slightly, he raised his arm up towards Mephisto's direction.

Before Izumo could react, Mephisto appeared in front of her. He muttered out quickly, "Shit."

Mephisto materialized his umbrella but it was much larger than before. Its area could shield both him and Izumo. Peering over Mephisto's shoulder, Izumo saw Rin snap his finger then there was only blue.

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