Rin Okumura

Rin tried his hardest to block out the fact that there were apparently other version of him and his brother that were a couple, not wanting to become a useless, vomiting mess. However, he couldn’t stop green hints from returning to his complexion. “Of course it didn’t work. Awakening doesn’t change who you are, y’know,” he said simply. raising an eyebrow. “It makes your emotions stronger, sure, but it doesn’t change your core personality.” 

"That’s… kind of a relief, actually," Rin admitted with a small sigh, rubbing his temples; he was barely comfortable with any kind of romance, let alone romance involving other versions of his brother.

"M-Maybe you just got off on the wrong leg?" The young demon could see why their personalities would clash, but that didn’t stop him from wanting everyone to get along.

"I’ve never lost control because someone didn’t like me back, even when I was younger," he replied solemnly, folding his arms across his chest. "And I wasn’t exactly rejected… nicely.” It’d only happened a few times, but those few times were enough to make Rin swear off of being even remotely romantically interested in a human for the next century, at least. He could only take so much of the object of his affections screaming at the sight of him. “Most of the time, I got screamed at and called a monster before I could even say anything.”

Rin fidgeted with his hands, looking away from the other and towards the window. “Eventually, I-I figured out I wasn’t the kind of person most humans would… want to be with, s-so I— I stopped trying. Every time I saw someone I thought was pretty, or I got a crush on someone, I just pushed it out of my head ‘cause it would never happen.” Rin’s eyes went wide as he realized who exactly he was saying this to, turning to the other with a frantic look. “N-Not that you should give up o-or anything! I-It’s just me, ‘c-cause, y’know, I-I’m n-not very good at the whole talking to humans thing even without romance, a-and my glamour only affects my appearance s-so if someone held my hand o-or— or something, i-it would be really bad,” he backtracked, waving his hands around nervously. “M-Maybe when I g-get older. L-Like when I’m a hundred or something.”

"I-I’m sorry, I kind of went on a ta-tangerine, didn’t I?" Rin said, face and ears turning bright red as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I-I guess the point I was trying to make is that demons don’t have to act on every single emotion to be stable. I mean, it’s bad to keep things pent up, but you can just admit it to yourself, accept that it happened, and move on without acting on it. It can be really hard, especially with more powerful feelings, but it’s not impossible.Your brother probably just needs help learning how to do that," he explained, looking thoughtful as he fiddled with the hem of his shirt. "…There are human doctors that are supposed to help with that, aren’t there? Yukio told me about them once. They heal the mind instead of the body, and they do it just by talking,” he said, sounding somewhat awed at the thought; Rin seemed to have the idea that therapists mystically cured people with the power of words, as if they were exorcists reciting Fatal Verses for the demons inside one’s own mind.

Clearly, the concept had not been explained to him very well.

"I-I don’t think you’re a monster," he said softly, his voice barely audible by human standards. "What you did was really, really bad… but everyone does bad things, I think. You regret it and that’s what matters." That’s what his Ma had told him his entire life, and Ma was never, ever wrong.

Rin went pale at the description of the Evil Yukio, looking fairly clammy and nauseous. It so far from his brother and every Yukio he’d met that it was unnerving; in the right environment, could his kind, intelligent, sensitive younger brother really have turned out like that? He couldn’t imagine the boy who used to cry when he came across a dead bird taking pleasure out of the pain of others.

Of course awakening wouldn't change his feelings toward his brother. He should have known. Yukio had felt the way he did about him before he awakened, or so he claimed. Then again, Yukio had been born a demon. How was he supposed to know the two things weren't related? He hadn't met anyone in his own situation, born human, became a demon, and still didn't feel those feelings.

---[ "M-Maybe you just got off on the wrong leg?" ]---

Rin sighed. Did he and that particular Yukio clone get off on the wrong leg? Well he got off on the wrong leg a lot, with a lot of different people. So maybe that's all it was after all.

---[ “Most of the time, I got screamed at and called a monster before I could even say anything.”]---

Rin could only imagine how his brother would react to that. At least he hadn't called his brother a monster. He wouldn't have done that even if he wasn't concerned about provoking his brother's mental unrest. Yukio already called himself a monster, and he wouldn't move on. He would express endless self hate, and keep thinking about those rejections. If Rin hadn't done something, and 'love him back' was a more effective something than what he had been doing so far, that sort of feeling would ruin his control, Rin had assumed. What happened before was internalization of various issues made him snap, so too did the flames erupted with it. But more than that, Rin had never seen his brother train often, because he didn't want to. So he wasn't exactly sure what would happen if Yukio tried.

Nevertheless, Rin's eyes widened and went slack-jawed. How could this Rin not lose himself after going through that? "You ... kept control after that? That's amazing! You're amazing!"

---[ “Eventually, I-I figured out I wasn’t the kind of person most humans would… want to be with, s-so I— I stopped trying. Every time I saw someone I thought was pretty, or I got a crush on someone, I just pushed it out of my head ‘cause it would never happen.” ]---

Rin felt that was a pity. Would he feel like that in the future, once he had been a demon for a while? No, wait....

"You know, there are girls our age who are really into the non-human thing. They're rare but they exist. I bet you can find them on the net. There's people like Shiemi and Kamiki too, who know but don't care either way. I like Shiemi. If it weren't for Yukio I'd ask her on a date." Though confessing was a lot scarier than he made it sound...What was the point of thinking about that? He was already restricted, romance wise. Yukio had already threatened to kill his lovers. Shiemi, 'Yuki'. He didn't realize the other Rin meant 'tangent' when he said 'tangerine.'

---[ "I-I guess the point I was trying to make is that demons don’t have to act on every single emotion to be stable. I mean, it’s bad to keep things pent up, but you can just admit it to yourself, accept that it happened, and move on without acting on it. It can be really hard, especially with more powerful feelings, but it’s not impossible.Your brother probably just needs help learning how to do that," ]---

---["…There are human doctors that are supposed to help with that, aren’t there? Yukio told me about them once. They heal the mind instead of the body, and they do it just by talking,” ]---

"Yes!" Rin exclaimed, slapping his palm with a fist. "That's what he needs! He needs a therapist," Rin nodded, "who can teach him how to let go." Rin frowned after saying that. "Why didn't I ever think of that? The Exorcists have really, really good ones." His brother couldn't talk to a 'normal' one without them trying to fix his 'chuunibyou.'

"Anyway, since the one I like is Shiemi, I don't think she'll yell and scream at me. I just haven't because Yukio gets really possessive. He did say that if I date someone they might accidentally 'die if he loses control at them' And that it would be my fault." All the more reason to drag him to therapy (kicking and screaming.) Rin had an 'episode' after.

---["What you did was really, really bad… but everyone does bad things, I think. You regret it and that’s what matters."]---

"Which is why I told Yukio if he did that, if he let that happen, if he killed a human, that he deserved to die," Rin continued. "I shouldn't have said that, it was such a bad thing to say. I felt bad saying it. But he had time to use his flames as a threat to me. I might be remembering wrong, but I'm not sure he minded the thought of doing that at all. He's not a mean guy. It scared me so much that a switch went off in my head and my personality changed, and I turned his threats right back in his face."

That part of him made him feel sick. But at the same time it didn't. Sometimes he needed it, it made him feel smarter. Sometimes it was a way for him to just...vent. 

And sometimes, when other Yukios actually acted on the same horrible things his own Yukio said, his 'words' became 'actions' and he tried to 'correct' his little brother, in a sense, with force. Hence, now one of his brother's doubles was dead. Did he regret it? Yes, but his feelings were more complicated than that.

"I keep thinking about what Yukio said. There are just so many reasons I felt it was okay to kill that other one back then, and all of them are because he was like a worse version of my brother. I'm scared it will happen again even if I regret it now. That's what makes me a monster."

---["B-But they’re s-supposed to w-want humans and demons to live together peacefully, a-aren’t they? Th-They aren’t supposed to want one to eat the other… Lucifer-sama wouldn’t want that. Right? Th-Those people m-must have done it without h-his permission,”]---

Why was Forest-Fairy-Rin depressed? Did he support them? Why? He didn't seem like a bad person. Was a misunderstanding to blame here? Rin frowned. This Rin certainly admired Lucifer. And what he was saying was true. But not the complete story. None of them knew the complete story. Rin had to take that into account.

"Yeah, but... The Illuminati also..." Rin paused to think. "...bombed my brother's school. Lucifer did that himself. And he made it sound like they get peace by wiping existence once Assiah and Gehenna merge. Satan is cooperating with him. He's making Satan a vessel. That's why they kidnapped a lot of people and turned them into zombies, trying to test some immortality juice. Lucifer ordered them to do that. That's all I know. I still don't get how demon eaters fit into this. I don't know if 'peace' between humans and demons makes what they're doing okay, especially not if everybody dies. 'Sides, if I join them I'd probably die too huh?" That Morinas demon was spying all the time, making sure he-

Shit.

Shit.

"I totally forgot about their dumb contract and I just broke it! I'm going to be killed!" Rin threw his hands in the air, scratched his head, and flames came out. Unless he could beat what kind of demon they sent after him, he was dead. Rin paused, and the flames dimmed. He was 'Satan's son,' so he could beat it, right?

Kirito was all too aware of what happens when feelings go out of control, except he can never remember what happens. People tell him that his eyes turn a golden yellow and he does stuff that he shouldn’t be able to do. He really can’t tell if they are pulling his leg or are being serious since he always forgets that part of the fight. He continued to listen to the other without speaking a world. When he mentioned the blue flame was actually Satan’s things made a bit more sense. That explained the feeling of respect when he first saw it.

"I know a little bit about what you mean by loosing control of your emotions. Except when I loose control of mine, it’s always during an intense fight and I just can’t remember what happens."

The two big fights where he has a blank in his memory are two that he really doesn’t want to remember. Both fights were battles for his and many other people’s lives and both times he barely survived the fight. He pushed the memories back, he knew this was neither the time nor the place to be reflecting on previous battles. He finished listening to what the other had to say before nodding his head slowly. It really didn’t make sense to him about how only a few humans could see him, but so far everything the other has been telling him seems to be the truth. He also seems to not be anywhere near home, so he also didn’t have a choice but to trust the person who obviously knew his way around.

Maybe if Rin investigated the cave, he'd learn something about this mysterious demon. Though he wasn't sure what he'd find with his limited investigation skills. He really wished his partner were still around to do that for him. He had no one else to do the talking, either. If he was going to figure out what was going on, he'd have to continue asking questions.

"You said you didn't have a tail before, right? That's important. You're sure you didn't?"

Rin reflected on the recognition on Kirito's face as soon as he mentioned his control problems. And what Kirito said after that proved it. Not only were his existing situations odd, but he had control problems. According to the rules Rin was used to, that meant he was somehow...emotional. Possibly from a rare breed of demon. But there was another possibility. He was a former human, like him. A demon eater, or someone who employed the same techniques. But that didn't seem right, either. No, it definitely wasn't. Demon-eaters were visible to others. Kirito wasn't. Rin rubbed his eyes and face, frustrated.

Right after, he sent the picture directly to Lightning's work email, titled 'idk what this is the other guy ran off' hoping Kirito hadn't seen him send it off. Then again, Kirito probably didn't even know exorcists were after him.

To his surprise, Lightning replied immediately. 'I've never seen that before! It's a new species of demon! Follow it!'

"Wait, seriously?!" Rin accidentally said out loud. Even the demonology-guy Lightning had never seen it? This was just getting weirder and weirder, Rin thought as he studied Kirito.

Was the simple response from Kirito with the addition of a shrug, as he shut his eyes for a moment and opening them again. He didn’t see what the big deal was, he spoke his opinion and if the other didn’t agree that really wasn’t his place to judge. Though the other’s facial response to his comments suggested what he said wasn’t exactly a common response. Kirito wondered for a few moments if he should just play along with what the other was saying.

He figured since he really wasn’t sure if getting home was an option, he decided to play along with what the other was saying. His reasoning was that maybe he could get some valuable information from the other by playing dumb. He wasn’t sure how long the act would last, since he seemed to confuse the other with a few of his statements.

"Nice to meet you Rin. I just felt like that should be common knowledge for some reason. I can only remember a few things clearly. My name, my race, and that I’m really good with using one and two swords. Much more than that is fuzzy."

He then watched a ball of fire appear in the other’s hand. He was used to seeing fireballs from the mages in ALO. Heck he’s been the target of many, except he’s never seen a blue ball of fire. He wish he could ask Suguha about that, but as of right now that really wasn’t an option. But he felt like he should respect the color of the blue flame, he just didn’t know why exactly. A simple shake of his head was the response that he gave to the blue fire ball.

"Well I don't have complete control of it. What I have to do is stabilize my heart. If my feelings go out of control, so do my powers. I'm still working on that. But I'll get it." He forced the flame to die down and eventually disappear. "The bigger issue is that it's Satan's flame, and a lot of people still don't like that. So he ran." Rin would leave the 'Satan's son' part unsaid.

Kirito couldn’t believe his ears, he just heard that the other was a demon. He knew that demons were things of legend and shouldn’t exist in the real world. He didn’t have any proof that he was in a game world, rather all the facts say that he’s in the real world.

"Demon? Demon’s don’t exist, except in children stories and religious text."

He told the other firmly, with not a single joke in his voice. He figured that the other was just pulling his leg. There was no way the other was a demon, he looked way to normal to be one. The one’s that he knew had claws and tails and wings and pointy ears. Kind of how he looked right now except only his feet were clawed and they were small ones at that. That was the only difference that he was noticing between his in game and how he looks right now. 

When the other told him where he was, that rang no bells with him. A sigh escaped his lips, if anything he was more confused now than when he was alone. From the name of the Village, he assumed that he was somewhere in Japan. That was good news for him, since he was at least on the right land mass to get home. But a new problem arose, if the only guy who could see him right now was saying he is a demon, how would anyone at home hep him.

"My name is Kirito, and I’m a Spriggan. The color of my wings should be a dead giveaway. But the tail is new."

He answered the other somewhat surprised the later question was asked. With only nine races within ALO, he figured it shouldn’t be that hard to guess which one he was from. Especially because of how much black he wore, but he figured even if he was another race like a Slyph he would still be in all black regardless. 

"Just how hard did you hit your head?!" Rin exclaimed. How could he say demons didn't exist, when he obviously was one? What was going on? Not that what he was saying was any different than what a lot of humans believed. Maybe he'd spent enough time around humans to pick up their beliefs of demons. Maybe he was echoing what a human said.

---["My name is Kirito, and I’m a Spriggan. The color of my wings should be a dead giveaway. But the tail is new."]---

---["What’s your name?"]---

"My name's Rin. But... Are you serious?" Rin gaped. Dead giveaway? Are you serious? He wasn't Tanaka. "You're hopeless. I've never heard of Spriggans or anything like that! I don't care what you think I should know, I don't. My friend might, but he ditched me." If Spriggans existed, they were rarities, and didn't exist around here. "He ran away because of this." Rin brought out a basketball-sized ball of blue flame in his hands, at the same time revealing what he was to any 'cultured' demon.

---["Now, remember, this many moths require me to make a blood sacrifice, so, you must be quick before I pass out."]---