Intro Notes: This is version 2! Version 1 is what happens when my beta doesn't look at it, and when I skip an editing step I really shouldn't have skipped. There aren't any major plot changes, but this version should be easier to read.

If anyone is interested in helping me with plot holes, worldbuilding, and especially character development/OOC checks, I could really use the help right now!

For those of you reading for the first time, I made a note about a certain character's linage at the end.

Chapter 3: The boy reciting scripture in front of the gate

Back in the clearing with the other children, Yu had restrained Arthur. Arthur made several futile attempts to struggle out of his grip, while the demon led the boy to the employee entrance of a small electronics shop. Refusing to be fooled by new 'human' appearance that had appeared on his captor, Arthur growled and bit his wrist.

Yu shook it off and picked him up with a pleasant (-ly fake) smile. "[Don't do that. You'll never find your way back to your family if you keep this up.]"

Arthur didn't reply. Demons were deceptive creatures, his mother would always say. They destroyed the human psyche with their silver tongues, whether their words ended up being sweet, malicious, or outright lies. His only option for survival was to clam up and refuse to talk.

Yu turned to the others, telling them to pay no mind to Arthur, and then ushered them to come towards him. He re-explained the situation to those who hadn't heard already (there were no other Japanese children in their current gathering, and many didn't speak English either), illustrating a mastery of languages Arthur had only heard come from his mother and father. Many of the children seemed intimidated by Yu, and others by the situation they had found themselves in, but they all listened to Yu's instructions without much resistance.

Except for Arthur.

All of them were cowards and fools, Arthur thought as he struggled again, butting his head up and down and kicking Yu, angry screams turning into ones of terror as Yu pinned his legs down in a stranglehold. The other children backed away, and although Yu wasn't expressive, his faltering smile betrayed his minor frustration.

"Well then, shall we get going?" Yu told the children, making sure to address them all in their native languages. Arthur continued to struggle against the demon's grip as they were all led to a door. When they all got to the door, Yu used a key to open a portal to the Italian home he had mentioned earlier.

"[Th- That's an exorcist key!]" Arthur exclaimed, forgetting he wasn't supposed to speak to demons. "[Why?! Why?! How'd you get that?! Who did you kill?!]"

"[I didn't kill anyone.]"

"[That's impossible!]"

"[I'm an exorcist. I have this Infinity Key because I am loyal to humanity. If I had stolen it, don't you think the person who made the keys would have shut it off?]"

"[No way! I don't know why, but no! You're a demon!]" Arthur growled. Anyone related to Satan was an enemy of the Vatican, and he wasn't going to buy any of Yu's attempts to convince him otherwise.

Yu sighed as he walked in the door with Arthur, and set him down in the hallway. "[I'm not going to argue if you believe demons are fully evil and humans are fully good. But it's still in your best interest not to act up, understand?]"

Arthur clenched his fists, making his hatred clear as Yu went back.

"[I'm going to get the others, stay here,]" he said, before closing the door behind him.

The others? Of course. Yu could go die, but maybe Arthur would do as he said for now. As much as he didn't want to get into this situation with him, he couldn't let himself abandon the others to their fate either.

By the time Yu had left the area, Rin, Yukio, and the formerly-flaming-man were long gone. Rin had enough common sense to keep still while the three of them flew through the air, but he grunted when they landed on the roof of an apartment building two blocks away. The older man hoisted both boys into a more comfortable position. Yukio was visibly petrified.

"Hey. Want to hear a story about me and my brother?" the man asked, looking between the two boys.

"No," Rin said, frowning at the man. "I don't know you, so why would I want to listen to your story?"

"That's terrible! It'll help you out, too!"

"How?" Rin's voice grew sharper. "You even said you were gonna lock us up. I don't want to go to jail!"

"That's not what it is!" the man exclaimed. "Look, we can't watch you all at once, so we have to do this to protect you from the hag's friends. Especially since all of you run away if we don't!"

"Oh yeah? What about the pigtails girl?!" Rin reached around the man's head and began to pull one of his long ears. "You're not helping, all you've done is try to hurt her!" Though he couldn't see it, Rin could feel the elastic piece of cartilage coming out of the demon's head. He yanked it back and forth, shouting, "I can feel your horns, you jerk!"

"That's my ear, ow! All I did was jump down too close to her, so stop overreacting!"

Rin believed him, make no mistake. He had found it strange when she came back unharmed, when nothing could stop the demon from pulverizing her if he wanted to. But this man had violated something, a principle even more important to him.

"You're scaring us-" Rin shook his head, "scaring Yukio!" he corrected, realizing how close he was to admitting something he wanted to keep private. The last thing he wanted to do was let the demon know how terrified he really felt, and the same went for Yukio figuring it out too. He was the older one, so he was supposed to be big and tough. "Do you wanna know what I do to people who do that? Guess what I do." In this case, Rin knew the answer was nothing; he could try to appear imposing, but he knew it was an empty threat. Not that he wasn't as angry as he looked. But if Yu was that strong, then his older brother must be even more powerful, and Rin figured he had the same abilities. Like the pigtail girl, Rin was only spared by the demon's kindness. Who knew how long that kindness would last?

"You're the ones who decided to act that way!" the man said exasperatedly.

"When people act that way, it's because there's a reason!" Rin retorted.

"Then ask him what that reason is." The man looked at Yukio. "Maybe he'll tell you, but knowing him, he probably won't," he said bitterly. Then he breathed deeply to regain his composure, and looked back at Rin. "Someday, I hope the two of you can learn to be honest with each other about those things. You'll save yourselves a lot of pain, and you won't drift apart when you're older."

Rin scrunched up his face. "That won't happen." He was absolutely certain that they wouldn't drift apart.

"A long time ago," the man began, catching Rin's attention again, "my little brother and I stopped talking to each other for a long time. It took us a while to figure out the root of the problem was that our conspiracies- I mean, our conceptions of each other weren't true." He wrinkled his nose. "I thought he was someone to catch up to, since he was years ahead of me and treated me like a little kid. But it was mostly because of the way he saw me. He seemed to think I was some emotionally flawless person with a heart of steel, but I was never like that. I never wanted him to envy me, and I never wanted to make him look weak. We made each other into rivals, but that's not how brothers should be. Especially brothers that only have each other. It might have been better if I had been more honest with him too."

Most of the other's words flowed over Rin like waves, and receded from his thoughts. Until his ears perked up when he heard the word 'brother.' Once it dawned on him that the demon had no one besides his family, he couldn't find himself able to be angry at him anymore. The man had a sad life, one without friends.

"So," the man continued, "unless you want that to happen, neither of you should do that. You should rely on each other, and tell each other what's bothering you. Don't just keep things to yourselves, okay?" He looked at Yukio. "That goes for you too, Yukio."

Yukio had been silent the entire time. The man wouldn't break eye contact, so he shifted around and looked away, Only when it was obvious he couldn't weasel his way out, did he speak. "I-" Yukio stuttered. His hands dug into this man's shoulder. "Demons- you- they're- before, you were-"

"Eh? You don't like demons?"

Yukio shook his head and wrapped his arms around himself. "H-How could I like them?! That old lady tried to eat us. Even your brother made a mean face at me, he scares me! I can't stand it," the younger twin stammered. He caught himself and his mouth hung open when he shook and dug his fingers into his skin. His mouth closed and he gulped. "Sorrypleasedon'thurtme."

Instead, the demon laughed hard enough to split his sides. The two boys had to hold on to him as he shook in mirth. "Hah! Of all the demons to worry about, you chose him?! That's so funny! Hahahahaha!"

Yukio, though less wary than before, regarded the man with wide eyes and leaned away, although there was a limit to how far he could do that while still trapped in his arms. "It's not funny, I'm always forced to see creepy things," he said quietly, curling his lips. "I don't want to be afraid all the time. I just want to be normal."

Rin didn't understand why his brother would want that. Yukio's ability to see ghosts, demons, and other unseen things wasn't a curse, it was a superpower. He wouldn't admit it, but he was envious. His strength was unusual among his classmates, but it wasn't blatantly supernatural like what Yukio could do.

"Oh, so that's how it is." The man's hair masked his eyes as he bit his lip. Then his attitude changed. "Sorry, that's not gonna happen," he said bluntly.

"I'm going to be like this forever?" Yukio looked distraught.

"Yeah, but you'll get used to it. At least you'll never have to worry about my little bro attacking you, so relax."

Yukio did not relax.

"You have it that bad, huh?" The man squinted. "It's hard to believe you turned from someone like this into a genius exorcist."

Yukio gaped. "Genius exorcist? Me?" He shook his head. "No way. I can't."

"Huh? Sure you can. But until then, there's no one better to drive those guys off than me. So will you at least let me do that?"

Yukio hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. Rin nodded as well, only because he had begun to see a bit of himself and his own problems in him. This demon must have encountered other peoples' fear of demons quite a bit in his life. It showed, especially if he was isolated from everyone other than his brother, another demon. They weren't just called demons, they were the real thing. That must have made the rejection and hatred feel ten times worse.

"Great!" The man jumped off of the building and flew in the air. "Help me convince this other kid when we meet him, then."

"Uah! Uwahhhhhh!" Rin yelled as they sailed over another city block and he grabbed the flying man's arm. Back to the talking, back to the talking! Flying was scary!

"I had another thing I wanted to mention," the man said.

"What?" Rin groaned. "I don't want to listen to any more of your stories!" he yelled over the wind as it pushed between them and rearranged his hair into an unruly mess.

"That's too bad. Now listen." Once he was sure he had Rin's attention, the man lowered his voice. "You'll make friends someday," the man said softly. "Even if it takes a while, you'll be able to control your emotions. You'll become a gentle person. People will like you after that. I know it'll happen eventually if you try as hard as you can." He grinned.

Huh? Rin had expected another long-winded rant, but instead he found reassurance. "...Really?" Rin couldn't help but smile. Was it really true? Wait, how did this guy even know about that?

As they continued to fly through the air, Yukio couldn't decide which was worse- that a demon's power was affecting his eyes (as the man's demonic features were clearly still there,) or the thought that without that alteration, right now he would be in close vicinity to the demon's true form. He clutched the man's coat between his fingers and glanced down. The sight of the city below him caused his heart to skip a beat and he buried his face back into the man's coat. His fingers loosened and he shook when he remembered whose coat it was.

'He said he would protect us...' Yukio thought, swallowing his unease. He peeked at the man's face. When the demon looked like this, it was easier to believe his words. Maybe the demon wasn't that bad. Maybe Yukio was panicking for no good reason. He looked like a normal human now and acted like one, even if he was flying in the air. If he followed through on his promise to protect them, it didn't matter how terrifying he looked under that, did it?

As much as he wanted to tell himself it didn't matter, it did. Yukio's lip quivered as he remembered the promise he made with his father.

The man landed on a ledge, looking down in the alley below. There was a rustling sound behind the trash can near the corner that caught his attention. A traditionally dressed Buddhist monk was facing away from them, poking at the plastic bin with a stick.

The man jumped down, landing quietly behind the monk. He stared hard at the boy and his irises flashed, then he approached him muttering, "What's this kid even doing?"

The monk discarded the stick and walked down the alley into the next street. They tailed him, gaining ground until they were directly behind him. Despite their shoes clinking and shuffling against the glass road, the little monk never noticed a thing.

Now that they were back on the ground, Yukio was on the verge of tears again. His older brother must have noticed, because he gravitated toward him the way he always did when Yukio got sad.

"Yukio? What's wrong?"

Yukio sniffled. "Dad's going to take away Akamaru!," he said, whining. "You weren't supposed to fight at all, and I wasn't supposed to get scared at all, and dad's gonna find out we did!."

Rin took in a sharp breath. "You're right!" he exclaimed. "Oh noooooo, I'll get in trouble if he finds out I fought somebody!"

The little monk suddenly twirled around and froze.

"Tch! You two broke my illusion!" the flying man hissed. "Can't you guys be more quiet?!"

Yukio actively tried to stifle the familiar frozen chill in his veins. It usually assaulted him whenever he saw any demon, and while it had somewhat subsided around the flying man after he acted so different than the other demons, it spiked again whenever the man raised his voice. 'Avoid his eyes,' Yukio thought. This kind of behavior was what would get Akamaru taken away. The younger twin looked away and gripped his fist. The man was just yelling, not hurting him. He had no reason to be scared anymore, so why was the chill still there?

"Really? Aren't you supposed to be strong?" Rin asked with narrowed eyes.

"I held back for his sake," the flying man huffed. "Anything more powerful than that would have given him a mashou, and I can't let that happen again."

There's that 'mashou' again, Yukio thought. What was it?

Amidst their arguing, the little monk dashed into a sliding door to his right. The movement caught the man's eyes and he made a tsk noise.

"Hey, wait!"

He chased after him, following him into the building while the twins clutched his shoulders. The monk took a sharp turn, ran across the room, and hid behind a plush chair, bumping the back of it. The woman sitting on it jumped forward, while the two women across from her raised their eyebrows and they all shared a giggle. Neither the demon nor the twins paid any mind to them or the others in the lobby. At least not initially.

Rin eventually did notice those three, as well as the two security guards arguing about something at their desk, the older one desperately fiddling with an unseen object blocked from view by the front edge.

The flying man saw the monk's little feet sticking out from his hiding place. He lowered Rin and Yukio, telling them, "You two be good and stay with me, alright?"

They walked with him over to the chair, and stayed with him as he pulled it out of the way, revealing the boy who stumbled backwards, scooting away on his rear end. The flying man grabbed his shoulders with just enough force to keep him from leaving.

"Hey, kid," the flying man said.

"Hello," the young monk answered. "I wish to continue my search, so please do let go." It was clear the boy spoke a slightly old, but not quite archaic form of Japanese.

The man cocked his head. "I can't, sorry."

"I said let go," the monk said, then raised his voice. "Let me find my father."

"I doubt you'll find them here"

"Then I shall look in other places next," the monk said, tugging against the flying man's grip.

"I'm saying you won't find him no matter how long you look!" The flying man gripped slightly harder. "You aren't even in the same time period right now. I'll help you get back to your original time, after that you'll find him right away, okay?"

The monk looked confused, but he relaxed slightly and raised an eyebrow. "Oh. So you will help me? You will not stop me?"

"Yeah, just as long as you don't run off like this again. Come with me, alright?"

The flying man lifted the little monk to his feet. He then went over and jostled Rin and Yukio's backs. "Hey, we're done."

Rin jumped forward and yelped when he felt the warm hand grip his pajamas.

"What's with you?" the flying man asked.

Rin had just been surprised, jumpy, and distracted, nothing more. "They're all wearing weird stuff," he said, glancing between the people in the room. The clothes looked somewhat similar to what the flying man was wearing. The guards at the desk were wearing cravats and suits with pale gold patterns etched into the fabric, the front buttoned together with chains like the ones on the demon's tailcoat. The women's outfits were weirder though. Instead of pants or skirts, they wore puffy breeches, and their tops looked like a long shirt, almost a dress, that had been pulled up from the waist and pushed through the collar and out again, causing the fabric to resemble a layer of shawls. Rin had never seen anything like it before. The realization dawned on him then, that they really must be in another country. They were surrounded by foreigners. If the clothes hadn't been enough, the facial features of the people around him made it completely obvious. Maybe it wasn't just another country. Maybe it was the world of demons and ghosts!

"Weird?" The flying man asked. "Not really. Well, I bet it looks weird to you, huh?"

"You're the two from the group? You also wear odd items," the young monk added.

Rin frowned at the bald boy, clearly confused and a little insulted. How were his clothes 'odd?'

The flying man led them all to the second closest door he saw; the entrance from which they had originally come in was automatic, so he chose to use someone's office just beyond that. He opened the door. The little monk took two steps forward, but Rin stood back.

"Hey," Rin said. "How do you know his dad's not around? What's a 'time period' got to do with it? You didn't look for him. You didn't look for our dad either! Look for dad!"

The little monk looked at Rin with wide eyes, then turned around and stood his ground. He backed away from the flying man, who looked back at them without expression or surprise as he shut the door.

"You're not in the past anymore." The man rested his hand on the door. "Er, I mean, you're in your future. It's 2101."

Rin's eyes went as wide as coke bottles. They might not be in the demons' world, but the mind-blowing novelty of being here, in what should have been an impossibly far-off time and place wasn't lost on him. But he didn't feel the time or freedom to make a big deal of it. Not yet. "That doesn't mean dad's not here too!"

"No, ...That's…" The demon straightened up and hit his palm with the fist of his other hand. "Oh! You have a point! I should look around, but I really need to take you back. Hm…" He rubbed his head. "How about this, I'll look for ten minutes, and we'll see what we can find."

The three boys brightened up.

"Then we go straight to my house, got it?" the man said.

Before the kids had the time to agree, the group heard footsteps and voices behind them, as the two guards came up to them. They were still speaking the country's language to each other, and now that Yukio was closer, he realized they were using the same one the old demon lady spoke.

"{Listen, I'm sorry, I hate to ask this, but are you… a… demon?}" the younger man asked, his voice stalling on the last word with the clear message that he felt it was a silly, childlike thing to ask.

"We don't speak Russian," the flying man told their unexpected audience. "[We don't speak Russian,]" he repeated in English.

"{Sorry, Vitaly is a bit hasty.}" The younger man backtracked, waving his hands in front of him. "{He was born in the 30s, so his parents got caught in that Gehennan War, and he always tells everyone 'demons this, demons that,' and he claims to see them everywhere. I'm not even sure demons still exist, but- Can any of you understand me?}"

"{Do your job! Do you think you were hired to greet people?}" Vitaly went red in the face.

"{I sure wasn't hired to call the police on people who haven't done anything wrong, just because you think they're demons!}" the younger man shot back.

The flying man and the three children stared blankly at them. The former stood in place. "Er…" he said.

"{You're supposed to be a security guard!}" Vitaly rolled his eyes as he turned to the demon, switching to English to speak to him directly, though his voice lost its anger and confidence. "[You- You bother child,]" he stammered in a thick English accent. "[Should leave child. Politsiya come.]"

"[I don't know what a Politsiya is,]" the flying man hurriedly replied, "[but I'm not bothering them. I don't want to get you involved, so see ya.]" He opened the door again, letting a small breeze come through. Beyond the door was the same onion-domed rooftop the twins had been on before.

Rin blinked, wondering how the door did that, when the flying man pushed he and his brother in the door and came through with them. Moments later, he went back to the hallway and fetched the other boy. They could see the young man trying to restrain his fat, older coworker before the flying man shut the door on them both.

The Russian guards didn't follow them.

So they would be searching for their father now, Yukio thought, taking a second to study more about this world of 'the future.' Rin was sidetracked too, and the more he scanned the area, and saw cubes floating in the sky, the more he began to jump around excitedly.

"So are there flying cars?!" Rin asked, looking around.

"What are these 'cars?'" the little monk asked.

"Can they go to space?" Yukio asked. He didn't share his brother's enthusiasm, but it would be neat to go to the moon or Mars.

"I thought we were finding da- your dads!" the flying man stuttered. I don't know about his," he heatedly pointed at the little monk, "but yours could easily find his way here. He's strong enough to do it; I can't tell you why I know that, but if there's the smallest chance I could meet him again and talk to him…" He trailed off as he shook his head, covered his eyes with a hand, and fell silent. "Have I changed history already?" he muttered to himself. "I think just that much is fine, I'm not dead yet, after all." He smiled slightly, then looked up at the children again.

"I don't get all of that, but I want to show dad everything too," Rin said.

"Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?" the flying man agreed, knotting his eyebrows as he looked down again.

Yukio didn't understand what he meant about changing history or dying, or what kind of relationship this demon might have with his father. From the looks of it, they might have been friends, even though their father was an exorcist and fought demons. Why were they friends? Yukio wondered. Analysing the information made him feel more relaxed, but this was just too much to wrap his head around. Yukio looked over to notice that his brother frowning and rubbing his head, maybe he was as confused as he was.

The flying man put the little monk on his shoulders, picked up the twins, and took off to scan for their parents. They sailed over an empty bridge crossing a river, and a pattern emerged. Every single one of the roads they passed had those thin forests, and none of them were used by anything besides pedestrians. The young monk clutched his neck tightly but otherwise seemed calm, in stark contrast to Rin's incessant shouting.

"I'm not going to drop you, be quiet already." The demon sighed.

"But this is so scary!" Rin hugged the flying man's chest, his face pale.

Yukio laughed nervously, but kept a pensive gaze at his twin.

"This is your fifth time flying, isn't it? It's not like riding an octenna or a plane."

"Yeah, so what?!"

"I won't crash!"

That seemed to calm Rin down.

"Plane? Octenna?" the young monk asked.

The flying man blinked as they landed on the ledge of a roman-styled building overlooking a town square. "I'm not surprised you don't know about octennas, but you've never even heard of planes? Which era are you from, anyway?" He let go of the children and they landed on the ground, but Fukaku stayed perched on his neck.

"Bunsei 12?"

"Woah, that's ancient!" the flying man exclaimed. "…I'll point them out if we see one," he mumbled. Then he shut his eyes tightly while Rin looked up to the little monk.

"Hey, come to think of it, you speak Japanese?"

"Yes,"

"Cool! The other guy we met couldn't. I'm Rin Okumura. This is my brother Yukio. Who're you?"

"My name is Fukaku." Fukaku fidgeted, rubbing his hands together and looking back and forth. The flying man frowned as Fukaku's hands got too close to his eyes. Fukaku payed no mind and bowed his head slightly, nearly headbutting their protector. "I'm the 12th in line to lead the Disciples of Fudo. I did not know you were of a noble family. It is a pleasure to be at your service."

"Serve them somewhere that doesn't involve you headbutting me." The flying man growled.

"I dunno what you're talking about but that sounds super cool," Rin said, amazed.

"We're not something like nobles, though," Yukio added.

"No?" Fukaku asked as he climbed down.

"No way, we just live in a church with our dad," Rin said.

"I am not sure what such a thing is, but that means I have the liberty to speak freely?"

Neither twin understood why he said that, but Rin nodded anyway. "Sure?"

"And we can be friends," Fukaku said.

Rin brightened up, his smile going from ear to ear. "Oh yeah!" He grabbed Fukaku's hand and shook it furiously. "Let's be normal friends! I promise I won't act bad!"

Fukaku let go of his hands with a smile and turned to the flying man. "Would you tell us your name too?"

"Uh, well," The flying man opened his eyes and tensed up, sweating nervously.

"Don't you have a name?" Rin asked.

"Of course!"

"Is it 'Satan?'"

"NO! It's..." The flying man grimaced, looking upwards to the clouds and scratching his head. "Ran? Yeah. Ran."

"Oh, okay."

Ran went back to shutting his eyes.

The twins got their first good look at the city's center, a set of normal looking high-rises no different than what he'd find in Tokyo on TV, even up to the tower in the center. Nothing screamed futuristic aside from those gigantic floating cubes and domes, orbiting the city center like planets around a sun. But if the tower was the sun, the town square they were in was Pluto; they still weren't very close to the inner city, and the only thing that had ever 'floated' in their immediate area was the old hag's hut.

Why couldn't the future be more interesting? Even Ran's name was more remarkable.

"So demons have names," Yukio whispered.

"Yeah, you'd expect them to be named Thor-tron or something evil like that," Rin said.

"C'mon, that's mean!" Ran complained, his tail thumping against the concrete.

Yukio sat down and put his head between his knees, avoiding eye contact with him. Even though his eyes were still closed.

"Hey... Fukaku, your dad would be dressed up like you, right?" Ran asked.

"Yes."

"I'm looking pretty far out, but I can't see any monks. Though I'm not done yet."

"What about our dad?" Rin asked.

"Didn't I tell you I already know what he looks like?" Ran opened his eyes again. Out of the blue, he picked them all up, got them settled into their old positions, and flew into the air again, doubling back the way they came.

"That isn't what you said… Wait, where are you going?" Rin demanded.

"If they're here, I bet they're around where I found you."

The four passed the intersection with the Moetka, now empty and very small to them, and then Ran flew them a few blocks beyond it, landing on the top of a hotel across from a mall. He stopped and closed his eyes again, completely still. Bored, Rin looked up to see flying cars in the sky and squealed. So the movies he had watched with his family had been right! Except this was real, every bit of it.

"Look, look!" he said, excitedly pointing out the cars to Yukio. "I want to ride one!"

Fukaku nearly spat when his gaze followed Rin's finger. "Those things! They're flying! They're really really flying!"

One of the cars seemed to be coming closer. As they did, the faint, increasing sound of sirens could be heard.

"Those are the octennas I was talking about," Ran said before he suddenly jolted up with horror. He turned to look at an area far above them. "Crap!" he cursed. "Crap crap crap." He grabbed the children, leaped down from the hotel

and ran into one of the treelines, taking cover under it.

"Crap?" Fukaku mimicked, cocking his head.

"Shh. Another demon is poking around!" Ran felt a demon in the sky, he was sure of it. And this one was abnormally high-class, the type that had their own entry in the Lesser Key of Solomon. "I think it's one of the hag's friends. It's the same type too." It was above them now, exactly where the house used to be. He couldn't see it from here, especially from under the foliage. But he didn't need to. He could feel the demon's hostility. "We need to leave."

"What about our search?" Fukaku asked, downtrodden.

"There's another ghost here?!" Rin panicked. "Where is it?!" He fervently snapped his head around so hard Ran was worried he'd break his neck. Their neck.

"Not close yet," Ran said. They needed a way out. He spotted somewhere he could use his key on the other line of trees, inside the mall's garage. "And it's a demon, not a ghost," he explained to his younger self. "You can't see a lot of demons without a mashou. At least, not their true forms."

"Then I want one!" Rin yelled. "Give me one!"

"I can't!" Ran snapped. He couldn't do that, not without altering history by a large margin.

The antagonistic demon flicked back and forth around the spot of air where the house used to be, becoming more aggressive by the second. Then it stopped.

"I just don't have one because I don't have spirit powers right?" Rin protested. "That's not fair! Why does Yukio have powers when I don't?!"

"I don't have any powers," Yukio mumbled, his lip jutted out.

Behind them, the demon began to dip, falling from the sky. Then it came rushing toward them. It had found them. There went their safety, and any small chance Ran had of meeting his father again. "Dammit!" Ran sprinted out of the foliage with the kids in his arms, towards the route to safety. "We don't have time for this!"

End notes

I'm going to call the older versions 'Ran' and 'Yu' from now on. This is actually the best way to prevent confusion, as I won't have to clarify which Rin/Yukio the story is focusing on at any given moment, and I won't have to constantly refer to them as older Rin/younger Rin/older Yukio/younger Yukio.

Remember how I said I needed help with plot holes? I just filled one that I didn't spot until yesterday, and now I have to rewrite almost two chapters' worth of material. The next chapters might take longer.

If any of you are anime watchers, or need to brush up on the Kyoto arc of the manga, Fukaku is Suguro's ancestor, the founder of the Myou-dha. He was mentioned a few times.

Those of you who remembered might be annoyed with me for 'ignoring' the founder part. I didn't. Fukaku founded the Myou-dha, but supposedly Tatsuma is the 17th head priest in line, and Ryuuji the 18th. I did the math, and if Fukaku were the 1st, there would have to be a new head priest every 10 years or less. So I decided Fukaku would carry linage from his old family into the Myou-dha, and he would be the 12th head priest of the Suguro family since he's 12th in line to lead his old clan, which I'm calling the Disciples of Fudo (considering their relationship to Kurikara and the Wisdom Kings.) At this point in time, he's not a 'Suguro,' and their family isn't important enough within the country to receive a last name. Which is exactly the reason he makes a big deal about Rin and Yukio's last name.