It's been a while! Sorry for the long break I took, hopefully I won't neglect this story for too long again. But yeah! Lemme know what you think of this update and stuff!

There's roughly a week passing by before Rin is asked to talk to her again. He abandons all homework and goes back into the kitchen the night before, cooking up a lunch for the two of them in the hopes she'll be able to eat again. He packs an omelette each, frankfurts cut into squids and some steamed rice he attempts to dye pink. It looks decent enough in the lunch boxes, and it gives him one less thing to worry about when he goes to bed that night.

When he gets up in the morning, early enough to take his time getting ready, Rin feels a conflicting mixture of excitement and concern. He wants to see how well she's been doing since they last spoke (well, since Rin last reassured her); but the little voice in the back of his mind, nagging him in Yukio's voice, reminds him that the last time he was allowed to see her was when no one had made progress with her. Rin doesn't like the idea of Yomi regressing after a week without contact.

He's fortunate that it isn't the case as he approaches the large doors of the interrogation room, Shura tailing him with her arms crossed over her chest. Rin can see the large room, can see Yomi sitting on the floor in the middle of it, and he can see the awareness in her expression as she looks up to check who is visiting her.

"Hey," Rin greets casually. The doors slam shut behind him, Shura wasting no time standing guard by them. "How're you feeling?"

Yomi manages a weak smile and a stiff shrug. It's better than what he got last week, he supposes.

"Brought us some lunch!" Rin jogs over to where she sits and joins her. Concern flashes across her features, purple eyes darting to the large hands folded over her lap. Rin, luckily, had thought ahead of time with how difficult it might be for Yomi to eat with goblin hands. As soon as he sets down the lunch boxes he unfolds the cloth wrapped around them and reveals two metal spoons. "Wasn't sure what you'd be in the mood for, so it's rice, omelette and little hot dogs!"

An audible gurgle sounds from Yomi's stomach. When he looks up at her, ready to make a joke, he finds himself on the receiving end of a genuinely relieved expression. It wasn't like the weak, jerky response he'd gotten earlier. Rin could compare it to tension lifting, to a personal reassurance taking effect. Had Yomi been worried about Rin coming today? Is she worried about Shura being in the room? Does she know what Rin will have to ask her about, regardless of how carefree they are right now?

He lifts open the lid of the top lunch box, and Yomi lets out a pleased gasp. "You made it pink," she mumbles. Rin nods proudly.

For the most part she doesn't struggle with eating. Since last week she seems to have found a suitable compromise for how she holds and uses things with her larger hands. Rin actually has to hold back a snort of a laugh when he sees her pinch the spoon between her thumb and index finger, the remaining three poised up in the air like she's pretending to be royalty. The lunch box is easier for her to grab on to, at least: The large palm of her new hand holds the whole box with more balance and security than Rin's own could. It's like Yomi's hand doubles as a small table now, Rin thinks with amusement.

She only gets a few bites in, Rin hesitating as he debates his next move, before Shura clears her throat from behind them. Rin startles—crap, did he introduce her? Does Yomi know who Shura is? She has to, right? But if she doesn't, and Rin ignores Shura, he'll never hear the end of it once he leaves.

"A—Ah," Rin tries lamely. Yomi looks up at him, mouth open and a spoonful of rice halfway on its journey there. He pauses at the sight of the slightly pointed canines, longer than his own. Wow. How hadn't he noticed those? It makes sense, given that it's a demonic trait and goblins have big teeth, but still... "Have you, uh— Do you know Shura?"

And she looks over Rin's shoulder at Shura, shoving the spoon in her mouth and glaring daggers at the woman.

"I've literally been in here every day this past week, dumbass," Shura calls.

"She has," Yomi agrees darkly.

He's curious about how bad Shura's attempts to get answers went. He's not pushing his luck, though. Neither side of this conflict looks willing to spare him from the crossfire.

"Then, um... You know why I'm back, yeah?" he goes on. Yomi looks back at him. She nods, but it's the tiniest, most cautious bob of her head. Now he really needs to watch what he says to her... "We... I mean, True Cross can only help if you talk to them about what happened. They might even be able to reverse what happened to you, or something."

She doesn't say anything. She just stares at him as she slowly continues to eat.

Shura's gonna kill him for this. "Why don't we make it like a game?" he tries. A single brow arches while the sound of Shura's hand smacking her forehead echoes over. "I'll ask you something, and then you can ask me anything in return. Okay?"

Yomi's quiet for a moment longer. She's clearly pondering the offer, tempted, and when she sets down the lunch box and spoon Rin panics over the possibility that he'd scared her. She flexes one of her hands and shifts into a cross-legged position. With a deep, steeling breath, she looks back at Rin and nods.

He can hear Shura moving around behind him, probably getting a pen and paper ready. He's surprised she had enough faith in him to come prepared for note-taking.

"Okay. Uh. What..."

God, this is harder than TV makes it look.

"I mean—Can you summarise what happened that night? Like, just an overview?"

At least she doesn't laugh at his horrific interrogational skills.

"Well," Yomi starts. She pauses to gather her thoughts, and then goes on, "Mom kinda went off the handle. She found this animal I'd been hiding until the pound opened, and then she chased me around the house. Held me down in the kitchen and... Shit, I don't know how but she force fed me the animal. She made me eat it alive. A—And I think I blacked out for a while? I just... One minute I was choking on the animal, the next I was standing up and all—" Yomi waves her hands about, one of her fingers brushing against her horns.

"Animal?" Rin asks. Shura isn't stopping him or calling out questions, so he must be on the right track.

"Yeah. I think it followed me home the night before, and it was feral as they come. Ate my pizza long enough for me to catch it." She held her hand a good foot above the ground. "This big? And—God, this is going to sound crazy. It had hands like how mine look and it was green and had horns."

Her eyes slide shut and she sighs at herself. "Just as bad as Mom," she admonishes.

Rin does his best to distract her from that particular train of thought. "Anything you wanna ask me now?"

For the first few minutes Yomi is silent. Her eyes are glued to the floor, lip curled in concentration, and it's more than obvious that she's debating over what would be a good starter question. Rin can't blame her for taking her time. If he were in her shoes right now, he'd want to pick the most important thing first.

She finally seems to settle on something, letting out a soft breath and nodding to herself. "So how are you involved in this stuff? Like, are you more than just a student at the school?"

His shoulder lifts and falls before he can stop himself. "Technically I'm a student, since I'm still learning it all—but yeah, True Cross isn't where I'm just getting an education. It's where I'm learning to become an exorcist."

A snort. "What, like those horror movie priests?" she scoffs at him. Rin scowls at her.

"Way better than those old farts. Anyway, my turn again." She looks to have relaxed a little, the jab and disbelief seeming to put her in a better mindset to handle the information. Yomi's going to try rationalise it all, he thinks, and that'll just make all this harder to convince her of. "How'd your mom know to feed you the, ah... animal?"

Yomi has to think about her answer again, but it's not with the same carefulness from before. No, Rin knows the expression of someone who repeats the question back at themselves, suddenly realising they might actually know a clue of an answer. He's held that expression plenty of times before, after all; there's no way he wouldn't recognise it now. He waits patiently for her to figure out the answer, to say something and give Shura something to work with.

And she does, five whole minutes after debating with herself.

"She said... She said some ladies she met and got invited out to dinner with told her about it," Yomi says slowly. "I never got their names, but Mom was so sure about the animal..."

"Did she give you any names?"

Yomi shakes her head. "I didn't even know she was capable of leaving me on my own for more than an hour after sundown," she admits. "I wasn't about to ruin her good mood by questioning it."

Rin glances over his shoulder. Shura's writing information down at the speed of light, barely even glancing up at the two teens. She's more than likely got a plan formulating already.

"Okumura," Yomi starts softly. His head snaps back in her direction. She's watching him like a hawk now, clearly unnerved by her next question but also desperate to hear an answer. "What happened to me?"

He ponders for a second. For half a minute. For a while moment too long. He wants so bad to be able to answer, to make her feel more at ease like he wish he'd been during his own changes and the loss of his own parent, but everything he could possibly say dies in his throat. What would make it better? What would make it worse? How delicately should he answer? Should he even answer at all, hiding behind a lame, I don't know?

"There's a working theory right now."

Rin startles. He looks back to Shura again, finding her staring back with what has to be the most sympathetic gaze he's seen on her. She's making this as calm as possible, he realises. She's picked up that more stress will close Yomi off again.

"There's regular possessions that happen," she explains as she twirls her pen. "Some demons can possess humans, some can only possess objects or small animals. Take, for example, a goblin—they're small and impish, and they only have enough power to possess rats and large rodents."

Yomi's hand flies to her arm, where a chunk of skin had previously been missing. Shit, Rin thinks. She'd said a rat had bitten her when she'd tried going to the Monastery. Had it been a goblin? Is that how she received the temptaint?

Shura goes on, "Not all demons can possess humans, but then this is where the other type of possession comes into play—forced possession. A human devours a demon, capable of possessing humans or not, and forces the demon to possess them."

"But why?" Yomi says. "They just... let the demon take over?"

"Never said that's how forced possession works," Shura corrects her. She clicks her pen and begins writing notes again, this time making sure to glance back at the teens every so often. "When a human eats a demon, they force the demon's power onto their body—but they remain the dominant personality, you could say. It's a dangerous process that even exorcists are reluctant to use, since there's always a high risk of being genuinely possessed or being killed in the process. Some humans," Shura adds, "don't have the strength to house some demons."

Horror dawns on Yomi's face. Rin curses to himself, ready to calm her down again and change the subject with another question. Before he gets the chance, he hears her mumble, "So Mom forced me to be possessed?"

Rin jumps on the opportunity as quickly as possible. "Do you know why she wanted you to be possessed?"

She scrunches up her face. "She's a hypochondriac," Yomi scoffs. "She just... She was obsessed with making sure I was healthy all the time."

"She was right about being healthy, at least," Shura chimes. Yomi snaps her head up to Shura again, glaring so intensely that Rin fears he'll have to keep Shura from drawing her sword against a furious Yomi. "Demonic healing is a thing of wonder. Something fatal to a regular person is just a scratch to most demons—provided it didn't come from something blessed, that is."

"That's not important now," Rin tries. "A—Akiba, do you—"

And Yomi turns the glare to him. He can't help feeling his heart sink, his mind going back to the day she'd exploded at him after a disastrous dinner following her release from hospital. There'd been so much hate in her eyes—there's that hate right now, even—but it hadn't been directed at Rin. No, when Yomi ranted and vented that night, it'd been abundantly clear that her rage was at her situation, probably even herself. The type of rage that comes with exhaustion and a desire to just give up, despite everything in you begging against it.

He could easily choke up, but he has to ask at least this much to make some headway. They can't just walk out with the knowledge that some women Homura Akiba knew told her to do this.

"Can you give us a list of people your mother used to talk to? Regularly or not, just anyone that comes to mind. We'll... We'll go away after that, I promise," he adds, his tone softer and sincere.

They get a grand total of seven names—three of which are Homura's parents and ex-husband, one of which is a therapist she'd harass to always be available to Yomi—and Yomi shuts off almost immediately. She doesn't say much of a farewell, scooting around until she's facing away from the doors. The last thing Rin sees of her is her sulking frown, and it sits in the forefront of his mind once the doors slam shut behind him.

It didn't take long for her to figure out that keeping track of time in here is useless, but she still keeps estimates based on when her food is brought to her. One big meal in the morning, all rice and a plum if she's lucky, and then a serving of soup in a bowl big enough to accommodate her hands before bed. She counts her meals on her fingers, using them as a reference for each visit she's had from Rin, and it's what helps her conclude that maybe two days have passed since he'd come in to interrogate her.

It's on the morning of the maybe-second day that Yomi feels the loneliness sink in again, the occasional flashes of the night she'd called for help dancing through her mind. This room is so big, she thinks as she scoops rice into her palm. It's too big to feel safe in. Too big to feel relaxed in. It's too big for just one person.

The duo of exorcists who delivered and collected her meals came in a good hour after she'd eaten, and they wasted no time picking up her tray and making sure she stayed far from the doors. They wouldn't see each other again until dinner, where Yomi would get a bland soup and neither man would say a word to her, other than a clear and concise, "Maintain your distance."

So it's a little bit of a surprise that, shortly after breakfast on the maybe-second day, someone new enters the room. Yomi's in the middle of stretching her hands when she sees the black coat come through the doors, heavy boots falling to the floor with confident steps. The loneliness fades just a tad, brief company given to her again—even if it's just another interrogation from a stranger. Yomi looks up, drops her hand, and fights back a scowl.

He carries folded clothes in his hands, big and dark from the looks of them, and the expression on his face tells leagues about how he feels about being sent to do this. The feeling is mutual, Yomi finds, as she prepares to get into another verbal argument with Yukio Okumura.

He stops a foot away from her. He holds out the clothes and says stiffly, "My brother offered these. To make you more comfortable."

Yukio drops the clothes the moment she reaches out for them. Yomi actually does scowl this time, but miraculously holds her tongue and keep from saying something unfortunate. She unfolds the first item of clothing—navy blue and thick, the kind of hoodie Yomi used to hide under back when Homura's actions made her self-conscious rather than angry—and she lets out a small, "Huh?"

Feet scuff against the floor. She looks back up to Yukio, only to find his back facing her.

"Get changed quickly," he orders her. "We're leaving."

She's not sure why Yukio, of all people, is letting her out, but she's not about to complain. Yomi wobbles to her feet, doing her best to balance the weight of her arms, and wastes no time changing from her weeks-old clothes. She hadn't even been allowed to clean up other than to get the blood washed off of her when they'd first brought her in, and Yomi doesn't want to miss the chance to wear something marginally cleaner. She kicks her old clothes away and forces herself into the hoodie, her horns only getting caught once on the neckline. Her hands slide surprisingly easy through the arms, the material stretching to accommodate their size and leaving a nice, snug fit. The khaki cargo pants make her cringe a little, but they fit well enough for her to be satisfied.

It's something she normally wouldn't dare consider wearing, but right now it feels like she's in the finest of clothing made by the most talented of tailors. No blood, no smell of dirt and ash, no reminders of why she's here in the first place.

"'Kay," she grunts at Yukio. She kicks at her old clothes with her bare feet for emphasis. "'M ready."

Yukio doesn't bother to turn around. He just walks over to the doors and unlocks it, motioning for her to follow.

The world outside of her big, empty room is... Bigger. Emptier. So many hallways and high ceilings, but almost nothing outside of the ornate structure to suggest personality or anything other than a Gothic aesthetic. The exorcists who guard her old room actually wave her goodbye when she glances back at them with anxiety, and Yomi finds herself waving back meekly.

Yukio leads her down one hallway, then another, before finally he stops at a doorway and clicks his tongue. She can't see most of his expression, but she knows what pissed off looks like from posture alone. The way he plucks his keys from his coat, the way he jams one of them into the lock on the door. Even the hesitation to turn it, his entire frame going still like he still can't figure out why this is happening.

He turns the key and says, "You aren't being released home—to your grandparents or your father, whichever you choose—until the investigation concludes."

Yukio opens the door, and the bare minimum of the room she can see looks nothing like the haunting building they're in.

"You've been put in my custody until we can figure out how to help you, as per the orders of Sir Pheles of True Cross."

The way he specifies that someone else is making him do this, that he implies he wishes he wasn't the one chosen, causes her to blurt out, "Fuck off."

Yukio just hums once, almost agreeing with her, and enters the room.