A/N: Please, read the footnotes… they're unusually important this time...

I do not own or profit from any of what Kazue Kato has created.

Everything ached. Literally everything. Few people get to experience having a sore heel, or a sore left nostril, but Shiro had the benefit of getting the whole package at once. It felt marvellous. Marvellous in the neutral sense that an experience is spectacular, and not necessarily in a good way. Shiro rolled over to get up, only to find his plans thwarted by a resounding b'tong right in his forehead.

"Ouch, oww, dammit…!" His voice automatically dropped to a whisper on the last syllables, as he realized he hadn't bumped his head on the bed table, but on another head. "Guy's got a skull made of stone", he thought as he rubbed his forehead, glaring at the face half buried in the huge, heart-shaped pillow. "And he's still sleeping!"

Nobody will admit it, but everyone who has had the opportunity to study a sleeping person has taken great interest in doing so. While everybody looks like angels when they are asleep is a bit overly euphemistic, it's not entirely untrue. Mephis- Samael was barely recognisable when he slept. Without his ubiquitous smile, without that look in his eyes that could piss off the blind, he looked… serene. Not like a demon at all. And twenty years younger.

The pink yukata piled loosely over a body that was little more than a collection of twigs arranged like a sleeping person. He had seemed thin when he supported him, but seriously… he really should stop drinking that tea…

Shiro couldn't help it: a wide grin tugged his lips. The demon had curled up in his sleep and hugged a huge, blue unicorn-plushie close to his chest. How's that for a son of Satan…? Weird as it was, it brought to mind Agari's words from long ago: cute.

And now Agari was dead. The saboteurs were dead, his contract was disbanded, and he was free to leave True Cross Academy. No life-and-death battles against demons, no bantering with a principal from hell, no fighting back-to-back with classmates that were anything from hot-tempered pilgrims to lesbian half-demons.

The human mind can adapt to almost any conditions, bad as well as good: and sometimes, it doesn't want to re-adapt.

"I'm going to be an exorcist." The corner of Shiro's lips yanked into an incredulous smile. "I'm going to be a freakin' awesome exorcist."

At some point in his voyeuristic explorations, Shiro realized that Me- that Samael was curled up because Shiro had hogged all the bedcovers to himself. Deciding he was getting up anyway and might as well, he awkwardly spread the covers over the principal. It was awkward to wake up next to another man; even more so when you knew the "man" was Satan's son.

Shiro sat down on his haunches beside the bed and squinted at him one extra time, still not really believing it. Satan's son? Eldest son? A sweet-toothed mecha freak that slept with a stuffed unicorn…? What on earth was he doing in the Vatican?

"Who's a pervert now, Shiro?" The drooping eyes opened a sliver.

"Go back to sleep."

"So you can continue whatever you were up to~? Tsk tsk, such a-"

Shiro grabbed the unicorn and pressed it over Samael's head.

"You're much better when you're quiet, you dirty-minded demon."

"Mud-monkey! You uncivilized, rude little coal tar! Is this any way to treat royalty?!"

He freed himself of the plushie, sat up and glared daggers at Shiro.

"You're not royalty in Assiah", Shiro smirked, taking in the lovely picture before him. "And you might wanna check a mirror before you go calling other people uncivilized."

Samael glanced sideways at the bedroom mirror. Oh, his face… Almost worth dying for.

"Point taken", he grumbled, massaging his tired eyelids. The ridiculously coloured hair stood in all directions, making him look decidedly un-royal. "How I'd like to take this day off…" he sighed and poofed a matching, baby-blue Unico comb into his hand. "Alas, no rest for the wicked."

"Speaking of nothing." Shiro held up his hands before him. "I suppose it's thanks to you I'm un-shot?"

"That was a most unexpected side effect", he said, carefully combing his two-coloured haystack smooth. "I didn't possess you, technically: only stored all my power in you." An ironic smile touched his lips. "But as I regenerated myself, you seem to have hijacked part of my magic and were healed as well." He cocked a thin eyebrow. "Otherwise I would never have put you in my bed."

"How very like you, letting injured people sleep on the floor… So…" Where to begin? What to ask? "This whole thing, just what-"

There were two rapid knocks on the door; Belial entered without waiting for response.

"Pardon my manners, master, but I heard your highness were awake." He sounded rushed, but even so took his time to bow in that exquisitely proper manner specific to butlers. "Vatican representatives arrived just now. I am informed they are quite impatient and are headed for your highness' mansion as I speak." He paused. "It would be very detrimental if they discovered your highness'… guest."

Uh-huh: guest. Shiro felt heat shooting through his cheeks at the implication in the butler's voice.

"So soon? I wager Beaumonde is among them~" An amused smile tugged the corners of Meph- Samael's lips. "Keep my guest out of the way, Belial. On second thought: keep him busy, lest he decides to poke his nose where it doesn't belong again. Breakfast and a hot bath should take care of that."

"As you wish, master." The butler bowed again, and fixed his reptile-eyed gaze on Shiro. "This way, young man."

Shiro followed Belial to the kitchen in the servants' quarters, and the virtual host of demons that worked there. Maids, footmen, that little purple monkey with a chef hat… Samael may not be royalty in Assiah, but he did have his own court.

"Which would you like first, young man?" Belial asked, turning his head ever so slightly to glance at him. "A bath, or breakfast?"

"Er… a bath?" Ugh, the formality…

"I shall escort you then. Sébastien?" A manservant, whose black hair was roughly the same style as Me- as Samael's, halted. "You have fairly the same build as his highness' guest. Fetch one of your spare uniforms and leave it by the bathroom in the eastern wing, third floor."

"Yes, my lord."

Sébastien hurried off to deliver the platter of jam tarts, but nobody paid him any notice. They were all looking at Shiro, as if he were some curious wild animal that had found its way into the kitchen. What, they weren't used to human guests…? Or was it because they had the same idea Belial had?

"I'm not… his guest in that sense", he tried, stalking after the straight-backed butler as they made their way for the bathroom on the third floor. "We weren't…"

"Of course not. I know my master's tastes: a boy like you is not on his highness' menu", the butler assured in a schooled voice.

Really? Really? So Mephi- Samael had been making fun of him all this time? There was no hidden meaning in what he said? Relief, as of heavenly absolution, flooded Shiro.

"You made it sound like I was", he said, trying not to let show how thankful he was.

"That was not my intention: I merely did not know how to address you. You are, as previously said, not the kind of person I would expect to find in his highness' bedchamber. …what is your relation to his highness?" he inquired. Oh yes, all demons are curious.

A smile tugged the corner of Shiro's mouth.

"I'm his friend."

A/N: And thus, arc 1 comes to a close. Arc 2 you can find at my profile page, conveniently titled The End of the Beginning, arc 2: Inferno.

And before you start screaming at me, read again what Belial really says:

"A boy like you is not on his highness' menu."

And consider what else has been said:

"I like a man who plays it rough~ Pity you're just a boy."

"Not bad~ Allow a few years to ripen that body and the ladies will be all over you."

Do remember, Shiro hasn't even turned 19 (you're considered an adult at 20). He still has growing to do, both mentally and physically. And Samael, well… he has all the time in the world. ;P Let poor Shiro relax, he's earned it. This doesn't mean teasing will cease in any way: but it does mean that Shiro will let his guard down, kukukuku…

Now that things have settled down… I shall pester you with all the footnotes from ch 49 and onwards. *watches readers run off and disappear beyond the horizon* x'3 I do implore you to stay and read, though.

This is the only footnote you will ever see that is longer than the actual chapter, and divided into chapters of its own…

This was written before the Illuminati arc, meaning that nobody had any idea of Lucifer's existence. 8'9 But don't worry, he will show up and the Satan's-eldest-son confusion will be sorted out.

The apocrypha: All demons have fatal verses, right? But Samael wouldn't leave something like that for people to find. He could very well have been around at the time the great scriptures were written, and, if he were, I'm sure he would try to destroy the manuscripts. He probably thought he did. Not until the 1940-1950's were the Dead Sea Scrolls found hidden in a remote cave in the West Bank: some of them are older, different copies of existing Christian or Hebrew scripts, some of them are forgeries, and some of them are entirely unknown works from over two thousand years ago. The theory, as far as I know, is that they were hidden when their keepers fled pursuit of some sort. Pursued by somebody who wanted to secure his immortality, maybe…?

The hourglass: Well, he is the King of Time… The credit for the pyramid shape goes to my colourful clientele of weird friends, though. Ask anybody with at least half a foot in the UFO/new age/spiritualism/general off-the-grid thinking and they will tell you that if you're going to concentrate, channel, or augment energy, then the pyramid is what you're looking for. Nobody (= even non-weird people) will deny that energy is dependent on geometrical structures: that goes down to the atomic level. So if the ability for a substance to remain stable, conduct electricity, or radiate energy is dependent on the structure of the atoms; is it so far-fetched to think that a pyramid could have the potential to affect energy built into its geometrical structure (which corresponds to the structure of many chemical substances)? Well, I dunno. It's interesting to speculate. Good enough for fanfiction. =P

The heart: Wasn't called a heart in my original rendition, but the principle was the same, source of power/weakness and all that, so a quick run with Ctrl+F and replace Word A with Word B did the job. Samael claimed he hid his heart in canon, too, so… what says he hides it in his body? Since he's the only demon as far as we know that can bend space and jump freely across dimensions, I figure he'd make use of that and hide his most vulnerable part where it can't be threatened from Gehenna or Assiah.

It was this that I had in mind when I wrote the part about immortality (just making sure we're on equal footing here). If you can't hit their weak spot, they don't die. If their weak spot is in a different dimension – how are you ever gonna hit it?

I wasn't sure about the shape of his heart, and if we ever get to see it in the manga I'll go back and change. As it is, I tried to come up with something that made at least a little sense. The definition of time is change. Time births change, and change creates time. So I figure his heart would be constantly shifting, at least in "activated form". Ends and beginnings, births and deaths, black and white: cyclic and linear, repetition and innovation. An entity of dual nature, a servant of God who tempts men to do the deeds of the Devil: that is the traditional view of Samael, the one between good and evil.

Fili Dei miserete nobis: Thank you, wildkurofang, for pointing me to the emblem in volume 4. And thank you, Krister, for patiently teaching us the grammar even though my classmates were less-than-attentive during Latin class.

Below Mephisto's emblem is a banner with a microscopic motto, but I think I deciphered it correctly when I read it as Fili Dei miserete nobis. There is a line in the Angelic Hymn, one of the most ancient and important psalms in the Roman-Catholic church (we're talking 4th Century A.D. here), that reads Filius Patris /-/ miserere nobis that is the closest existing reference one can find. It means "Son of the Father, have mercy on us". Mephisto's motto, however, is likely not a reference. It's not a straight quote, for one thing. And it's grammatically correct: with all the pseudo-Latin going around these days, someone who manages to get it right is someone who has put some serious thought behind.

Fili Dei miserete nobis has three possible translations in the AnE context, as I see it:
#1 Sons of God, have mercy on us (if you believe it would be a paraphrase of the Angelic Hymn)
#2 Sons of God, pity us (but this is more interesting, imo)
#3 Sons of God, lament us (and this could get REALLY interesting)

Oh, the multitude of interpretations… x') For one, who exactly is "us"? Demons? Humans? "Us" as in the royal way of referring to oneself in third person…? I don't know enough to make a qualified guess. x') It could be ironic blasphemy or it could be ominous prophecy.

Johann Faustus: Yes, I think so. I don't believe we'll ever see that confirmed, but I do think so. Samael's name might not be Mephistopheles, but he could still have been the Mephistopheles of legend; many of the other aliases he's used have become famous, after all. Supporting that theory would be that Samael chose to add the fake name Johann Faust to his already faked name – and keep it long enough to come down to Johann Faust V. Plus his penchant for all things German, he turns into a dog just like Mephistopheles did, he emphasizes Knowledge, and lo and behold: he uses the words Verweile doch! to stop time. The very words Faust was instructed to use, if he ever wanted Mephistopheles to stop time (and claim his soul).

I think Mephisto liked Faust, one way or the other. Did you know? In the 1587 manuscript of Historia von Dr Johann Faustus, it says black on white that Mephistopheles took the shape of a woman and seduced Faust on several occasions. Probably a moralization-campaign on the church's behalf, but I smiled when I read it. Maybe Mephisto liked him… or just liked to play pranks on him…

Historia von Dr Johann Faustus (1587) also contains this line: "I do promise him in return that, when I be fully sated of that which I desire of him, twenty-four years also being past, ended and expired, he may at such a time and in whatever manner or wise pleaseth him order, ordain, reign, rule and possess all that may be mine: body, property, flesh, blood, etc., herewith duly bound over in eternity and surrendered by covenant in mine own hand by authority and power of these presents, as well as of my mind, brain, intent, blood and will." I don't expect you to remember, but I did have Mephisto say in ch 19 that the body he possesses is his by right: he'd bought it as part of the deal he made with its former owner. =P Heh, the 1587 manuscript also says that Faustus' body was bashed to a bloody bag of broken bones when the contract expired: but if he was that badly beaten, I shall twiddle my thumbs and pretend that the corpse people found was in too poor condition for identification, and that it was merely some errand boy or other unfortunate soul that bit the dust…

A reckless idiot like you: I didn't make this connection until it had already been written, but… Shiro isn't that far from Johann Faust (Goethe's), actually. For those of you who haven't read this masterpiece, Mephistopheles follows Faust home in the shape of a black dog. As you might remember, if you read the footnotes on ch 40, he couldn't get out again because of the pentagram drawn over Faust's threshold. And when he asks permission to leave, Faust denies him that with the words (and this isn't the translation I prefer, but I haven't got my own copy of the one I want): "Who traps the Devil, hold him fast! Not soon a second time he'll catch a prey so precious."

That's pretty bold for a human to say to the Devil's face. And Shiro's negotiations in the pocket dimension…? Pretty bold, too. Might that be the kind of human Samael finds to his taste? I'd like to think so, at least… x')

The possession: There was one line, uttered by Yukio early on in the manga, that stuck in my head and never rattled out: "Father Fujimoto was the only person in this world Satan could possess." I know translations differ, so here's an online version: "Father was the only man in the world thought to be able to sustain possession by Satan himself…"

The question remains in both cases: why did people think this? How do you establish something like that? Call Satan over for a test-run...? Well, this was my solution to the problem: I think that Shiro had been possessed before, by a demon whose powers are almost equal to Satan's own, and survived. That would allow for such a theory. And the demon in question would have to be one high in Gehenna's hierarchy, no…?

Unico: A cute little unicorn from an Osamu Tezuka manga from 1976. He's blue, with pink mane and little cinnamon bun-curled ears, and Mephisto loves him deeply~ Actually, this one is an anachronism: Unico didn't appear until November that year, but I couldn't resist this…