In celebration for 4.5k views, i drew Rin as a dragon^^
thank you guys sm!! i can't believe how big that number is <33

NOTE: in the last chapter, italics meant a memory while normal font meant the cram class's POV / Rin's thoughts. For convenience purposes it's now vice versa.

The cram class screamed as blood seemed to fly out at them from every direction. In reality, though, it was only a couple of drops—but it was enough to scare anyone because who would want to watch someone get tortured?

The class was pleading, begging into the air to make the scene stop, but the man just took another swipe at Rin, who let out a coarse yell as his cheek was split open, deeper this time, blood flowing like a river down his face and dripping onto his uniform.

The man moved to the other side of Rin's face before precisely swinging. He was aiming for the chub of the boy's cheek, but in his crazed frenzy he misjudged the shot, barely missing Rin's wide, fearful eyes—eyes that seemed to scream out in pure, utter pain. Those same eyes seemed to expand rapidly as his face got assaulted by the knife, quite literally. They grew so large that his iris was practically gone, grew until the pupil snapped back into itself in the shape of a corrupted, dark blue slit. Rin erupted into brilliant flames at the exact moment his eyes defied nature. He was burning, his scorching hot flames taking control and lashing out in full defensive fury.

The man dropped the knife he had been assaulting Rin with. The hand that had previously been holding the wicked tool was engulfed in burning hot flames, and he jumped backwards, screaming violently as the pretty blue hue mauled his flesh. He clutched his burning hand with his other one, but that was a big mistake, because his other hand started to light, and he shook both of them desperately until the azure flames died out. Normally, flames that quite literally came from the depths of hell couldn't just be shaken off, but Rin had let them flicker away—he had never actually hurt a person and the scene was absolutely horrifying for him.

Rin took a closer look at the scientist—or whatever he was—in the hopes that he hadn't hurt him too badly. The skin on the hand that had held the knife was dark red, charred, and just altogether disgusting in a way that made the half demon want to gag. Blood slowly gushed from the places where the skin wasn't completely charred. It must be a third degree burn, perhaps higher if those even existed. Rin let his gaze travel to the man's other hand, and he wished he hadn't. Forget gagging, he was going to vomit all over the floor if he didn't stop looking soon. The other hand was more of a second degree burn, with huge white blisters popping up and ready to burst while the rest of the skin was a bloody, irritated red, and since the flames hadn't managed to char the skin badly enough to clog blood flow, the red liquid was starting to slowly rise to the surface and sluggishly drip to the floor.

Meanwhile, the man had fallen to his knees, gasping and sobbing out in pain. Loudly. Rin was still staring wide eyed at him, trying unsuccessfully to wrench his gaze away, cover his ears, or do something to make him not have to watch the man's suffering. He didn't think it helped, either, that he was still wreathed in divine flames. He tried to unconsciously focus on his own pain to take his attention away from the man, but the cuts on his face had long since healed, leaving him soaked in blood but otherwise physically fine.

What have I done? was the only thought echoing through Rin's head, over and over again, like a broken record.

Maybe I really am a monster? No—no. It was just self defense. Self defense isn't a crime...

Before he could stop it, an image of an angry Suguro played in his head. "Don't you understand? Those blue flames can kill people!"

I never thought..

I thought they weren't actually capable of that.. Rin blanched. Why had he been so naive? Of course Satan's flames are capable of things like this. They're cursed. He's cursed.

They were capable of doing this, the whole time? Rin thought, lip trembling as it fought fiercely to frown. I—I understand now.. what people mean. I really am a monster.

Rin's eyes filled up with tears and he choked on them, trying desperately to not let them fall. His hands jerked in the cuffs, instinctively trying to wipe away the salty liquid, but they were held there by the cold metal.

Rin hadn't realized that his steady gaze on the man's burn wounds had unfocused, and so when he regained enough composure to actually see straight, he realized that he was alone yet again. The only evidence that the suited man had even been there was his blood on the floor.

~•§•~

The next day, when Rin had woken up from an uncomfortable sleep in the still cuffed chair, the first thing he did was shoot up, heaving, to stare at the blood stain on the ground. The only thing was... it wasn't there anymore.

"Was it all just a dream?" Rin whispered under his breath, voicing his thoughts aloud. He didn't put it past himself to dream up something like that, ever since the night his father died, but still... he felt a lingering sense of uncomfort and he couldn't pinpoint the exact reason why.

As if to prove his gut right, the almost invisible door slammed open and in marched a man that seemed exactly like the previous one, except his hair was a different color—a dirty blond—and he wore a lab coat instead of an obnoxious suit. He didn't say or do anything besides walking up to stand in front of Rin, who eyed him warily.

"Can you pledge your undying loyalty to the Vatican?" The man got straight to the point, questioning in a dead tone of voice, and clearly expecting an answer.

If the Vatican treat me like they did last night, if that wasn't a dream, then of course not! Who in their right minds would agree after being tortured? Rin reasoned to himself.

From the angle the cram class was standing at, the could see a long, curved knife in the man's hand. His arm was currently behind him, just slightly, not enough to be suspicious but enough to hide the weapon. Rin, please say yes, please, don't let yourself get hurt again, thought many.

"No." Rin jutted his chin up defiantly.

Not even a second had passed before the man had swung the knife down, straight into Rin's immobile hand. It pierced directly through the appendage, squirting blood everywhere. In the blink of an eye defensive blue flames flared up around Rin, lashing out for the source of the danger, but the man had already anticipated this and backed away accordingly. Rin was screaming, tears falling from his eyes almost as fast as the blood pouring out of his hand, and he jerked, instinctively trying to run away but failing because of the cuffs. The only thing he succeeded in doing was ripping the knife deeper into his skin, which caused his flames to shoot up ever brighter. The knife was beginning to turn bright orange, droop, and melt, but before it could fully turn to liquid, the lab coat clad man had pulled a small remote out of his pocket and pressed a button on it.

A fire sprinkler emerged from the ceiling above Rin and began spraying massive amounts of water down into the room. It soaked the scientist and was working on Rin's flames, ever so slowly dulling them with a crackling hiss. When the water finished off the last of Rin's dying flames and hit Rin, he screamed more, his voice cracking and echoing throughout the room. It was a pure, painful screech with no other intent than to voice his pain, to get someone to notice him because he was hurting, dammit!

Red welts appeared where the water hit, but it was pouring down so fast that Rin was soaked to the bone in a matter of seconds and suddenly those welts were everywhere. He screamed and screamed, screamed even after the water turned off because it was burning him. It had gotten into his hand as well and it was burning him.

It had to of been holy water, and a high grade one at that. His skin was beginning to resemble the man's from last night, not the severely burned hand but the one with huge, white blisters all over it. They were popping up, some imploding and spraying plasma all over the place, only to get lost within the water on the floor.

His flames began to make another appearance—they were weak, barely there, but still enough to evaporate the rest of the water on his skin. Rin was heaving and hyperventilating so fast that his body had to shut him down before he killed himself with lack of air, and so his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell into the comforting, painless black awaiting behind those sore lids.

Meanwhile, the scientist from before still bore the same uncaring expression as he watched the whole scene unfold. He moved to ungraciously yank the knife from Rin's hand, successfully making the wound bigger in the process. More blood poured onto the floor—that must surely be stained red by now—as he pulled out a stopwatch from his pocket and turned it on, moving to lean against the far wall. He began waiting. And waiting... and waiting... Until finally, after what must've been thirty minutes, Rin's red skin slowly started to turn back into a normal color. The wound on his hand seemed to get the tiniest bit smaller, as did the welts all over him. After a couple more minutes, he seemed to decide that this was taking too long for his taste and left, splashing through the bloodstained holy water on his way to the door.

The man came back after an eternity, stopwatch still running, just in time to see the last welt disappear from Rin's skin. His hand was just a small scab by now, and was slowly morphing itself into skin. Stopping the timer, the man took note of the numbers on it before walking up to Rin and injecting a greenish black substance into his arm.

The veins around the injection almost immediately turned the same color as the liquid in the syringe, slowly but surely spreading up his arm.

The man let out his first smile of the day and turned, exiting the room.

word count: 1834