Rin dreamed.

This was a surprise, because he usually didn't. Sleep was like a black-out for him.

Laughter filled the air. He was in a murky place. Everything was blurry, no specific shape took form. He could only assume where he was.

Assiah was the material world, and Mephisto had told him that unless you knew where you wanted to go, Gehenna was a void that you'd surely get lost and probably die in.

He heard screeches and growls. Crying and the screams of the damned below his feet. It could only be one place.

Gehenna.

"Hey there, son. It's me, Papa. It's been a long time since I've seen you." A voice greeted.

Rin sneered. "I'd say go to Hell, but we're already here."

The voice laughed. Blue flames took form in front of him. The last form he'd possessed three years ago: Fujimoto Shiro. Rin tried not to let it get to him.

"Oh, how you've grown. You'll be perfect very soon." He grinned, showing a mouth full of sharp, jagged teeth. "You're not getting anywhere near me." Rin backed up cautiously.

"Ah, but your mother wants to see you." Satan tempted. A glowing blue form of a woman appeared. She was short, with long curly hair and wide eyes. She had moles on her face. Yuri Egin.

"You have her eyes and you both have her hair. The other one has the same moles. She sired such perfect children. I wish I could have raised you." Satan sighed.

"Yeah, well, I wish Shiro would've killed us when we were newborns but here we all are." Rin replied sarcastically. Meeting his mother was the last thing he wanted to do after she'd damned two innocent kids to lives of bitterness, hatred, and sadness.

"Come back when I'm dead. Maybe I'll see you on my way down." Rin snorted.

"Oh, but you won't burn. You'll take your rightful place as my Crown Prince. You'll live forever, with everything you could ever want at your disposal." Satan made a wide gesture. "You could be loved by the entirety of Gehenna." Satan offered.

Rin's answer was charging straight at him to deliver a right hook.

And he woke up in his bed, hearing the door shut as Yukio left, probably for a mission.

Rin looked at the alarm clock. 2:07 a.m. Still more time for sleep.

He laid back down and sighed, closing his eyes and hoping for a dreamless sleep.

§~•~§~•~§

"Pack some things. We need to go, now. The trains are already equipped and everyone is getting inoculated for miasma." Shura ordered over the phone. Yukio frowned. He looked over the phone between him and Rin and Rin shrugged. It was more exciting than his usual missions. He didn't mind. Besides, he hadn't been outside of True Cross Town in years.

Yukio sighed and finished the conversation. Then they split up. Rin went to the dorm to pack their things and Yukio went to notify the students.

§~•~§~•~§

"Rin-senpai is coming?" Bon asked. He'd never seen the guy in action. He wondered what Rin's other Meisters were. He couldn't only be a Knight. He seemed too experienced for only one meister.

"But why are we coming?" Shima groaned. He didn't want to see his family anytime soon after leaving for True Cross. Alas, God must hate him.

"We need extra help and we've sent all the Exorcists we can afford to. It's also your home. Now, go pack and meet us at the train station." Yukio answered, walking off briskly.

§~•~§~•~§

Part of Rin was excited and the other part was miserable. They'd surely find out who Rin was and why he was there with them. Rot demons were weak to fire. Rin was the ideal solution for this problem. Then the students would hate him and be just like the people he'd been a first-year ExWire with. They'd refuse to talk to him. Switch his regular water for holy water to see if they could get rid of him. "Accidentally" attack him with familiars.

And Rin wouldn't be able to do anything back because of the collar.

It shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did. Maybe he did still have feelings left for people to hurt....

Shima, who'd taken to hanging out with Rin sometimes at the dorm, came in to see if Rin was okay. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Rin answered. Shima sighed. "No, you're not. You're worried about everyone else."

"I didn't even want to get close to them. I tried to distance myself. But they kept arguing all the time. They don't understand what being an Exorcist is like. They'll all die out there if someone doesn't teach them now." Rin ran a hand through his hair frustratedly.

"Hey, it's fine. I know it'll suck once they know, but you lived through it before. You're strong, you can do it again." The shorter teen told him with a half-smile. Rin sighed again.

"Hopefully."

§~•~§~•~§

The train ride wasn't as peaceful as he'd hoped it would be. Rin snapped at Suguro and Kamiki again and they settled down at the threat of a Baryon punishment the rest of the way to Kyoto.

For the rest of the ride, he napped. Sleep deprivation was his best friend and had been since he'd become an Exorcist. Nightmares or work kept him up most of the time. It was also how he got all his school homework done in time.

"That's so cute!" Izumo snickered. Rin was was propped against the window with his legs taking up the three seats across. His expression was oddly peaceful, very different from his usual scowl. He slept silently. What Shima guessed was a familiar curled up in the older teen's lap. It looked like a cat, but with horns and two tails.

"I've never seen him look so....calm." Suguro marveled. Shima snorted at their reactions. He took a look for himself.

Okay, woah, yeah, it really was drastically different from Rin's usual look. He was good looking even with his usual brooding expression, but he almost looked beautiful like this. Shima wondered what he looked like with a smile. A real one, not one of the bitter grimaces he got when he talked to Shima about his past.

They stayed quiet for the rest of the train ride, trying not to wake the Exorcist.