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Today was not Shiro's day.

To start off with, he was injured. It was nothing serious, thankfully, but the pain was an annoyance and he had to be careful to keep his cuts from opening and bleeding all over him. This was a serious concern, because some asshole had decided to take all of his things, which included his medical supplies. If he dirtied these bandages before he found more, he wouldn't be able to change them.

Of course, none of that compared to the headache of getting knocked out and dropped in the middle of God-knows-where. It certainly wasn't anywhere on that mountain, there wasn't enough snow or steep slopes. This brought him to problem number three: someone had stolen the sword. Other things were gone too, but those were incidental compared to the sword. He had fought his way through a temple of monks for that thing, and he wasn't about to let someone just take it and run away. He was pissed, and he was going to find that sword.

In his one stroke of luck for the day, Shiro had ended up at some kind of train stop. Sure, it was in the middle of a forest, with only one other building around, but train tracks meant that a town couldn't be far away. All he had to do was follow the train tracks, and eventually he would find someone.

So he hopped down from the station and started walking along the tracks, heading East. It took well over an hour of walking to get anywhere, but eventually he did reach a small, abandoned-looking town. The key word there being 'abandoned-looking.' Frowning, Shiro kept walking, trying to find at least one person in this run-down hellhole. He was only at the outskirts of the town, after all. Maybe more people were further in.

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Nope, sorry, he was not listening. He was so sure that Rin was just making up lies to get back the sword, which was something Shiro could not allow. He had to get away, fast, and hopefully make it back to the Order and give them the damn sword already.

Once he reached the holes in the road, he started running with longer strides, which moved into a few jumps over some shaky-looking parts. He was mostly running parallel to it, hoping the ground would be strong enough to hold him, but that Rin would be scared off from driving too close.

The first jump was fine, but with the second he felt something in his abdomen rip, and then the bandages there started to get wet. Shit, he had overdone it.

He managed to keep going for a few more steps, but when he tried to leap over a curb and up onto a sidewalk he landed wrong and fell.

So much for trying to get away. But at least he hadn't reached the barrier, right?

Rin finally pulled the truck to a stop, arm resting on open window as he stared at Shiro's receding form. Wow this was annoying. Rightfully he should have been pissed, but it was kind of hard to be given how the situation itself was. Really, how do you tell some one that something they had gotten probably not that long ago had been passed to some one else years in their future?

Without breaking them with the whole "by the by that's your son" thing?

Sighing, he turned the truck off (it gave another sputter that didn't sound too good, either, but he could hope that it wouldn't be dead when he came back) and got out, closing the door behind him with a slam.

He was about to bolt after the older man when he realized something had happened in between the moment he'd gotten out and the moment he'd turned around.

Shiro wasn't there anymore.

Had he turned already? Or had he hit the barrier-- ... no Rin would have heard something. Besides it was further out than that. Rin squinted, and finally realized there was a patch of black amongst the dead and dying winter grass, the remaining brown from the fallen autumn leaves and the gray cracked and broken sidewalk.

"... th' hell did you do, you idiot?" he sighed, trudging forward and carefully stepping over the cracks and the holes until he was able to get close enough to crouch down next to Shiro, staring at him with a scowl.

"... how bad is it? 'cause if you can't walk I'm takin' that sword back before I carry you to the clinic."

Shiro was in pain, and he was bleeding more and more. This was going to end up being a repeat of what happened on the mountain, he could just feel it. Cursing, he held an arm to his stomach as he tried to stand up, but he was only able to get up to his knees. Standing up was too much.

He pulled his hand away, and he saw that no blood was on it. Good. He wasn't bleeding through his clothes yet. But after all the blood he had lost yesterday, along with the bleeding now, he was starting to feel dizzy. Running wasn't going to happen.

And then Rin was there again, and he wasn't kicking his ass for the theft? This brat was too soft.

"M'fine," he said, frowning over at Rin, "I just got concussed a couple days ago, it's hard to run right."

Which was partially true, he really was concussed, but that wasn't the reason why he had fallen over there. He was a doctor, he could treat himself at the clinic, nobody needed to know how badly he was hurt.

He decided to let the sword thing go for now. If this kid was part demon, Shiro could track him down later and steal it back. He had six months until Yuri gave birth to that demon spawn, he wasn't hurting for time.

Yeah Rin is going to call bullshit on that, Shiro. He's been around Yukio long enough to know that this isn't just a concussion. Granted he couldn't see what other injuries were present, but Shiro's collapse was enough to know he was at least somewhat right.

And no, he wasn't going to kick his ass. He wasn't that kind of demon, or person.

"Stubborn ass..." he sighed, moving to put an arm under Shiro and haul him back to his feet, snagging the sword on the way up. He was going to have to keep a closer eye on it now, until he could find some way to convince Shiro that it really was his sword.

He was, by some miracle, going to try words before showing off his power. Shiro was the Paladin - he had reason enough to be paranoid of even just a normal, non-Satan related demon, let alone one that unfortunately shared his blood.

"My brother is a doctor and the Northtown Clinic is pretty damn good for what it lacks in supplies. So shadup and lemmie help you, okay?"

"I'm not that helpless," Shiro protested, though he did let Rin pull him up and half-carry him. Thank goodness for demon strength, a normal kid might not have been able to manage it. Shiro was short, but he was deceptively heavy, when he had his full gear on.

Though right now he was lacking most of his gear. He had to keep reminding himself of that fact.

"But tell you what: I'll cooperate if you give me the sword."

Eventually his blood will start seeping through his clothes, though. It may not be that visible, because that sure is a black coat, but if Rin touched it in the right spot he would find it damp and sticky.

He wouldn't need to touch it. He could already smell it. The fresh tang of copper in the air, faint to a normal nose but almost overpowering to some one like him. Thankfully he wasn't easily nauseated - all Shiro would see would be a wrinkling of his nose before he let out an annoyed sigh to the offer.

"What if I gave you a really good reason not to take the sword away from me?"

"If it's a really good one, and even I can recognize it's good? Then I'll let you come along with me for what I need it for."

Shiro wasn't being too demanding, or at least he didn't think he was. All he needed the sword for was one little thing. If Rin wanted the sword that badly, then he could come along too.

Wow you are really not getting this whole "trapped in a murder box" thing are you?

It wasn't a long walk back to the truck, where Rin stopped and not so gently dropped Shiro on the passenger seat.

"Okay first off, you're not goin' anywhere. I said 'trapped' and I meant it. I've been in this hell hole for almost four months, okay? The barrier keeps anyone from physical leavin', and trust me, a lot of people have tried. Most of them died."

That much said, he reached around behind the seats, digging around (and slipping the sword off his shoulder to shove it back there, just enough out of reach that Shiro would have to physically crawl over the seat or get out to get to it. He came back with a few towels, stained and old looking but otherwise clean.

"You're bleedin'. You might wanna hold these on it until we get to the clinic."

Towels shoved at him, he moved to the driver's side and got in, but he didn't start the truck up.

"Second. Yukio is an exorcist. I'm in trainin'. And that sword? Was given to me by my father."

Shiro, that is. But Rin was actually finding some semblance of tact for once. He was going to have to say something that would likely break the brain of the person he was speaking to, but if he had to pick the lesser of two evils here he was going to go with the one that didn't involve the words "by the way I'm your son".

"You're the Paladin, right? I recognize you. Thing is... that sword? It's given to me in 2011. Don't ask me how the hell it happened, this place does fucking insane things, but I'm pretty damn sure you're not from any time close to that."

It sounds crazy even saying it, crazier still that he can figure out Shiro wanting sword = obviously from way before certain events, but even he knows that's the only damn explanation for any of this.

He hopes you're happy, techs. This is absolute emotional torture for him.

Wow Rin talked a lot. It was annoying and it made Shiro's head hurt more, but he kept his complaining to a minimum. For one, he really did need at least some medical supplies, and he would likely have to redo some stitches. Or this Yukio person would have to do it. Shiro felt slightly better when he heard that Yukio was an exorcist, too, since his wounds had come from a demon. He would be better at treating them if he knew to expect claw marks.

But that last part, that makes him frown. 2011? That definitely wasn't the year that Shiro remembered it being. Whatever this place was, could it warp time as well as space? Assuming Rin was telling the truth (which Shiro doubted, by the way. But he was entertaining the thought for a moment), that meant there were some shenanigans going on. And there was only one demon that Shiro knew of who could manipulate time like this...

"If Mephisto did this, then I'm shooting him when I get back," he muttered under his breath as he held onto the towels. But it did explain things a bit better, like how this Rin kid somehow owned the sword despite Shiro having just obtained it. Maybe that would explain the strange feeling he had gotten from the sword too. It had been empty the last time Shiro had touched it, and now it was definitely full of demon soul.

Shiro just needed to figure out who Rin's father was, and why the hell Shiro would even give him a demon sword in the first place.

"It's 1995 for me," Shiro admitted, "And I'm not the Paladin, not yet. Just your everyday upper-first-class exorcist sent on a bullshit mission that's clearly gone wrong."

Though it sounded like he eventually became the Paladin. Awesome. All of his hard work would eventually pay off then.

"Trust me, if Mephisto was in chaoots with the lunatics that run this fuckin' place, I'd stab his sorry clown ass myself. ... but no. It ain't him. It can't be. The guy may be the biggest goddamn pain in my ass since my brother existed but he can't be involved in this."

Mainly because Mephisto wouldn't get shit from it.

Rin pulled out his mobile from his pocket. It looked like an iPhone, but it was almost too different to be properly called that. Like a knock off that wasn't cheap but still only mimicked the true product. The date read "February 9th, 2014".

"Yeah well... that's what I knew you as. ... well not knew knew. Just. Knew of."

God he was so bad at lying but he was giving an honest effort this time.

"And a lotta shit has gone wrong. Us bein' here is one of them. ... d'ya need more or d'ya think I can take you to the clinic before you fall over again."

They had cell phones in Shiro's time, but they definitely weren't that advanced. The cell phones Shiro knew were about the size of a shoe and had terrible reception, hence why he didn't own one. If they came like that, though, it might be worth it.

He waved Rin off at the offer for more information, though. "Tell me more later," he said, "Getting to the clinic now would be a better idea than talking."

He hated relying on someone else like this, but he also didn't want to bleed out. His stubbornness had a limit.

Well. That was a step in the right direction.

Rin knew the truth would come out sooner or later. He was that bad at lying and with both him and Yukio there, and the information they'd already given out to others (Rin more than Yukio) something would slip. Something would hit Shiro at just the right time to clue him in to all the things Rin was leaving out, and all the things he wasn't being truthful about.

But really, if he had to find a way to break this to him slowly, in a way that wouldn't set the paranoid exorcist in him off bad enough that he'd try to kill Rin. There was enough in that awful place to do that without adding Shiro to the mix.

"'kay..."

And after that, Rin went quiet. The truck didn't turn over the first few times, but the fourth or fifth time it finally sputtered to life. The tank was getting low, but he might have been able to make it back to the one working gas station on foot later and get something out of it later.

Luckily they weren't terribly far from the clinic, either, and a short drive later he was pulling up next to a slightly nicer looking house than some of the other ramshackle, falling down ones. There were no visible signs, save for a rusted metal red + tacked to the side next to the door.

Rin moved the truck down the dirt road, eventually pulling in to the grass next to the house before shutting the engine off and getting out to come around and grab Shiro. And the sword, of course.

"This town looks like shit."

That was pretty much what was on Shiro's mind as they drove through the town. It was small, and it looked like it had seen better days. Just what had happened here?

When they got to the clinic, Shiro tried to walk on his own, though he was obviously in pain. He had to look like he could handle himself, if only to keep his pride from hurting any more than it already was.

"You sure your brother's here?"

"Southtown is a little better... not by much, though."

Rin could have gotten in to details, but he had a feeling Shiro didn't want to hear about how there had only been a handful before his group showed up, and how so many kept arriving after, month by month, stretching resources thin, giving more fuel to the terrible fire the technicians stoked in the shadows...

If he wanted details, he could easily ask.

Rin kept close after Shiro got out, heading up to the door and pushing it open without knocking. The inside certainly looked like a clinic, but not a very well stocked one. It was what could be done in such a place, with nothing but a house to hold it due to the fact that the hospital was in even worse condition.

"Should be. Have a seat, I'll go look for him."

Rin would find Yukio in one of the back rooms, absorbed in taking inventory of the clinic's depressingly small store of supplies. Not quite so small as it had been the day before thanks to an early morning scavenging of the hospital, but still far smaller than Yukio would have preferred. Heaven forbid more than two or three serious injuries every come in at once. He'd end up sewing wounds shut with dental floss.

Caught deep in thought and just a little bit of his ever-present worry, he didn't realize he wasn't alone in the clinic until Rin actually stepped through the door of the back room.

"Niisan? Is something wrong?"

Because why else would Rin be at the clinic in the middle of the day?

Shiro stayed in the front room, waiting for Rin to go get Yukio. He didn't sit down, though. He was too antsy to sit, and he knew he would have to move to redo the stitches and bandages anyway. So instead he stood there, half-leaning against a wall as he surveyed the room.

It was kind of shitty, he had to admit. Not as bad as some of the other buildings he had seen out the truck window, but it was still crummy. This place needed some tender loving care, and some sterilization. The last thing Shiro needed was to get infected wounds.

He could hear the two talking in the other room, but he didn't chime in, instead choosing to listen in to their conversation.

"... yeah."

The look on his face indicated, at least, that he wasn't injured. But it wasn't the look of "one of my friends is in trouble" either. It was something else. Something strained, tense, like he had been dealing with something alone and was about to burst from the pressure of it.

"... don't freak, okay? Whatever you do, whatever you think you're gonna say to him, don't say it. Just trust me on this, okay?"

'Don't freak?' That didn't bode well. Part of the young exorcist wanted to argue, but Rin's stance and expression stopped him for once. He could handle anger or panic, but that kind of strain on his brother's face...

He stood slowly and moved for the door, fixing Rin with a short, searching look before stepping into the front room.

The new boy entering the room looked far too young to be a doctor of any sort, and his cracked spectacles and shaggy hair (abnormally shaggy for him, anyway) did little to age him, nor did his wide-eyed look of shock when he realized just who it was that Rin had brought with him. The recognition was nearly instant, the missing years on Shiro's face unimportant.

A quiet little noise forced its way out of Yukio's throat before he could clamp down on his vocal cords, but after that holding his tongue was a fairly simply task.

After all, what can you possibly say ten seconds after setting eyes on the man that would become your father?

Edited 2014-02-11 03:54 (UTC)

That did not help at all. Shiro was not stupid, he could tell that these two kids knew something he didn't. The fact that they were hiding it from him made him suspicious.

"Alright," he said finally, "I'd like to know what's got you two so freaked out. Even if there's time bullshit going on, you two shouldn't be this stunned to see me."

Yukio looked even more familiar than Rin did, though, and it really bothered him that he couldn't figure out why.

Rin hung back a bit, near the door, watching Yukio from behind. He didn't have to see his brother's face to know what it looked like. His reaction had pretty much been the same, minus the utter, pained silence that followed it that noise.

Shiro speaking, though, did urge him out of the doorway. He moved closer, but kept enough distance to let Yukio work unhindered.

He did share a look with him, though.

How much should they tell? How much was going to get them killed, and how much was going to actually save them?

Yukio didn't move for his supplies right away, instead forcing himself to take a deep breath and schooling his expression into something more neutral. Mostly. He had to try and approach the situation objectively, but like Rin he worried how much might be too much. Violence was not a likely possibility in his mind (and wouldn't have been even if he didn't have a gun stowed safely nearby), but rejection? Far more likely, and somehow far more frightening.

"It's a complicated situation..."

Yukio frowned, eyebrows furrowing as his eyes finally picked out a slightly darker patch on Shiro's already dark coat.

"Are you bleeding?"

Oh right, he was still bleeding. Awkwardness and serious grilling about what the fuck was going on could wait until after Shiro wasn't at risk of bleeding out.

"Yeah," Shiro admitted, and he started to remove his scarf and coat while he talked, "I got hurt a couple days ago, and I think I ripped it open again."

It took surprisingly less time for him to get that coat off than it should have, given his injury. The bleeding was actually slowing down by then, but his white shirt was still stained red, and would need some serious washing. The bandages underneath were ruined too, and would need replacing.

"He faceplanted up closer to Northtown while tryin' to run." Mostly the truth. He was leaving out the "tried to steal my sword" and "was attempting to run away from me" parts of the story.

"Not bleedin' as bad as he was, though..."

Yukio grimaced at the sight, caught between concern and slight annoyance. Concern for obvious reasons, but a Doctor like Shiro? He really should've known better than to stress an abdominal injury so soon after getting it patched.

"Take off your shirt and lie down. Carefully, please."

He gestured to the nearest cot before heading for the clinic's small kitchen. The sound of splashing water could be heard almost immediately. Probably Yukio washing storeroom dust off of his hands in the water he boiled several times a day for just that use.

"Niisan, go into the back room and bring me the brown backpack."

Why thank you, Rin, for leaving that part out. It will make it all the easier to steal that sword back later.

Shiro did as he was told, dropping his clothes unceremoniously into a chair. Anyone else might have been frightened, or at least grimacing from the pain, but Shiro took it like it was nothing. It was far from the worst injury he had even received on the job, he could deal with it.

But at least he was compliant. He didn't like the idea of a kid treating his injuries, but if he did a shitty job then Shiro could just fix it later. Might as well play nice now, to make them let their guard down.

"For the record, it was the jumping that did it, not the falling."

Yeah yeah keep trying old man. Rin isn't that dumb.

Nodding, Rin slipped quietly to the back, getting what Yukio asked of him and putting it over his shoulder so he could bring it up front.

"Whatever it was you shouldn't be doin' it when you're like that. You'd think you'd know that, bein' a doctor."

Yukio walked back into the room with a bowl of water (not the one he washed his hands in, in case anyone was worried) and set right to treating Shiro. Carefully removing the soiled bandages, gently cleaning and examining the wound and working to set things right without missing a beat.

"You don't get to lecture anyone where recklessness is concerned, Niisan."

He didn't even look up when he spoke, focused on his task and working with skilled, steady hands. Whoever taught him did their job very well.

That was actually very reassuring, when he saw that Yukio knew what he was doing. Shiro was expecting some untrained kid, and he really didn't want to get an infection when he was so far away from home. At least he probably won't have to fix up Yukio's work here.

The tear was a minor one, fortunately. It would only need re-bandaging, and for Shiro to take it easy to keep from bleeding all over again. But the marks there show just the kind of trouble Shiro had gotten into: That long yet shallow wound was definitely the mark of someone who had come close to being gutted by some kind of demon. There was also a lot of bruising, since he had fallen from quite a height afterwards.

Meanwhile, Shiro causally flipped Rin off. "I don't need any lectures from a brat."

Wow flipped off by his old man. That's a first. But Rin responds in kind with both hands from behind Yukio, sticking out his tongue at the same time.

"Shadup and get patched up already, geez. I may be a brat but I ain't the one sittin' there with blood all over me!"

"Both of you, stop."

He let the words fly without thinking, only tensing up a few seconds later when he realized he'd almost told his father to shut up. Not that it mattered in this very unique situation, but old habits die hard.

"... What kind of demon did this?"

It was a good thing that Yukio had stopped them, because Shiro would have definitely responded with something about offering to make Rin bloody. To share the love and all.

He settled for making one more face at Rin before answering Yukio's question. "Some kind of giant eagle-thing. Not completely sure, it came out of nowhere and was gone just as quickly. I already used the standard salves on it, so there's not going to be any poisoning problems."

Demon wounds could be potentially fatal to humans, even if they were minor ones. Shiro would never be so lax as to not treat a demon wound properly.

Rin made a soft "tch!" noise back at Shiro, shuffling off to go... stare at a wall somewhere else. It was weird, being able to rib at Shiro like that without any real consequences behind it. It just didn't feel right to Rin, and he knew he was only going to be in the way if he kept that up.

"Hn."

Yukio kept his eyes down as he finished up with Shiro's new bandages, unaware of the little pout he was wearing.

"You'll need to be more careful here. I've yet to see any demons of out world, but supplies are limited at the best of times. Medical and otherwise."

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