MORE AONO IDIOTS

[barriermaiden]

[Idiots. All of them.

Bon was tired. After a day of tending to the sick, as well as tending to family obligations, there was not much else to do but take a bath and sleep. But there was so much to worry about: the mess with Todo, where this sickness was coming from, Rin's demon heritage...

Bon frowned. Rin was a constant worry. As if there weren't enough troubles in Bon's life already, now there was one more idiot to worry about. He was lazy, he was stupid, and he happened to be the son of Bon's sworn enemy, the one Bon was going to defeat.

But somehow, Bon couldn't be mad at him. Mad at the lies, yes, but not at Rin's heritage. He couldn't help it, right? It wasn't like a child could do anything about who their parents were. Rin was at fault just as much as Bon was at fault for the Suguro family problems.

Speaking of family problems...

Bon looked left, then right. Nobody else was in the changing room. Good. Carefully, Bon lifted up the sweater and shirt, and carefully pulled them off. The bindings on her chest were still holding strong, though they were becoming uncomfortable as time passed. She was growing, she figured. Pretty soon she would no longer be small-chested enough for bandages, and she would have to use actual bras.

It wasn't that she was uncomfortable with being a girl. No, Bon was fine with that. But what she wasn't fine with was all the assumptions that went along with it. Girls did this. Girls did that. Girls didn't get their ears pierced, or dyed their hair, or acted in the way Bon always had.

Bon wasn't about to change who she was just because society told her to, but the pressure was on her. Especially since she was a scholarship student, too: Nobody expected a tomboy to be tough and smart. So, it had just been easier to hide her gender under bandages and pants. It was only three years, after all. Once she graduated and got her Meister, how she acted wouldn't matter at all. Once she was an exorcist, nobody could take that away from her. She could be who she wanted.

But for now, she could pretend to be a boy. Shima and Koneko knew, by virtue of having grown up with her. Her teachers (including Yukio) and the staff at the school knew, since her actual gender was listed on her school records. But everyone else? They had no clue.

At least, as long as nobody saw her topless, they wouldn't know. Hopefully no idiot boys would wander in to the changing room and stumble upon her in her half-dressed state.]

Comments

[keepsthefire]

[For a moment it does seem like there's going to be a very crispy everything in the wake of this, but the flames that hit the Impure King and burn it in to oblivion still feel relatively cool going against everything else.

By some miracle, Rin had found his control. The flames had threatened to burn him out, but by clinging to the fading images of his friends in his mind he had kept everyone safe.

The explosion recedes, and Rin drops to the ground several feet away from Bon, just as the sun creeps over the horizon.]

[barriermaiden]

[Somehow, she's not dead. How did that happen? How was she not burnt?

The fire was cool, Bon realizes. It didn't even hurt a little bit.

That's when she sees Rin fall to the ground, and she gets off of the rock to run over to him.]

Okumura!

[What, is that concern in her voice?]

[keepsthefire]

[No of course not! She didn't just see a classmate take out an entire high class rot demon on his own, barely in control of his own powers, and the collapse in front of her.

No reason to be concerned at all.

He's conscious, but barely so. Seeing her, he actually smiles.]

You're... okay... I'm glad...

[barriermaiden]

[Okay, that actually gets her to smile a little.]

Of course I'm okay. I didn't doubt you for a second.

[She totally did doubt him. She'sjust as surprised as anyone else is.]

You wouldn't burn a friend, right?

[keepsthefire]

N-no... never...

[I'm sorry, did you want him to stay awake?]

[barriermaiden]

[That would have been nice, but she can understand him being tired.

Fortunately, she's strong enough to carry him, and she knows of an inn not too far away from there...]

[keepsthefire]

[Good, because he's not moving on his own any time soon.

In fact he actually manages to stay out for almost two days. While the exorcists are cleaning up the mess, tending to the wounded and remaining ill, and generally tying up loose ends Rin Okumura just... sleeps.

He dreams in that sleep, too. Sometimes happy ones, with friends and laughter and good feelings. Sometimes sad, chasing after Shiro in an empty white expanse, calling out to him, begging him to give the answers he so desperately wants and needs. Others are plain strange, with a voice he doesn't recognize asking him a question.

Demon or human. I wonder... which one will you choose?

They blur and meld together until, when he finally wakes feeling overheated and nauseated with an unfamiliar ceiling above him, he can only recall bits and pieces of each of them along with a lingering heaviness in his chest.

He doesn't move or cry out, some part of him wondering if his flames really did burn him out on that mountain and his human body finally gave out under the weight of something that no living person should really be able to endure.]

[barriermaiden]

[Bon isn't there when Rin wakes up. Since it's the middle of the morning, Bon is busy with other things. Like being questioned by higher-level exorcists about what had happened on the mountain.

Thankfully nobody had accused her of any foul play or trickery, but there was doubt in everyone's minds. All those blue flames, they had to be Rin's, and nobody would believe her when she said he had burnt up the Impure King with them by choice.

Eventually she will walk by, though, as she has taken to peeking in on Rin's room every now and then to see if he has woken up. With so much to do, she can't just stay there, but there's no harm in checking, right?

She's so surprised when she finally does look in and see that his eyes are open, though.]

Okumura! You're awake!

[keepsthefire]

[Bon's voice is enough to jolt him out of his distant, wandering thoughts. Okay, so he was still alive. That was... a thing. And it seemed like Bon really was okay, too. That meant probably everyone else was as well.

For a moment, he's relieved, but even a tiny movement from him to look up at her makes his head and body ache and his stomach slosh about. He still felt hot, and his forehead was beaded with sweat.]

Can I not be... ?

[barriermaiden]

Well, you could go back to sleep, but...

[But people want to question you.

But everyone is worried and wants to yell at you for dumb decisions.]

Everyone wants to see you, to make sure you're okay.

[keepsthefire]

... y'mean everyone wants to yell at me.

[He sees through your ruse, Bon.]

[barriermaiden]

Not EVERYONE wants to yell at you.

[Koneko and Shiemi in particular are not the types to yell.]

[keepsthefire]

[They might make an exception this time.]

Pretty sure they do.

[barriermaiden]

I'm pretty sure they don't. And even if they did, I'm not yelling at you.

[Though she might start wanting to, knowing how Rin can be sometimes.]

[keepsthefire]

Y'don't count. You were there with me.

[Do you really want to deal with this idiot, Bon?]

[barriermaiden]

[Of course she does. That's why she's there.

Speaking of being there, she will step inside the room and slide the door shut behind her. She doesn't move any closer to Rin yet, though.]

They're gonna ask you questions. Lotsa questions.

[keepsthefire]

[Oh good he's going to throw the blanket over his head and curl up on his side now.]

I did the thing and we're not all dead, the end!

[barriermaiden]

Ha ha, you're so funny.

[Bon's flat tone says no, by the way.

She hesitates for a moment, but eventually she does step away from the door, and goes to sit down cross-legged next to Rin.]

...I'm sorry.

[keepsthefire]

[Groan.]

... th' hell are you apologizin' for?

[barriermaiden]

For almost killing you? You've been out for two days.

[She knows that it was nessisary, that everyone would have died if Rin hadn't been able to defeat the impure king, but she still feels bad about it.]

[keepsthefire]

... what.

[No.

Seriously.

What?]

[barriermaiden]

You've been sleeping for two days. Some people thought you weren't going to wake up.

[keepsthefire]

Christ...

[Rin is just going to slump back and drag the blanket over his head.

Nope. So much nope.]

[barriermaiden]

[God Rin you are such a child.]

I'm kind of surprised that you're not starving, after two days of not eating.

[keepsthefire]

[He just saved Kyoto from dying in a horrible death of miasma and rot, he damn near burnt himself out via his flames and Bon's barrier power, he's allowed to be a little bit childish right now.]

No, I just feel sick.