Canon History
May. 12th, 2013 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doctor_dragoonThe world of Ao no Exorcist consists of two dimensions joined as one, like a mirror. One side is Assiah (the world of humans) and the other is Gehenna (the world of demons). Normally travel or contact between the worlds is impossible, but demons can pass over into Assiah by possessing anything that exists within it. People, objects, the vapor emitted by corpses... pretty much anything is game if the demon in question is powerful enough.
Sixteen years ago the world of exorcists took a crippling hit in the form of the Blue Night. On that day Satan murdered a large number of the world’s greatest holy men, leaving behind only bloody corpses and blue flames. How did he accomplish this? By possessing them, of course. Satan, as the god of Gehenna, is just too powerful for any normal human being to sustain the possession for more than a minute or two (pssst, remember that. That’s going to be important). So! Much possession, lots of dead holy men, and a generation traumatized by sight of blue flames. Sometime during this night of murder and mayhem, Satan found the time to use one of the exorcists he possessed to impregnate a Lower Second Class Exorcist named Yuri Egin. Why did he do this? Sheer boredom, if you’d believe it, but Satan is kind of insane. And by “kind of”, I mean “completely batshit”. Anyway, the ensuing pregnancy resulted in a set of fraternal twin boys: Rin, the elder, and Yukio, the younger brother that you’re about to learn a whole lot more about. You’ll learn a lot about Rin in the process as well, but they’re kind of attached at the hip that way.
This concludes the basic world overview section of the history. Simple, yes? Now, down to business.
Yukio and Rin were raised by Father Fujimoto Shiro in a boys’ monastery in True Cross Campus Town. As young children (because really, at fifteen years of age? They’re just older children) they upheld the rather stereotypical roles of elder and younger brother. Where Rin was strong and loud, Yukio was weak and quiet. Easily frightened and often bullied, Yukio constantly found himself standing in his brothers’ protective shadow, bolstered by Rin’s confidence and encouragement. It was all rather fluffy and heartwarming, really. Flashbacks and heartfelt smiles aplenty.
Our first glance of Yukio in the present shows him as a much stronger person. Calm, intelligent and headed for True Cross Academy to see through his dream of becoming a doctor. Preparing for high school is a very time consuming process, of course, so Yukio’s not actually present when the obligatory start-of-story conflict occurs. Through an encounter with a demon-possessed hooligan and a very serious-faced explanation from Fujimoto, Rin learns that he’s a demon and that his father is an exorcist (in practice, not just title). Flames are discussed (namely the blue ones Rin seems to suddenly be sporting), as well as a demon sword that seals away said flames (otherwise known as “Kurikara”). A father/son disagreement is had and Satan takes advantage of Fujimoto’s moment of weakness, possessing him. Now, remember the bit about possession that I said was important? Good. Fujimoto actually lasts for a few minutes before his body starts to really deteriorate, proving that he’s just that fantastic. In the end, Fujimoto suicides to try and prevent Rin from being pulled into Gehenna to be used as a tool to overtake Assiah.
That was all very sad, but now we’re jumping ahead a bit. A funeral is held for Fujimoto during which Rin and Yukio don’t interact. At all. It’s pretty weird. As the funeral party is walking away, Rin lingers behind and is approached by several mysterious figures. Turns out that they’re members of the True Cross Order (exorcist central, if you couldn’t guess) sent to do away with Satan’s spawn. One of those figures is a pretty ridiculous looking man named Mephisto, head of the Japanese branch of the Order and the chairman of True Cross Academy. Rin convinces Mephisto to let him train as an exorcist (y’know, instead of murdering him), the proper story begins, and I get to actually write things about Yukio.
Yukio and Rin head for True Cross Academy together and Rin learns a lot of things that he didn’t know about his brother. He’s the freshman class representative (meaning he scored the highest on the entrance exams), oddly popular with the ladies, and oh, he’s an exorcist. The youngest person to ever earn the title, in fact (he qualified at age thirteen as both a Doctor and a Dragoon). Plus he’s a teacher in the secret exorcist cram school housed within the Academy, handling the Anti-Demon Pharmacology class. Also, he knew all about his and Rin’s lineage the entire time and has been training to be an exorcist since age seven. He received a Mashou from Rin at birth, a “spirit wound” that’s allowed him to see ghosts and demons for as long as he can remember.
Back on track! Naturally, their interactions are a bit strained at first, but they work though it verbally while fighting off a classroom filled with Hobgoblins (as is typical for shonen characters), eventually bonding over the memory of how awesome their father was. Afterward they move into an unused dorm together because, let’s face it, Rin simply can’t be trusted to operate on his own with these brand spankin’ new powers of his. It’s pretty important that they stay secret, what with everyone knowing exactly what blue flames signify.
Soon life becomes routine. Yukio attends high school during the day, teaches in the cram school during the afternoon, and somehow finds time in his schedule to accept actual missions. The first Rin witnesses occurs at an exorcist supply shop on the Academy’s grounds. Yukio’s called in to investigate an illness contracted by the shop keeper’s daughter, Moriyama Shiemi. She and Yukio met two years prior and seem to get on fairly well in spite of Shiemi’s crippling shyness. Through interaction with Rin we’re shown Shiemi’s back story in her grandmother’s garden, and Yukio quickly discovers the source of her illness: a demon in the garden. The demon (which takes the form of a giant flower) reveals itself, taking Shiemi as a hostage/shield. Yukio bluffs the demon into releasing Shiemi by convincing it that he’s willing to shoot through her (really, he just pegged her with some soft plant nutrients), leaving Rin a chance to cut the demon down. Shiemi recovers and joins the exorcist cram school as the token cute-girl character.
Time goes on and we’re introduced to the rest of Rin’s classmates. Lots of different subjects and teachers are also introduced, because Yukio certainly can’t teach all of them... though he does seem to find the time to creep about during some of them to keep watch over Rin. He also talks occasionally with Mephisto, reporting on how well Rin’s holding back his powers. For the most part Yukio keeps to the background, watching over his students as a good teacher should.
The next large event that takes place comes when an exorcist training camp is organized to prepare everyone for the upcoming promotion exam (exorcist rankings will be explained later/in the abilities section). It’s held in Rin and Yukio’s dorm for the sake of space and isolation. Some students bond, some are jerks to each other, but none of that matters when a naberius attacks two of the girls in the bath. Yukio arrives on the scene just in time to put a few rounds into it before it skitters away. The students are saved (mostly by efforts on Rin and Shiemi’s parts) and everyone is left to wonder how such a strong demon got through the wards surrounding the Academy. You’re curious too, right? Well, fear not! I’ll be getting to that part.
Even after the naberius incident, the students just can’t seem to stop bitching at each other, arguing enough to force Yukio to actually punish them. Everyone is forced to sit with a baryon (demons that possess rocks, causing them to get heavier the longer you hold them) in their lap while Yukio heads out to attend to a “minor mission”, leaving them with a very important statement: “No exorcist can fight alone”. Of course, rather than learning this lesson right away they continue to argue amongst themselves... until the naberius from before returns to attack again, this time with another creepy friend. Quick thinking from Shiemi and her demon summon forms a barrier to keep the kids safe for a while. Rin, being the spaz that he is, lures one of the ghouls away and takes care of it with those flames of his, and the other kids manage to do away with theirs... barely.
It was all very scary, but surprise! This entire thing was actually the promotion exam that the training camp was supposed to be preparing them for (spoiler: they all pass). Teachers were hiding all over the place to prevent the worst case scenario and Yukio knew what was going to happen the entire time... though he apparently wasn’t prepared for the level of danger his students were presented with. Once the kids’ injuries are taken care of, Yukio approaches and questions Neuhaus, one of the other teachers. Neuhaus is Tamer, an exorcist who summons demons and uses them to fight, so the ghouls in the building were his doing, but they were far beyond the level Yukio assumed the kids could handle. Neuhaus is pretty shady about the whole deal, insisting that he was acting on Mephisto’s orders and that he had no reason to want to kill Rin.
Because that’s the most believable statement to end a conversation with, right? Riiiiight.
With the training camp over over with and things settling back into something normal, Yukio visits Shiemi at her mother’s shop to talk over her future. Before the camp every student received a form on which they were to detail their Meister intentions, but Shiemi didn’t complete hers, unsure of her future. They have a reassuring talk that includes a flashback of their first meeting (thirteen-year-old Yukio is just as adorably stiff as sixteen-year-old Yukio, by the way), but Yukio cuts their time short, feeling that something isn’t right. He heads back to his and Rin’s dorm with Shiemi in tow and moves a sleeping Rin into a different room. Good thing he did, too, because not long after Neuhaus appears and Yukio catches him stabbing Rin’s empty bed with a giant compass (the kind you use to draw circles). That’s pretty damning evidence, of course, and Yukio gives chase when Neuhaus flees to the roof. Yukio is an excellent marksman, but physically not very tough, so the tide of the fight turns against him pretty quickly when Neuhaus summons a giant naberius on the roof. Luckily Rin jumps and distracts Neuhaus long enough for Yukio to erase the summoning circle. His weapon gone and too weak to summon another powerful enough to matter, Neuhaus gives a brief explanation of his actions. He’s a survivor of the Blue Night and hates Rin for his connection to Satan. He takes one more cheap shot at Rin before finally giving up (Rin’s shonen speech is STRONG), leaving Yukio and Rin on the roof to be found soon after by a worried Shiemi.
Things settle back into the routine again, and we learn that Rin fails at running errands, but still thinks himself capable of earning the rank of Paladin. Yukio is fairly quick to inform Rin of how unlikely that is, and Rin is fairly quick to (accidentally) break Yukio’s glasses. Before the argument can go too far Yukio receives a notice for another mission. We learn of Blacky (or Kuro depending on what flavor of canon you prefer), a former guardian deity of silk farmers gone rogue when his human worshippers forgot about him with the changing times. Fujimoto tamed him, making Blacky his familiar, but the demon lost control again when he heard of his master’s untimely demise. Yukio joins the force facing off with Blacky, a special “medicine” in hand that was previously prepared by Fujimoto in case of such a situation. Oh... and Rin follows along, because that’s what he does. The group intends to kill Blacky with the medicine, but Rin, who’s able to understand what the demon is saying, talks Blacky down and defuses the entire situation. He becomes Rin’s pseudo-familiar and they discover that that “medicine” Fujimoto left behind? Was catnip wine.
The first mission the ExWires are assigned together involves finding a mischievous ghost in an amusement park. Yukio’s divides the class into pairs and sends them off with instructions to call him should they find the ghost first. During the mission we get to meet Amaimon, a demon prince of hell (previously revealed to be Mephisto’s brother and technically Rin and Yukio’s half brother) who attacks Rin... mostly because he can. Things look pretty bad for a while until one of the students, a hooded weirdo whose face was always obscured, reveals herself as Kirigakure Shura, an Upper First Class exorcist. Turns out she’s a Vatican Inspector sent to look into some possible shady dealings between Mephisto and Fujimoto, as well as search for connections to Satan and eliminate them if found. She drives Amaimon off and takes Rin to central headquarters for questioning. Yukio is understandably uneasy, but rather than report Rin as she should, Shura postpones her report to the Vatican. Turns out she was once a student of Fujimoto, and he asked her look look after Rin in the case of his death.
Holy crap, this history is getting long. Moving on.
After that fiasco, it’s time for another training camp! This one takes place in a forest for the right to participate in missions involving actual combat. It involves demon lanterns and learning the magical skill of cooperation, but none of that matters when Amaimon shows up again. Yukio is distracted for the bulk of the battle, dealing with swarms of demon moths while Shura and the ExWires struggle against Amaimon. Eventually Mephisto interrupts that fight like the mysterious creeper he is, but not before Rin is forced to draw his sword and reveal his blue flames in front of all his classmates. He kind of managed to set a good chunk of the forest on fire as well, so it’s no surprise when more representatives from headquarters show up. Arthur Auguste Angel, the current Paladin, shows up and takes Rin, Shura, and Mephisto to court. Yukio’s left behind to give a very short and to-the-point explanation to the other ExWires. It’s all very awkward and vaguely heart-wrenching.
Mephisto, through the most charismatic verbal manipulation ever seen, convinces the court not to execute Rin right there, but he has to conform to all sorts of stipulations to keep his freedom. One of those stipulations? He must pass the exorcist qualification exam in six months time. Shura takes him on as a proper student and he’s released into her and Yukio’s care.
Most of the ExWires are still in the hospital when Rin tries to attend class again after the entire ordeal, but Yukio’s quick to pull him out and redirect him to an underground training facility. Rin tests out a combat simulation machine (which looks more like a batting cage on steroids than anything else) while Yukio tries express to him the importance of consequences and thinking through your actions before jumping into things like an idiot. Rin, of course, brushes most of this off and Shura soon appears to start him on his specific training. While Rin’s off to one side working on controlling his flames with a special candle exercise, Yukio and Shura step into the batting cages for a match (loser treats the winner to a meal).
While both of them easily take everything the machine has to throw at them while set on the highest difficulty, Yukio lectures Shura about her carelessness concerning his brother. She, in turn lectures him about the importance of loosening up and acknowledging his feelings, because otherwise? He runs the risk of being possessed by a demon, as do all those who carry around that kind of pent-up anger and stress. Yukio does manage to let loose a little bit, informing Shura of just how much he despises her (much to her expectant glee), but before they can resolve anything Rin loses control of his flames, filling the room with a burst of blue fire. When the smoke clears... Yukio and Shura are unharmed. They’re missing everything but their underwear, but they’re unharmed! Does this mean Rin has some unconscious control over his flames? It doesn’t matter, because Yukio almost immediately gets a call for another mission!
Yukio and Shura get dressed and head for another section of town with Rin in tow (since they’re his keepers now), and things look pretty bad when they arrive on the scene. Lots of people contaminated with miasma (poisonous demon vapor, basically) and doctors running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get to everyone who needs help. Saburota Toudou is in charge of the operation and fills them in on the situation.
A masked man broke into the Saishinbu (the innermost section) of the Academy, stealing an artifact known as the “Left Eye of the Impure King”. The Left Eye belonged to a very powerful demon over one hundred years ago. The Impure King was responsible for spreading a plague that became the root cause for over 40,000 human deaths, and though he was destroyed and his eyes were removed, they still emit a very dangerous miasma. The thief fled through the city, taking a child hostage in the low-income section and disappearing into a building. Rin, being the shonen hero sort that he is, tries to promise the child’s mother that they’ll save her son, but Yukio angrily cuts him off. He knows that exorcists aren’t omnipotent, and sometimes you can’t save everyone, no matter how badly you’d like to, and it’s a lesson that Rin needs to learn.
Yukio dons a protective suit, joining the party heading inside the building and leaving Rin in Shura’s care. He really should know better than to think he can leave Rin behind at this point, because his brother does exactly what he always does (somehow managing to shake off Shura) and heads inside as well. They have time for about ten seconds of brotherly disapproval before the masked man appears, his very sick child hostage and demon artifact in tow. Surprisingly, he drops both and vanishes, leaving shocked exorcists all around. Rin’s quick to run forward and grab the kid while Yukio investigates the Left Eye... only to find out it’s a fake. Suddenly, the tables turn and Toudou attacks Yukio from behind. It turns out that he’s become a demon, and that the entire chase was merely a distraction so that the real Left Eye could be stolen.
While Rin is dealing with the kid and some of that nasty miasma, Toudou focuses on Yukio, pinning him to the floor and planting some fantastically strategic seeds of doubt. He compares the both of them, spouting off a back story remarkably similar to Yukio’s: a man slaving away for the benefit of his organization, his family, his brother... and coming away with nothing to show for himself. Yukio rebukes Toudou for his weakness, but he can’t quite shake the other man’s words, even after Toudou suddenly flees the scene. Yukio manages to pull himself together long enough to treat the child, shedding his protective clothing and exposing himself to the lingering miasma in order to do the job right. It takes him a bit, but he manages to steel himself and toss Toudou a mental “screw you!” before inoculating himself (rather violently) to stay off the boils forming on his own face and finishing the child’s emergency treatment.
Yukio returns the child to his mother and Mephisto appears on the scene, informing him of Toudou’s true intentions. Shura’s familiar is set on the trail of the real Left Eye and Mephisto sends Yukio along with a force meant to recapture it. Before he leaves Rin calls out to him, announcing his intentions to surpass his younger brother (which isn’t all that surprising considering how badass Yukio proved himself to be while saving that kid). Yukio seems shocked at first, but quickly reaffirms his own confidence and dons a classic smile, telling Rin that that’s impossible, but that he should do his best.
While Yukio’s heading off on his mission, we find out that the Right Eye of the Impure King has been secretly sealed away in Kyoto and that that area was also recently attacked, though the thief in Kyoto was thwarted. The ExWires are sent there with a reinforcement squad help the injured exorcists and up security. Several chapters of family shenanigans follow, but we don’t see Yukio again until his team catches up with the van they’ve been chasing... but its occupants are dead. In fact, they’re dead exorcists, and the whole chase was just a diversion. Toudou’s already escaped with the Left Eye.
Eventually Yukio’s group arrives in Kyoto to rejoin the others to find out that a young exorcist named Mamushi was tricked into stealing the Right Eye by Toudou. Oh, and Rin lost control of his flames in public and got himself thrown in jail. WHOOPS~ Yukio and Shura visit Rin in his cell, bring with them a letter from Suguro Tatsuma (father of one of the other ExWires and head priest of the Myou Dha, a Buddhist sect that makes up most of the Kyoto branch of the Order). The letter gives us a lot of history, and we get even more information from snippets of scenes happening outside Rin’s jail cell, but here are the parts that matter:
150 years ago Fukaku, the founder of the Myou Dha, contracted with the fire demon Karura, infusing his powers into Kurikara. With this weapon he defeated the Impure King, and since then the sword has been regarded as a sacred object of the Myou Dha sect. Unknown to everyone except the Head Priest, the Impure King was not actually destroyed, but merely suppressed when his eyes were taken and sealed away. Once the eyes were sealed, Karura left Kurikara completely, but he’s contracted with every Head Priest of the Myou Dha since as their familiar on the condition that this contract never be revealed to others.
Years ago, Rin and Yukio’s father stole Kurikara from the Myou Dha on Mephisto’s orders, and at the end of the letter Tatsuma asks Rin to use the sword to destroy the Impure King for good. Rin’s all for it, but Yukio less so. After all, if something bad happens Rin could be executed for sure. Not that it matters since, for some shonen confidence-related reason, Rin can’t unsheathe his sword anyway. Just after this revelation, Mephisto appears with some bad news: Rin is to be executed for sure anyway! Yukio doesn’t react much as Rin’s locked away in a special magical prison. Probably because he’s in the beginning stages of mental shutdown.
While everything’s going down in the jail cell, Tatsuma’s chasing after Toudou and Mamushi, but he can’t stop the Impure King from being revived. He tries to put an end to the Impure King right then and there with Karura’s help... but Toudou stabs him in the throat. Major bummer. As it turns out, this whole Impure King revival mess? Was so that Toudou could draw out Tatsuma and steal Karura from him, forcing the demon to possess his body and gaining his powers. No, it’s not explained how this is possible, but whatever.
SO, the Impure King is loose and growing! Mamushi is brought back to Kyoto headquartes and explains everything that happened and the exorcists immediately mobilize to supress the Impure King. Shura informs the ExWires of Rin’s predicament and sends them on a secret rescue mission. They succeed and set off to help fight the Impure King, but that part has nothing to do with Yukio, so the how will remain a mystery (spoiler: it involves invisibility ponchos and the power of friendship).
Yukio joins the main fighting force, kicking ass, taking names and saving lives like the badass he is. During the battle he spots a red light off in the forest and, in a less badass bout of stupidity, cuts out on his own to investigate. It ends up being Toudou, exactly the person Yukio should never, ever be alone with. Toudou proceeds to “play” with Yukio... which mostly consists of making the exorcist dodge flames while he asks awkward personal questions. He’s still all about bringing out Yukio’s buried resentment concerning his father and brother, and he does a pretty decent job of it. Eventually Yukio ends up admitting that he does hate Rin... but he loves him at the same time, and the person he hates the most? Is himself. Then, in the most badass move of all, he summons eight water spirits and traps Toudou in a water prison. Counteracting the badass of this move is the fact that Yukio doesn’t have the stamina to make them strong enough to hold Toudou, which ends with Yukio on the ground and about to be killed. Tough luck, bro.
Funny thing about that, though... just as Toudou’s about to burn Yukio to ashes, the exorcist's eyes change. They flash that particular Satan-y blue and Toudou backs right off. Another group of exorcists shows up to help out and, with a plan from Yukio (which basically involves overloading his flame powers, turning him into dust, and mixing said dust with rain water before he can regenerate) and some magic bullets, they manage to delay him enough to escape.
In the end Rin defeats the Impure King and the dust begins to clear. Yukio discovers that Rin has been out of confinement (and not in danger of being executed) this entire time and promptly punches him in the face for being a careless dumbass. After everything that’s happened it still seems like Rin doesn’t understand the position he’s really in, the responsibilities and dangers that come with wielding the sort of powers he does. Rin begs to differ, but he doesn’t get much of a chance to explain himself before he finally gives into the strain of the day and passes out right in front of Yukio and everyone else.
The next day everyone’s been gathered back together to rest and tend their wounds. Yukio hasn’t really rested at all since the day before, taking the time to finish reports and to be sure that Rin really is safe from execution this time around. Too bad even the great Okumura Yukio isn’t immune to exhaustion, and he ends up dozing in a chair before he can even make it back to his bed. Rin tries to rouse him and, when he’s unsuccessful, instead leaves him a bottle of water and lets him sleep. The last words Yukio hears before he falls asleep: “Don’t run away.”
The next day Yukio accompanies the whole ExWire group while they go shopping and sightseeing before they have to leave Kyoto. Yukio seems to spend most of the trip playing with his iPad, but does manage to lineface his way through a group photo at the end. So it’s time to go home, right? WRONG. It is, in fact, time to go to the beach!
So a Kraken has been sinking ships nearby, and the True Cross force in Kyoto is called in to nip it in the bud before they leave. Sounds like some serious stuff, but it also means beach time shenanigans! Yukio’s still pretty pissed at Rin, so he flat out ignores him while they’re at the beach. He does have an interesting chat with Shura, though. Hm, could it be her telling him to go have fun while he berates her for not being more worried about the general state of things concerning Rin? Yep, very predictable. He does manage to play a little trick on her before getting an accidental eyeful of boobs, though, so that’s something.
The Kraken shows up and starts taking down helicopters. Rin, the idiot that he is, jumps into a boat (accidentally knocking Shiemi into it) and takes off in pursuit. Yukio follows, because following Rin when its being stupid is what Yukio does. Rin plays hack-and-slash with a tentacle while Yukio jumps into the boat with Shiemi on it. He tries to yell at Rin, but quickly learns that the water right above a Kraken isn’t the best place for brotherly discipline. The Kraken bats their boat into the air, destroying it and dropping Yukio and Shiemi into the water. Yukio inflates Shiemi’s life vest and pulls her to the surface (damn, that girl loses consciousness easily).
They’re about to head for shore when a coral reef magically appears beneath their feet, leading them to a nearby island. When they finally get inside, Shiemi’s not breathing. For a moment it looks like Yukio’s going to have to give her the kiss of life (and all the fangirls swoon), but she comes to on her own... somehow. Yukio starts in on Rin about his stupidity again, but then his phone rings. No, I don’t know why his phone still works after a dip in the ocean. It just does. Shura yells at all of them and then informs them that they’re on an island that used to act as a shrine to Wadatsumi, a legendary water diety. A demon similar to Shiemi’s Greenman (though larger and ocean-oriented) leads them to the cave where Wadatsumi is resting, and Shura has the Order fly over a huge crate of food and other offerings. The plan is to give the old god his strength back with a solid offering so that he can fight off the Kraken.
Rin and Shiemi get to cooking and such while Yukio cleans his guns and reads off official offering... scripture or something. Once the offering’s finished, the three of them sit down to eat, too. Well, Rin and Shiemi eat while Yukio continues to be surly and clean his guns. The brothers get into yet another fight about how Rin is too careless with his powers and why isn’t he afraid and blah, blah, we’ve heard this all before. It escalates into a screaming match until Shiemi puts a stop to it. She eventually coaxes them into having a proper chat. Rin informs Yukio that Satan’s flames are a part of him that he’s come to accept, and he wants Yukio to accept them too. Before we get an answer on that, Shiemi starts screaming because she’s gone and got herself nabbed by the Kraken. Yukio and Rin rush off to save her while Wadatsumi heads into battle.
The fighting begins, but Yukio feels the need to answer Rin’s query from before (he can’t accept those flames) and while they’re talking, Shiemi rescues herself. Wadatsumi is killed by the Kraken, but not before wounding it and majorly pissing it off. It uses an ability with a really stupid name (“Mimicry Spit”) to create copies of itself, and the whole thing turns into a game of “Find the Real Kraken” for the exorcists on shore. Yukio sets up his rifle and starts sniping like a boss from the island. Seems like a good time for more brotherly chatting, right? Right! Yukio fears that Rin gaining consciousness as Satan’s child will have terrible consequences, and it’s impossible for him to be at ease while it can’t be guaranteed that Rin won’t be dangerous. Rin accepts his opinion with a grin, and Yukio realizes what a huge douchebag he’s being. Not that that won’t stop him from being one in the future. It just fuels his self-loathing. Rin is a good guy who’ll always use his flames to help without ever thinking of the consequences to himself, and there’s just nothing Yukio can do about that.
They work together to find the Kraken’s real form, and Rin defeats it. Wadatsumi dies on the beach and the brothers have more talky times, because why the hell not? They both agree that they’re probably never going to get along. Rin mentions wanting to fight alongside him some day anyway, but the whole thing ends in their usual bickering. It’s once again confirmed for the reader that the “real Yukio” hates himself and wants to be more like Rin and Fujimoto. Cheerful, yeah?
Everyone returns to True Cross Town and things go back to normal. We get to see Rin make a friend and then the action cuts to a situation in Yemen very similar to that of the Impure King. Angel defeats an Impure Princess, and the leaders of the Order prioritize the hunting of demon eaters, suspending Rin’s possible execution and allowing Mephisto time to be a huge creeper. There’s a glimpse of Yukio and Shura, both of them being kept busy with increasing numbers of demon sightings and consultation requests. Shura also nags Yukio about skipping his regular health checkups (that no one bothered to tell us about before), but that’s quickly glossed over so we can get some background on Mephisto, demon etiquette, and how fail Rin really is in comparison to the higher ranking demons of Gehenna.
Cut to Russia where we find out that someone has somehow created an artificial Gehenna Gate! It was probably opened by the Illuminati and even Mephisto can’t close it! Left as it is, it will slowly expand! But we can’t elaborate more on that yet because it’s time to go back to cram school! Exclamation point! Yukio starts the ExWires on a few missions involving the “Seven Mysteries of True Cross Academy”, during which he observes while the ExWires plan and fight together. Most of them aren’t very important for Yukio since all he’s doing is observing, but we do get to see him in drag at one point, so that’s something. He pulls it off shockingly well.
The ExWires go through each mystery, and Yukio spends most of that time worrying over just what the hell happened to him confrontation with Toudou. His checkup gave him a clean bill of non-demonyness, so what the heck is going on? Did he also inherit Satan’s flames in some way? Is he going to become like Rin?
Yukio’s summoned to the Vatican to speak before the Grigori about what happened with Toudou, and while there he learns of the Illuminati and the artificial Gehenna Gate. He’s forbid to ask any questions or repeat any details of what’s said during the meeting. He’s even made to sign the “Morinas Contract”. If the terms of the Morinas Contract are broken, the demon who produced the contract will hunt you down and kill you. His presence at the meeting hardly seems necessary, but it’s likely he was summoned just to make him sign the contract. The Illuminati already have spies within the Order, and top dogs in the Order seem to think that as the twin of Okumura Rin, it’s possible that the Illuminati might already have someone like Yukio on a leash.
After he’s dismissed, Yukio meets up with Shiemi. He’s been tutoring her so that she can pass the exam to get into True Cross Academy (up until now she’s only been a part of the cram school). We get a flashback of a younger Yukio questioning Fujimoto about his and Rin’s existence, and Fujimoto gave the classic “you’ll understand when you’re older” answer. And then he died. Mephisto’s never been anything but evasive either, leaving Yukio with nothing but unanswered questions and a burning need to find out why he and Rin were allowed to live. Also, he gets all flustered around Shiemi and it’s pretty adorable.
HIGH SCHOOL FESTIVAL TIME! Rin and Shima are pretty excited over it, but everyone else is preoccupied with the fact that the Exorcist exam is only three months away (as they should be). Yukio gets asked to go to the dance party by several different girls, but turns them all down using the excuse that he’ll be part of the staff. He’s even invited by Shiemi, but he turns her down too. Shura intrudes after Shiemi leaves and prods Yukio into admitting a few things. He doesn’t believe that Shiemi likes him romantically, but he can’t think about any interests he might have in her because of all the crap he’s currently dealing with. It would only complicate things. Shura tells him to forget everything he heard and saw at the meeting, but how can he?
(Vatheon Pull Point)
Jumping right into the festival, Yukio is indeed a part of the staff, set to patrol over the course of the event while his students stay busy with their class projects. Yukio spiffs up to chaperone the dance party, and it's a good thing, because Rin comes up with the most adorable way to temporarily smooth the edges of the little love triangle that's formed between Shiemi and the twins. He tries to snag Shiemi for a dance, realizes how unsure she is, and immediately drags her over to Yukio so that the three of them can all dance together. Yukio's not particularly enthused at first, but it seems to be a step in a calmer, less antagonistic direction. For the moment.
Unfortunately the moment can't last. An Illuminati spy is captured by Angel, revealing that one of Yukio's students, Izumo Kamiki, is a target meant to be kidnapped within the hour. Shura sends Yukio and the ExWires to search for her. Shima finds her first, with the rest of the class showing up just in time to learn that he's working with the Illuminati. Kind of a huge thing to process, right? Well, too bad, because Mephisto's crashing the party too, along with another demonic brother we've yet to meet until now. Lucifer, the King of Light and leader of the Illuminati, declares war on the True Cross Order. In one year's time the Illuminati plans to revive Satan in order to join Assiah and Gehenna together. Mephisto's none too pleased with this plan (the human world is just too much fun), but he allows Lucifer to retreat with Izumo and Shima (because apparently Lucifer is top dog, and even Mephisto can't handle that).
All Illuminati members present escape in a helicopter, a series of carefully placed explosions (suicide bombings by Seraphim from the Illuminati) following that take out the barriers keeping demons out of True Cross all over the world. Before preparing to regain control over the Japanese branch, Mephisto orders Yukio to lead the ExWires on a mission to rescue Izumo, promising to send backup once things at the branch are under wraps again. They're accompanied by Nemu Takara, an exorcist hired from a "third party", who apparently knows where they'll need to go and will act as a moderator for Yukio and his team. Sounds like some double agent shenanigans to me, but I suppose we'll find out what's up with him eventually.
So they're on the road again! Takara is able to use some sort of summoned tracking device to trace Izumo to Inari in the Shimane Prefecture... which is kind of odd since that's where she's from in the first place, but whatever. They hop on a plane and Yukio fills his students in on the situation in general. Lots of damage to the Order, exterminating invading demon, handling the mass media. Even the Grigori were injured, so yeah, shit's kinda hit the fan. The existence of the Illuminati and what sort of organization it is is also covered, but that pesky contract Yukio signed means his explanations are pretty limited. And then everyone eats sandwiches that Shiemi brought for them. Terrible, terrible sandwiches.
Once off the plane they discover that buses and taxis are a bit hard to come by in their new location, and so begins a long trip on foot to the Inari Shrine.
(The Box pull point)
They make it without much fuss, only to discover that the whole place is a great big tourist trap. A tourist trap where all the tourists seem just a little too excited about things, and just a little too eager to stay. With some help from Takara and Mike (one of Kamiki's familiars, summoned by Takara through a puppet), they learn the truth behind Inari. The Kamiki family is a branch that obtained divine powers by interbreeding with a fox god. Izumo's mother was a chief priestess, and through some complicated stuff we don't really need to go into, she was possessed by the nine tails spirit. With no one else to turn to and no idea of their true intent, a young Izumo turned to the Illuminati for help. And they did help... at first, but capturing Izumo's mother was really just so that they could experiment on her in an attempt to gain the nine tails power. Izumo's current kidnapping was so that he could be used as a replacement for her now dying mother.
Yukio and company head for what they believe to be the secret entrance of the Illuminati lab (spoilers: it totally is). Yukio tries to call for some proper backup, but Mephisto gives him the shifty-ass runaround, so it's left to one exorcist and group of exwires to infiltrate alone. They do a fairly good job of it, even, taking out the initial set of guards and making it inside... of what seems to be a massive shopping mall. And then they're attacked by zombies.
Yes, zombies. Or, more accurately, failed experimental subjects that necrotized after demonic possession... which makes them zombies in the Ao no Exorcist universe. There's barely any time for Yukio to give a lecture on how to kill the damn things before they're surrounded, but before a true fight can begin the floor opens up beneath them. The entire team ends up sliding down a large funnel and into a dark hole.
End chapter. Quickest mission fail ever.
(Bastion pull point)
Turns out the dark hole leads to "feeding chambers", and everyone gets their very own! How special. Gedouin, the crazy scientist responsible for the zombies above is also responsible for the giant chimera zombies kept in each chamber, and being separated, each of our heroes is responsible for keeping themselves alive. Yukio manages his zombie monster fairly easily, using its own accelerated healing against it in order to fuse it to the floor of the chamber. As he's trying to find a way out of the actual chamber, he gets receives a visit from (drum roll, please)... Lucifer. Seems the King of Light has been chatting with Toudou, and as such he's taken a great interest in Yukio. Enough of an interest that he actually offers Yukio a place in the Illuminati. After all, if the Order were to find out about his eyes, they probably lock him up, or maybe even kill him. The Illuminati is safety, and Lucifer can offer Yukio the truth behind his eyes and the circumstances of his birth. Yukio rejects the offer, and Lucifer leaves peacefully, only insisting that they'll meet again.
Naturally, everyone manages their own escape, even if they don't actually defeat their zombie, but shit still hits the fan. Gedouin still runs the operation to transfer the Nine Tails to Izumo. Unfortunately, she can't sustain the possession, but her dying mother uses the last of her strength to take the Nine Tails back, containing it and forcing it to perish along with her. Gedouin makes a last ditch effort to turn the tables by forcing a demon to possess and enhance him, but he's ultimately defeated and backup finally arrives to help them escape.
We get some info on Shima's betrayal (I was right about the double agent shenanigans, the shifty bitch), but feels are had and life goes on. Shima even goes back to school while somehow retaining his double agent status (no, I don't know how that's supposed to work). He also seems to have a standing order to keep the pressure on Yukio, which isn't really hard considering the mental mess that kid already is, like... all the time.
BUT NOW IT'S TIME TO GO TO THE BATH HOUSE. Mephisto sends the exWire crew plus Shura to a bath house for some well-earned relaxation. Surprise, surprise, there are "three wise monkey" demons at the bath house who force those who get close to them to enter a state where they can't help but want to spill all their secrets and true intentions. Yukio, of course, refuses to get anywhere near them, but Bon manages to handle the situation pretty quickly. Afterward Rin tries to approach Yukio again, offering a friendly ear, but if you thought Yukio would change things up and actually talk to someone about his problems, you obviously haven't actually been reading this summary.
The growing Illuminati threat and heightened demon activity caused by the artificial Gehenna Gate is taking a toll on the Order's manpower, and Yukio soon delivers the news that the exorcist exam is going to be held earlier than anticipated. While the exWires worry about that, we cut to Yukio at night, looking shady as hell while wandering around a condemned part of town. The Order's blood tests show no results, and he's not being possessed, so just what is it that's happening to his eyes? Sick of not only being stuck in the dark about the powers awakening inside of him, but of always being outdone by Rin, he's decided to heck with denial. It's time to trigger the awakening of his powers himself. Super smart, right?
And how were his powers triggered the first time? Well, it was during the fight with Toudou when he thought he would be killed, so that means he has to recreate that scenario. Fear. Moreover, fear while facing death. He makes his first attempt with Naiads, summoning eight of them and basically commanding them to drown him in a sphere of water. The trouble with that plan, of course, is that summoned demons rely on the power of their summoner, so when Yukio starts to lose consciousness? They disappear. That method can't work because, in the back of his mind, Yukio always knew there would be a chance of survival. It wasn't enough.
So he pretends not to be a suicidal crazy person for a few days before finally buil his next plan... which happens to involve jumping off a building. Which he does. Because he's an idiot and I have no idea why I like him so much.
The chapter ends with him mid-fall.
(Snowblind pull point)
So Yukio jumps and realizes as he's falling that, yeah, this is super scary and a terrible idea and he doesn't want to die, but you can't undo jumping off a fuckin' building, so oh well. He blacks out and wakes up alive (obviously) and whole at the bottom of a flaming crater.
[Player's note: Because the manga is in black and white, we don't know what color the flames in the crater are. It's worth noting that his eyes are drawn in the funky way Kato seems to favor when he's supposed to be having a demon-y moment. I guess we're supposed to assume they're blue, but Yukio doesn't comment one way or another and that makes me side-eye very hard. Probably thinking about it too hard, though.]
Yukio's first reaction to realizing he lived is to get really pissed that he passed out and didn't see what happened. His second reaction? To grab up his gun and put it to his own head, because why the hell not? He looks totally ready to go through with it, too, only stopping when he's interrupted by his cell phone ringing. Mephisto calls him in for a mission, and surprise! Rin's going too! Yukio tries to talk his way into a solo mission, but Mephisto shuts that shit down pretty quick, revealing his awareness of Yukio's less than conventional training methods. That shuts Yukio up pretty quick, and then the Okumura brothers are off to Aomori to search for a missing Shura.
One train ride and some light investigating later, they figure out where Shura was headed and get themselves set up in a hotel by Lake Towada.
(It's not important to the plot, but the lady running the inn thinks that Rin and Yukio are gay lovers on vacation, something that makes Yukio freak and made me laugh for daaaaaays.)
Rin asks Yukio about the "dangerous training" Mephisto mentioned, and Yukio lies his little butt off about it. They also talk about Shiemi and which brother she like likes, but Yukio makes a quick exit out of that chat. Rin reveals that he thinks Yukio is hiding something and voices his worry, providing even more evidence that Rin is the wonderful cinnamon roll brother, while Yukio is a douchewaffle.
After a chat with the innkeeper and some research into Shura's background, Yukio and Rin head for Towada Shrine to look for Shura... and that's where they find her! Super convenient, right? Too bad she's pretty badly injured, but nothing Yukio can't handle. They get her back to the inn and fix her up as best they can, and when she wakes up we get a nice chunk of Shura backstory. Turns out she's in a contract with Hachirotaro Okami, the dragon god who rules the area around Towada. Hachiro called her because members of the Illuminati have been skulking around his turf... and because he wants her to fulfill her contract. It involves an ancestor trading the lives of her descendants for a demon sword and Hachiro falling in love with her. Long story short, every Kirigakure dies at thirty, but first bears a child to live on and stay with Hachiro, and now it's Shura's turn, but she's not really into the idea anymore. Too much time spent with Shiro and the Okumura brothers, but there's no way for her to break the contract herself. They'd have to get Hachiro to do it himself, which gets Yukio thinking... but then Shura's kidnapped again, oh fuck, because why not.
Since she's had a chance to heal up, Hachiro intends to force Shura to bear a child using his convenient eyeball-mind-control powers. Rin and Yukio show up for rescue times, and while Rin's occupied trying his usual hack-and-slash on the a pretty much immortal being, Hachiro decides Yukio would be an acceptable baby daddy. Mind control powers mean the bad touch very nearly happens, but some well timed flames from Rin break Hachiro's concentration. There's fighting and a suicide attempt from Shura and blah, blah, blah, but no real solution until Yukio decides to offer up an alternative: Hachiro can shift the contract for the demon sword to him.
... Yep. In exchange for the demon sword and the regenerative ability of Shura's blood, Yukio offers to spare Hachiro from having to force Shura to conceive. He's close to her, so he can persuade her. He spits one heck of an offer, stating a desire for power convincing enough that Shura and Rin aren't entirely sure if he's lying or not. He even goes so far as to literally shoot Rin in the face to sell the scheme, and it works. Hachiro removes the contract seal from Shura and starts placing it on Yukio, but he doesn't get very far before Rin's up and interrupting with his fighting ways again. Turns out Yukio pulled out his old trick of using nutrient bullets instead of real ones. So... problem solved, right? Shura's contract is broken and Hachiro went up in flames.
Except no. Remember how Hachiro's immortal? Yeah, that's still a thing. Also, his true form is huge and comes with giant hypnotic eyes that are difficult to avoid. Shima even shows up to help, but they're still no match. Shura eventually realizes she wants to continue living, gets a dramatic haircut, and shifts the tide of the fight. Rin burns Hachiro enough that the constant physical regeneration degrades his intelligence, temporarily leaving him little more than a common snake. Back up finally arrives to help clean up and everything wraps up in a very heartwarming manner... until Shima decides to have another creepy chat with Yukio. Seems Shima was the spy who tipped Mephisto off to Yukio's extreme training methods. He pulls his usual nonsense of trying to tempt Yukio toward the Illuminati before being called away and leaving Yukio to mentally freak out. Yukio then collapses from the injuries he sustained during the fight with Hachiro.
[Sol Raveh pull point]
Sixteen years ago the world of exorcists took a crippling hit in the form of the Blue Night. On that day Satan murdered a large number of the world’s greatest holy men, leaving behind only bloody corpses and blue flames. How did he accomplish this? By possessing them, of course. Satan, as the god of Gehenna, is just too powerful for any normal human being to sustain the possession for more than a minute or two (pssst, remember that. That’s going to be important). So! Much possession, lots of dead holy men, and a generation traumatized by sight of blue flames. Sometime during this night of murder and mayhem, Satan found the time to use one of the exorcists he possessed to impregnate a Lower Second Class Exorcist named Yuri Egin. Why did he do this? Sheer boredom, if you’d believe it, but Satan is kind of insane. And by “kind of”, I mean “completely batshit”. Anyway, the ensuing pregnancy resulted in a set of fraternal twin boys: Rin, the elder, and Yukio, the younger brother that you’re about to learn a whole lot more about. You’ll learn a lot about Rin in the process as well, but they’re kind of attached at the hip that way.
This concludes the basic world overview section of the history. Simple, yes? Now, down to business.
Yukio and Rin were raised by Father Fujimoto Shiro in a boys’ monastery in True Cross Campus Town. As young children (because really, at fifteen years of age? They’re just older children) they upheld the rather stereotypical roles of elder and younger brother. Where Rin was strong and loud, Yukio was weak and quiet. Easily frightened and often bullied, Yukio constantly found himself standing in his brothers’ protective shadow, bolstered by Rin’s confidence and encouragement. It was all rather fluffy and heartwarming, really. Flashbacks and heartfelt smiles aplenty.
Our first glance of Yukio in the present shows him as a much stronger person. Calm, intelligent and headed for True Cross Academy to see through his dream of becoming a doctor. Preparing for high school is a very time consuming process, of course, so Yukio’s not actually present when the obligatory start-of-story conflict occurs. Through an encounter with a demon-possessed hooligan and a very serious-faced explanation from Fujimoto, Rin learns that he’s a demon and that his father is an exorcist (in practice, not just title). Flames are discussed (namely the blue ones Rin seems to suddenly be sporting), as well as a demon sword that seals away said flames (otherwise known as “Kurikara”). A father/son disagreement is had and Satan takes advantage of Fujimoto’s moment of weakness, possessing him. Now, remember the bit about possession that I said was important? Good. Fujimoto actually lasts for a few minutes before his body starts to really deteriorate, proving that he’s just that fantastic. In the end, Fujimoto suicides to try and prevent Rin from being pulled into Gehenna to be used as a tool to overtake Assiah.
That was all very sad, but now we’re jumping ahead a bit. A funeral is held for Fujimoto during which Rin and Yukio don’t interact. At all. It’s pretty weird. As the funeral party is walking away, Rin lingers behind and is approached by several mysterious figures. Turns out that they’re members of the True Cross Order (exorcist central, if you couldn’t guess) sent to do away with Satan’s spawn. One of those figures is a pretty ridiculous looking man named Mephisto, head of the Japanese branch of the Order and the chairman of True Cross Academy. Rin convinces Mephisto to let him train as an exorcist (y’know, instead of murdering him), the proper story begins, and I get to actually write things about Yukio.
Yukio and Rin head for True Cross Academy together and Rin learns a lot of things that he didn’t know about his brother. He’s the freshman class representative (meaning he scored the highest on the entrance exams), oddly popular with the ladies, and oh, he’s an exorcist. The youngest person to ever earn the title, in fact (he qualified at age thirteen as both a Doctor and a Dragoon). Plus he’s a teacher in the secret exorcist cram school housed within the Academy, handling the Anti-Demon Pharmacology class. Also, he knew all about his and Rin’s lineage the entire time and has been training to be an exorcist since age seven. He received a Mashou from Rin at birth, a “spirit wound” that’s allowed him to see ghosts and demons for as long as he can remember.
Back on track! Naturally, their interactions are a bit strained at first, but they work though it verbally while fighting off a classroom filled with Hobgoblins (as is typical for shonen characters), eventually bonding over the memory of how awesome their father was. Afterward they move into an unused dorm together because, let’s face it, Rin simply can’t be trusted to operate on his own with these brand spankin’ new powers of his. It’s pretty important that they stay secret, what with everyone knowing exactly what blue flames signify.
Soon life becomes routine. Yukio attends high school during the day, teaches in the cram school during the afternoon, and somehow finds time in his schedule to accept actual missions. The first Rin witnesses occurs at an exorcist supply shop on the Academy’s grounds. Yukio’s called in to investigate an illness contracted by the shop keeper’s daughter, Moriyama Shiemi. She and Yukio met two years prior and seem to get on fairly well in spite of Shiemi’s crippling shyness. Through interaction with Rin we’re shown Shiemi’s back story in her grandmother’s garden, and Yukio quickly discovers the source of her illness: a demon in the garden. The demon (which takes the form of a giant flower) reveals itself, taking Shiemi as a hostage/shield. Yukio bluffs the demon into releasing Shiemi by convincing it that he’s willing to shoot through her (really, he just pegged her with some soft plant nutrients), leaving Rin a chance to cut the demon down. Shiemi recovers and joins the exorcist cram school as the token cute-girl character.
Time goes on and we’re introduced to the rest of Rin’s classmates. Lots of different subjects and teachers are also introduced, because Yukio certainly can’t teach all of them... though he does seem to find the time to creep about during some of them to keep watch over Rin. He also talks occasionally with Mephisto, reporting on how well Rin’s holding back his powers. For the most part Yukio keeps to the background, watching over his students as a good teacher should.
The next large event that takes place comes when an exorcist training camp is organized to prepare everyone for the upcoming promotion exam (exorcist rankings will be explained later/in the abilities section). It’s held in Rin and Yukio’s dorm for the sake of space and isolation. Some students bond, some are jerks to each other, but none of that matters when a naberius attacks two of the girls in the bath. Yukio arrives on the scene just in time to put a few rounds into it before it skitters away. The students are saved (mostly by efforts on Rin and Shiemi’s parts) and everyone is left to wonder how such a strong demon got through the wards surrounding the Academy. You’re curious too, right? Well, fear not! I’ll be getting to that part.
Even after the naberius incident, the students just can’t seem to stop bitching at each other, arguing enough to force Yukio to actually punish them. Everyone is forced to sit with a baryon (demons that possess rocks, causing them to get heavier the longer you hold them) in their lap while Yukio heads out to attend to a “minor mission”, leaving them with a very important statement: “No exorcist can fight alone”. Of course, rather than learning this lesson right away they continue to argue amongst themselves... until the naberius from before returns to attack again, this time with another creepy friend. Quick thinking from Shiemi and her demon summon forms a barrier to keep the kids safe for a while. Rin, being the spaz that he is, lures one of the ghouls away and takes care of it with those flames of his, and the other kids manage to do away with theirs... barely.
It was all very scary, but surprise! This entire thing was actually the promotion exam that the training camp was supposed to be preparing them for (spoiler: they all pass). Teachers were hiding all over the place to prevent the worst case scenario and Yukio knew what was going to happen the entire time... though he apparently wasn’t prepared for the level of danger his students were presented with. Once the kids’ injuries are taken care of, Yukio approaches and questions Neuhaus, one of the other teachers. Neuhaus is Tamer, an exorcist who summons demons and uses them to fight, so the ghouls in the building were his doing, but they were far beyond the level Yukio assumed the kids could handle. Neuhaus is pretty shady about the whole deal, insisting that he was acting on Mephisto’s orders and that he had no reason to want to kill Rin.
Because that’s the most believable statement to end a conversation with, right? Riiiiight.
With the training camp over over with and things settling back into something normal, Yukio visits Shiemi at her mother’s shop to talk over her future. Before the camp every student received a form on which they were to detail their Meister intentions, but Shiemi didn’t complete hers, unsure of her future. They have a reassuring talk that includes a flashback of their first meeting (thirteen-year-old Yukio is just as adorably stiff as sixteen-year-old Yukio, by the way), but Yukio cuts their time short, feeling that something isn’t right. He heads back to his and Rin’s dorm with Shiemi in tow and moves a sleeping Rin into a different room. Good thing he did, too, because not long after Neuhaus appears and Yukio catches him stabbing Rin’s empty bed with a giant compass (the kind you use to draw circles). That’s pretty damning evidence, of course, and Yukio gives chase when Neuhaus flees to the roof. Yukio is an excellent marksman, but physically not very tough, so the tide of the fight turns against him pretty quickly when Neuhaus summons a giant naberius on the roof. Luckily Rin jumps and distracts Neuhaus long enough for Yukio to erase the summoning circle. His weapon gone and too weak to summon another powerful enough to matter, Neuhaus gives a brief explanation of his actions. He’s a survivor of the Blue Night and hates Rin for his connection to Satan. He takes one more cheap shot at Rin before finally giving up (Rin’s shonen speech is STRONG), leaving Yukio and Rin on the roof to be found soon after by a worried Shiemi.
Things settle back into the routine again, and we learn that Rin fails at running errands, but still thinks himself capable of earning the rank of Paladin. Yukio is fairly quick to inform Rin of how unlikely that is, and Rin is fairly quick to (accidentally) break Yukio’s glasses. Before the argument can go too far Yukio receives a notice for another mission. We learn of Blacky (or Kuro depending on what flavor of canon you prefer), a former guardian deity of silk farmers gone rogue when his human worshippers forgot about him with the changing times. Fujimoto tamed him, making Blacky his familiar, but the demon lost control again when he heard of his master’s untimely demise. Yukio joins the force facing off with Blacky, a special “medicine” in hand that was previously prepared by Fujimoto in case of such a situation. Oh... and Rin follows along, because that’s what he does. The group intends to kill Blacky with the medicine, but Rin, who’s able to understand what the demon is saying, talks Blacky down and defuses the entire situation. He becomes Rin’s pseudo-familiar and they discover that that “medicine” Fujimoto left behind? Was catnip wine.
The first mission the ExWires are assigned together involves finding a mischievous ghost in an amusement park. Yukio’s divides the class into pairs and sends them off with instructions to call him should they find the ghost first. During the mission we get to meet Amaimon, a demon prince of hell (previously revealed to be Mephisto’s brother and technically Rin and Yukio’s half brother) who attacks Rin... mostly because he can. Things look pretty bad for a while until one of the students, a hooded weirdo whose face was always obscured, reveals herself as Kirigakure Shura, an Upper First Class exorcist. Turns out she’s a Vatican Inspector sent to look into some possible shady dealings between Mephisto and Fujimoto, as well as search for connections to Satan and eliminate them if found. She drives Amaimon off and takes Rin to central headquarters for questioning. Yukio is understandably uneasy, but rather than report Rin as she should, Shura postpones her report to the Vatican. Turns out she was once a student of Fujimoto, and he asked her look look after Rin in the case of his death.
Holy crap, this history is getting long. Moving on.
After that fiasco, it’s time for another training camp! This one takes place in a forest for the right to participate in missions involving actual combat. It involves demon lanterns and learning the magical skill of cooperation, but none of that matters when Amaimon shows up again. Yukio is distracted for the bulk of the battle, dealing with swarms of demon moths while Shura and the ExWires struggle against Amaimon. Eventually Mephisto interrupts that fight like the mysterious creeper he is, but not before Rin is forced to draw his sword and reveal his blue flames in front of all his classmates. He kind of managed to set a good chunk of the forest on fire as well, so it’s no surprise when more representatives from headquarters show up. Arthur Auguste Angel, the current Paladin, shows up and takes Rin, Shura, and Mephisto to court. Yukio’s left behind to give a very short and to-the-point explanation to the other ExWires. It’s all very awkward and vaguely heart-wrenching.
Mephisto, through the most charismatic verbal manipulation ever seen, convinces the court not to execute Rin right there, but he has to conform to all sorts of stipulations to keep his freedom. One of those stipulations? He must pass the exorcist qualification exam in six months time. Shura takes him on as a proper student and he’s released into her and Yukio’s care.
Most of the ExWires are still in the hospital when Rin tries to attend class again after the entire ordeal, but Yukio’s quick to pull him out and redirect him to an underground training facility. Rin tests out a combat simulation machine (which looks more like a batting cage on steroids than anything else) while Yukio tries express to him the importance of consequences and thinking through your actions before jumping into things like an idiot. Rin, of course, brushes most of this off and Shura soon appears to start him on his specific training. While Rin’s off to one side working on controlling his flames with a special candle exercise, Yukio and Shura step into the batting cages for a match (loser treats the winner to a meal).
While both of them easily take everything the machine has to throw at them while set on the highest difficulty, Yukio lectures Shura about her carelessness concerning his brother. She, in turn lectures him about the importance of loosening up and acknowledging his feelings, because otherwise? He runs the risk of being possessed by a demon, as do all those who carry around that kind of pent-up anger and stress. Yukio does manage to let loose a little bit, informing Shura of just how much he despises her (much to her expectant glee), but before they can resolve anything Rin loses control of his flames, filling the room with a burst of blue fire. When the smoke clears... Yukio and Shura are unharmed. They’re missing everything but their underwear, but they’re unharmed! Does this mean Rin has some unconscious control over his flames? It doesn’t matter, because Yukio almost immediately gets a call for another mission!
Yukio and Shura get dressed and head for another section of town with Rin in tow (since they’re his keepers now), and things look pretty bad when they arrive on the scene. Lots of people contaminated with miasma (poisonous demon vapor, basically) and doctors running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get to everyone who needs help. Saburota Toudou is in charge of the operation and fills them in on the situation.
A masked man broke into the Saishinbu (the innermost section) of the Academy, stealing an artifact known as the “Left Eye of the Impure King”. The Left Eye belonged to a very powerful demon over one hundred years ago. The Impure King was responsible for spreading a plague that became the root cause for over 40,000 human deaths, and though he was destroyed and his eyes were removed, they still emit a very dangerous miasma. The thief fled through the city, taking a child hostage in the low-income section and disappearing into a building. Rin, being the shonen hero sort that he is, tries to promise the child’s mother that they’ll save her son, but Yukio angrily cuts him off. He knows that exorcists aren’t omnipotent, and sometimes you can’t save everyone, no matter how badly you’d like to, and it’s a lesson that Rin needs to learn.
Yukio dons a protective suit, joining the party heading inside the building and leaving Rin in Shura’s care. He really should know better than to think he can leave Rin behind at this point, because his brother does exactly what he always does (somehow managing to shake off Shura) and heads inside as well. They have time for about ten seconds of brotherly disapproval before the masked man appears, his very sick child hostage and demon artifact in tow. Surprisingly, he drops both and vanishes, leaving shocked exorcists all around. Rin’s quick to run forward and grab the kid while Yukio investigates the Left Eye... only to find out it’s a fake. Suddenly, the tables turn and Toudou attacks Yukio from behind. It turns out that he’s become a demon, and that the entire chase was merely a distraction so that the real Left Eye could be stolen.
While Rin is dealing with the kid and some of that nasty miasma, Toudou focuses on Yukio, pinning him to the floor and planting some fantastically strategic seeds of doubt. He compares the both of them, spouting off a back story remarkably similar to Yukio’s: a man slaving away for the benefit of his organization, his family, his brother... and coming away with nothing to show for himself. Yukio rebukes Toudou for his weakness, but he can’t quite shake the other man’s words, even after Toudou suddenly flees the scene. Yukio manages to pull himself together long enough to treat the child, shedding his protective clothing and exposing himself to the lingering miasma in order to do the job right. It takes him a bit, but he manages to steel himself and toss Toudou a mental “screw you!” before inoculating himself (rather violently) to stay off the boils forming on his own face and finishing the child’s emergency treatment.
Yukio returns the child to his mother and Mephisto appears on the scene, informing him of Toudou’s true intentions. Shura’s familiar is set on the trail of the real Left Eye and Mephisto sends Yukio along with a force meant to recapture it. Before he leaves Rin calls out to him, announcing his intentions to surpass his younger brother (which isn’t all that surprising considering how badass Yukio proved himself to be while saving that kid). Yukio seems shocked at first, but quickly reaffirms his own confidence and dons a classic smile, telling Rin that that’s impossible, but that he should do his best.
While Yukio’s heading off on his mission, we find out that the Right Eye of the Impure King has been secretly sealed away in Kyoto and that that area was also recently attacked, though the thief in Kyoto was thwarted. The ExWires are sent there with a reinforcement squad help the injured exorcists and up security. Several chapters of family shenanigans follow, but we don’t see Yukio again until his team catches up with the van they’ve been chasing... but its occupants are dead. In fact, they’re dead exorcists, and the whole chase was just a diversion. Toudou’s already escaped with the Left Eye.
Eventually Yukio’s group arrives in Kyoto to rejoin the others to find out that a young exorcist named Mamushi was tricked into stealing the Right Eye by Toudou. Oh, and Rin lost control of his flames in public and got himself thrown in jail. WHOOPS~ Yukio and Shura visit Rin in his cell, bring with them a letter from Suguro Tatsuma (father of one of the other ExWires and head priest of the Myou Dha, a Buddhist sect that makes up most of the Kyoto branch of the Order). The letter gives us a lot of history, and we get even more information from snippets of scenes happening outside Rin’s jail cell, but here are the parts that matter:
150 years ago Fukaku, the founder of the Myou Dha, contracted with the fire demon Karura, infusing his powers into Kurikara. With this weapon he defeated the Impure King, and since then the sword has been regarded as a sacred object of the Myou Dha sect. Unknown to everyone except the Head Priest, the Impure King was not actually destroyed, but merely suppressed when his eyes were taken and sealed away. Once the eyes were sealed, Karura left Kurikara completely, but he’s contracted with every Head Priest of the Myou Dha since as their familiar on the condition that this contract never be revealed to others.
Years ago, Rin and Yukio’s father stole Kurikara from the Myou Dha on Mephisto’s orders, and at the end of the letter Tatsuma asks Rin to use the sword to destroy the Impure King for good. Rin’s all for it, but Yukio less so. After all, if something bad happens Rin could be executed for sure. Not that it matters since, for some shonen confidence-related reason, Rin can’t unsheathe his sword anyway. Just after this revelation, Mephisto appears with some bad news: Rin is to be executed for sure anyway! Yukio doesn’t react much as Rin’s locked away in a special magical prison. Probably because he’s in the beginning stages of mental shutdown.
While everything’s going down in the jail cell, Tatsuma’s chasing after Toudou and Mamushi, but he can’t stop the Impure King from being revived. He tries to put an end to the Impure King right then and there with Karura’s help... but Toudou stabs him in the throat. Major bummer. As it turns out, this whole Impure King revival mess? Was so that Toudou could draw out Tatsuma and steal Karura from him, forcing the demon to possess his body and gaining his powers. No, it’s not explained how this is possible, but whatever.
SO, the Impure King is loose and growing! Mamushi is brought back to Kyoto headquartes and explains everything that happened and the exorcists immediately mobilize to supress the Impure King. Shura informs the ExWires of Rin’s predicament and sends them on a secret rescue mission. They succeed and set off to help fight the Impure King, but that part has nothing to do with Yukio, so the how will remain a mystery (spoiler: it involves invisibility ponchos and the power of friendship).
Yukio joins the main fighting force, kicking ass, taking names and saving lives like the badass he is. During the battle he spots a red light off in the forest and, in a less badass bout of stupidity, cuts out on his own to investigate. It ends up being Toudou, exactly the person Yukio should never, ever be alone with. Toudou proceeds to “play” with Yukio... which mostly consists of making the exorcist dodge flames while he asks awkward personal questions. He’s still all about bringing out Yukio’s buried resentment concerning his father and brother, and he does a pretty decent job of it. Eventually Yukio ends up admitting that he does hate Rin... but he loves him at the same time, and the person he hates the most? Is himself. Then, in the most badass move of all, he summons eight water spirits and traps Toudou in a water prison. Counteracting the badass of this move is the fact that Yukio doesn’t have the stamina to make them strong enough to hold Toudou, which ends with Yukio on the ground and about to be killed. Tough luck, bro.
Funny thing about that, though... just as Toudou’s about to burn Yukio to ashes, the exorcist's eyes change. They flash that particular Satan-y blue and Toudou backs right off. Another group of exorcists shows up to help out and, with a plan from Yukio (which basically involves overloading his flame powers, turning him into dust, and mixing said dust with rain water before he can regenerate) and some magic bullets, they manage to delay him enough to escape.
In the end Rin defeats the Impure King and the dust begins to clear. Yukio discovers that Rin has been out of confinement (and not in danger of being executed) this entire time and promptly punches him in the face for being a careless dumbass. After everything that’s happened it still seems like Rin doesn’t understand the position he’s really in, the responsibilities and dangers that come with wielding the sort of powers he does. Rin begs to differ, but he doesn’t get much of a chance to explain himself before he finally gives into the strain of the day and passes out right in front of Yukio and everyone else.
The next day everyone’s been gathered back together to rest and tend their wounds. Yukio hasn’t really rested at all since the day before, taking the time to finish reports and to be sure that Rin really is safe from execution this time around. Too bad even the great Okumura Yukio isn’t immune to exhaustion, and he ends up dozing in a chair before he can even make it back to his bed. Rin tries to rouse him and, when he’s unsuccessful, instead leaves him a bottle of water and lets him sleep. The last words Yukio hears before he falls asleep: “Don’t run away.”
The next day Yukio accompanies the whole ExWire group while they go shopping and sightseeing before they have to leave Kyoto. Yukio seems to spend most of the trip playing with his iPad, but does manage to lineface his way through a group photo at the end. So it’s time to go home, right? WRONG. It is, in fact, time to go to the beach!
So a Kraken has been sinking ships nearby, and the True Cross force in Kyoto is called in to nip it in the bud before they leave. Sounds like some serious stuff, but it also means beach time shenanigans! Yukio’s still pretty pissed at Rin, so he flat out ignores him while they’re at the beach. He does have an interesting chat with Shura, though. Hm, could it be her telling him to go have fun while he berates her for not being more worried about the general state of things concerning Rin? Yep, very predictable. He does manage to play a little trick on her before getting an accidental eyeful of boobs, though, so that’s something.
The Kraken shows up and starts taking down helicopters. Rin, the idiot that he is, jumps into a boat (accidentally knocking Shiemi into it) and takes off in pursuit. Yukio follows, because following Rin when its being stupid is what Yukio does. Rin plays hack-and-slash with a tentacle while Yukio jumps into the boat with Shiemi on it. He tries to yell at Rin, but quickly learns that the water right above a Kraken isn’t the best place for brotherly discipline. The Kraken bats their boat into the air, destroying it and dropping Yukio and Shiemi into the water. Yukio inflates Shiemi’s life vest and pulls her to the surface (damn, that girl loses consciousness easily).
They’re about to head for shore when a coral reef magically appears beneath their feet, leading them to a nearby island. When they finally get inside, Shiemi’s not breathing. For a moment it looks like Yukio’s going to have to give her the kiss of life (and all the fangirls swoon), but she comes to on her own... somehow. Yukio starts in on Rin about his stupidity again, but then his phone rings. No, I don’t know why his phone still works after a dip in the ocean. It just does. Shura yells at all of them and then informs them that they’re on an island that used to act as a shrine to Wadatsumi, a legendary water diety. A demon similar to Shiemi’s Greenman (though larger and ocean-oriented) leads them to the cave where Wadatsumi is resting, and Shura has the Order fly over a huge crate of food and other offerings. The plan is to give the old god his strength back with a solid offering so that he can fight off the Kraken.
Rin and Shiemi get to cooking and such while Yukio cleans his guns and reads off official offering... scripture or something. Once the offering’s finished, the three of them sit down to eat, too. Well, Rin and Shiemi eat while Yukio continues to be surly and clean his guns. The brothers get into yet another fight about how Rin is too careless with his powers and why isn’t he afraid and blah, blah, we’ve heard this all before. It escalates into a screaming match until Shiemi puts a stop to it. She eventually coaxes them into having a proper chat. Rin informs Yukio that Satan’s flames are a part of him that he’s come to accept, and he wants Yukio to accept them too. Before we get an answer on that, Shiemi starts screaming because she’s gone and got herself nabbed by the Kraken. Yukio and Rin rush off to save her while Wadatsumi heads into battle.
The fighting begins, but Yukio feels the need to answer Rin’s query from before (he can’t accept those flames) and while they’re talking, Shiemi rescues herself. Wadatsumi is killed by the Kraken, but not before wounding it and majorly pissing it off. It uses an ability with a really stupid name (“Mimicry Spit”) to create copies of itself, and the whole thing turns into a game of “Find the Real Kraken” for the exorcists on shore. Yukio sets up his rifle and starts sniping like a boss from the island. Seems like a good time for more brotherly chatting, right? Right! Yukio fears that Rin gaining consciousness as Satan’s child will have terrible consequences, and it’s impossible for him to be at ease while it can’t be guaranteed that Rin won’t be dangerous. Rin accepts his opinion with a grin, and Yukio realizes what a huge douchebag he’s being. Not that that won’t stop him from being one in the future. It just fuels his self-loathing. Rin is a good guy who’ll always use his flames to help without ever thinking of the consequences to himself, and there’s just nothing Yukio can do about that.
They work together to find the Kraken’s real form, and Rin defeats it. Wadatsumi dies on the beach and the brothers have more talky times, because why the hell not? They both agree that they’re probably never going to get along. Rin mentions wanting to fight alongside him some day anyway, but the whole thing ends in their usual bickering. It’s once again confirmed for the reader that the “real Yukio” hates himself and wants to be more like Rin and Fujimoto. Cheerful, yeah?
Everyone returns to True Cross Town and things go back to normal. We get to see Rin make a friend and then the action cuts to a situation in Yemen very similar to that of the Impure King. Angel defeats an Impure Princess, and the leaders of the Order prioritize the hunting of demon eaters, suspending Rin’s possible execution and allowing Mephisto time to be a huge creeper. There’s a glimpse of Yukio and Shura, both of them being kept busy with increasing numbers of demon sightings and consultation requests. Shura also nags Yukio about skipping his regular health checkups (that no one bothered to tell us about before), but that’s quickly glossed over so we can get some background on Mephisto, demon etiquette, and how fail Rin really is in comparison to the higher ranking demons of Gehenna.
Cut to Russia where we find out that someone has somehow created an artificial Gehenna Gate! It was probably opened by the Illuminati and even Mephisto can’t close it! Left as it is, it will slowly expand! But we can’t elaborate more on that yet because it’s time to go back to cram school! Exclamation point! Yukio starts the ExWires on a few missions involving the “Seven Mysteries of True Cross Academy”, during which he observes while the ExWires plan and fight together. Most of them aren’t very important for Yukio since all he’s doing is observing, but we do get to see him in drag at one point, so that’s something. He pulls it off shockingly well.
The ExWires go through each mystery, and Yukio spends most of that time worrying over just what the hell happened to him confrontation with Toudou. His checkup gave him a clean bill of non-demonyness, so what the heck is going on? Did he also inherit Satan’s flames in some way? Is he going to become like Rin?
Yukio’s summoned to the Vatican to speak before the Grigori about what happened with Toudou, and while there he learns of the Illuminati and the artificial Gehenna Gate. He’s forbid to ask any questions or repeat any details of what’s said during the meeting. He’s even made to sign the “Morinas Contract”. If the terms of the Morinas Contract are broken, the demon who produced the contract will hunt you down and kill you. His presence at the meeting hardly seems necessary, but it’s likely he was summoned just to make him sign the contract. The Illuminati already have spies within the Order, and top dogs in the Order seem to think that as the twin of Okumura Rin, it’s possible that the Illuminati might already have someone like Yukio on a leash.
After he’s dismissed, Yukio meets up with Shiemi. He’s been tutoring her so that she can pass the exam to get into True Cross Academy (up until now she’s only been a part of the cram school). We get a flashback of a younger Yukio questioning Fujimoto about his and Rin’s existence, and Fujimoto gave the classic “you’ll understand when you’re older” answer. And then he died. Mephisto’s never been anything but evasive either, leaving Yukio with nothing but unanswered questions and a burning need to find out why he and Rin were allowed to live. Also, he gets all flustered around Shiemi and it’s pretty adorable.
HIGH SCHOOL FESTIVAL TIME! Rin and Shima are pretty excited over it, but everyone else is preoccupied with the fact that the Exorcist exam is only three months away (as they should be). Yukio gets asked to go to the dance party by several different girls, but turns them all down using the excuse that he’ll be part of the staff. He’s even invited by Shiemi, but he turns her down too. Shura intrudes after Shiemi leaves and prods Yukio into admitting a few things. He doesn’t believe that Shiemi likes him romantically, but he can’t think about any interests he might have in her because of all the crap he’s currently dealing with. It would only complicate things. Shura tells him to forget everything he heard and saw at the meeting, but how can he?
(Vatheon Pull Point)
Jumping right into the festival, Yukio is indeed a part of the staff, set to patrol over the course of the event while his students stay busy with their class projects. Yukio spiffs up to chaperone the dance party, and it's a good thing, because Rin comes up with the most adorable way to temporarily smooth the edges of the little love triangle that's formed between Shiemi and the twins. He tries to snag Shiemi for a dance, realizes how unsure she is, and immediately drags her over to Yukio so that the three of them can all dance together. Yukio's not particularly enthused at first, but it seems to be a step in a calmer, less antagonistic direction. For the moment.
Unfortunately the moment can't last. An Illuminati spy is captured by Angel, revealing that one of Yukio's students, Izumo Kamiki, is a target meant to be kidnapped within the hour. Shura sends Yukio and the ExWires to search for her. Shima finds her first, with the rest of the class showing up just in time to learn that he's working with the Illuminati. Kind of a huge thing to process, right? Well, too bad, because Mephisto's crashing the party too, along with another demonic brother we've yet to meet until now. Lucifer, the King of Light and leader of the Illuminati, declares war on the True Cross Order. In one year's time the Illuminati plans to revive Satan in order to join Assiah and Gehenna together. Mephisto's none too pleased with this plan (the human world is just too much fun), but he allows Lucifer to retreat with Izumo and Shima (because apparently Lucifer is top dog, and even Mephisto can't handle that).
All Illuminati members present escape in a helicopter, a series of carefully placed explosions (suicide bombings by Seraphim from the Illuminati) following that take out the barriers keeping demons out of True Cross all over the world. Before preparing to regain control over the Japanese branch, Mephisto orders Yukio to lead the ExWires on a mission to rescue Izumo, promising to send backup once things at the branch are under wraps again. They're accompanied by Nemu Takara, an exorcist hired from a "third party", who apparently knows where they'll need to go and will act as a moderator for Yukio and his team. Sounds like some double agent shenanigans to me, but I suppose we'll find out what's up with him eventually.
So they're on the road again! Takara is able to use some sort of summoned tracking device to trace Izumo to Inari in the Shimane Prefecture... which is kind of odd since that's where she's from in the first place, but whatever. They hop on a plane and Yukio fills his students in on the situation in general. Lots of damage to the Order, exterminating invading demon, handling the mass media. Even the Grigori were injured, so yeah, shit's kinda hit the fan. The existence of the Illuminati and what sort of organization it is is also covered, but that pesky contract Yukio signed means his explanations are pretty limited. And then everyone eats sandwiches that Shiemi brought for them. Terrible, terrible sandwiches.
Once off the plane they discover that buses and taxis are a bit hard to come by in their new location, and so begins a long trip on foot to the Inari Shrine.
(The Box pull point)
They make it without much fuss, only to discover that the whole place is a great big tourist trap. A tourist trap where all the tourists seem just a little too excited about things, and just a little too eager to stay. With some help from Takara and Mike (one of Kamiki's familiars, summoned by Takara through a puppet), they learn the truth behind Inari. The Kamiki family is a branch that obtained divine powers by interbreeding with a fox god. Izumo's mother was a chief priestess, and through some complicated stuff we don't really need to go into, she was possessed by the nine tails spirit. With no one else to turn to and no idea of their true intent, a young Izumo turned to the Illuminati for help. And they did help... at first, but capturing Izumo's mother was really just so that they could experiment on her in an attempt to gain the nine tails power. Izumo's current kidnapping was so that he could be used as a replacement for her now dying mother.
Yukio and company head for what they believe to be the secret entrance of the Illuminati lab (spoilers: it totally is). Yukio tries to call for some proper backup, but Mephisto gives him the shifty-ass runaround, so it's left to one exorcist and group of exwires to infiltrate alone. They do a fairly good job of it, even, taking out the initial set of guards and making it inside... of what seems to be a massive shopping mall. And then they're attacked by zombies.
Yes, zombies. Or, more accurately, failed experimental subjects that necrotized after demonic possession... which makes them zombies in the Ao no Exorcist universe. There's barely any time for Yukio to give a lecture on how to kill the damn things before they're surrounded, but before a true fight can begin the floor opens up beneath them. The entire team ends up sliding down a large funnel and into a dark hole.
End chapter. Quickest mission fail ever.
(Bastion pull point)
Turns out the dark hole leads to "feeding chambers", and everyone gets their very own! How special. Gedouin, the crazy scientist responsible for the zombies above is also responsible for the giant chimera zombies kept in each chamber, and being separated, each of our heroes is responsible for keeping themselves alive. Yukio manages his zombie monster fairly easily, using its own accelerated healing against it in order to fuse it to the floor of the chamber. As he's trying to find a way out of the actual chamber, he gets receives a visit from (drum roll, please)... Lucifer. Seems the King of Light has been chatting with Toudou, and as such he's taken a great interest in Yukio. Enough of an interest that he actually offers Yukio a place in the Illuminati. After all, if the Order were to find out about his eyes, they probably lock him up, or maybe even kill him. The Illuminati is safety, and Lucifer can offer Yukio the truth behind his eyes and the circumstances of his birth. Yukio rejects the offer, and Lucifer leaves peacefully, only insisting that they'll meet again.
Naturally, everyone manages their own escape, even if they don't actually defeat their zombie, but shit still hits the fan. Gedouin still runs the operation to transfer the Nine Tails to Izumo. Unfortunately, she can't sustain the possession, but her dying mother uses the last of her strength to take the Nine Tails back, containing it and forcing it to perish along with her. Gedouin makes a last ditch effort to turn the tables by forcing a demon to possess and enhance him, but he's ultimately defeated and backup finally arrives to help them escape.
We get some info on Shima's betrayal (I was right about the double agent shenanigans, the shifty bitch), but feels are had and life goes on. Shima even goes back to school while somehow retaining his double agent status (no, I don't know how that's supposed to work). He also seems to have a standing order to keep the pressure on Yukio, which isn't really hard considering the mental mess that kid already is, like... all the time.
BUT NOW IT'S TIME TO GO TO THE BATH HOUSE. Mephisto sends the exWire crew plus Shura to a bath house for some well-earned relaxation. Surprise, surprise, there are "three wise monkey" demons at the bath house who force those who get close to them to enter a state where they can't help but want to spill all their secrets and true intentions. Yukio, of course, refuses to get anywhere near them, but Bon manages to handle the situation pretty quickly. Afterward Rin tries to approach Yukio again, offering a friendly ear, but if you thought Yukio would change things up and actually talk to someone about his problems, you obviously haven't actually been reading this summary.
The growing Illuminati threat and heightened demon activity caused by the artificial Gehenna Gate is taking a toll on the Order's manpower, and Yukio soon delivers the news that the exorcist exam is going to be held earlier than anticipated. While the exWires worry about that, we cut to Yukio at night, looking shady as hell while wandering around a condemned part of town. The Order's blood tests show no results, and he's not being possessed, so just what is it that's happening to his eyes? Sick of not only being stuck in the dark about the powers awakening inside of him, but of always being outdone by Rin, he's decided to heck with denial. It's time to trigger the awakening of his powers himself. Super smart, right?
And how were his powers triggered the first time? Well, it was during the fight with Toudou when he thought he would be killed, so that means he has to recreate that scenario. Fear. Moreover, fear while facing death. He makes his first attempt with Naiads, summoning eight of them and basically commanding them to drown him in a sphere of water. The trouble with that plan, of course, is that summoned demons rely on the power of their summoner, so when Yukio starts to lose consciousness? They disappear. That method can't work because, in the back of his mind, Yukio always knew there would be a chance of survival. It wasn't enough.
So he pretends not to be a suicidal crazy person for a few days before finally buil his next plan... which happens to involve jumping off a building. Which he does. Because he's an idiot and I have no idea why I like him so much.
The chapter ends with him mid-fall.
(Snowblind pull point)
So Yukio jumps and realizes as he's falling that, yeah, this is super scary and a terrible idea and he doesn't want to die, but you can't undo jumping off a fuckin' building, so oh well. He blacks out and wakes up alive (obviously) and whole at the bottom of a flaming crater.
[Player's note: Because the manga is in black and white, we don't know what color the flames in the crater are. It's worth noting that his eyes are drawn in the funky way Kato seems to favor when he's supposed to be having a demon-y moment. I guess we're supposed to assume they're blue, but Yukio doesn't comment one way or another and that makes me side-eye very hard. Probably thinking about it too hard, though.]
Yukio's first reaction to realizing he lived is to get really pissed that he passed out and didn't see what happened. His second reaction? To grab up his gun and put it to his own head, because why the hell not? He looks totally ready to go through with it, too, only stopping when he's interrupted by his cell phone ringing. Mephisto calls him in for a mission, and surprise! Rin's going too! Yukio tries to talk his way into a solo mission, but Mephisto shuts that shit down pretty quick, revealing his awareness of Yukio's less than conventional training methods. That shuts Yukio up pretty quick, and then the Okumura brothers are off to Aomori to search for a missing Shura.
One train ride and some light investigating later, they figure out where Shura was headed and get themselves set up in a hotel by Lake Towada.
(It's not important to the plot, but the lady running the inn thinks that Rin and Yukio are gay lovers on vacation, something that makes Yukio freak and made me laugh for daaaaaays.)
Rin asks Yukio about the "dangerous training" Mephisto mentioned, and Yukio lies his little butt off about it. They also talk about Shiemi and which brother she like likes, but Yukio makes a quick exit out of that chat. Rin reveals that he thinks Yukio is hiding something and voices his worry, providing even more evidence that Rin is the wonderful cinnamon roll brother, while Yukio is a douchewaffle.
After a chat with the innkeeper and some research into Shura's background, Yukio and Rin head for Towada Shrine to look for Shura... and that's where they find her! Super convenient, right? Too bad she's pretty badly injured, but nothing Yukio can't handle. They get her back to the inn and fix her up as best they can, and when she wakes up we get a nice chunk of Shura backstory. Turns out she's in a contract with Hachirotaro Okami, the dragon god who rules the area around Towada. Hachiro called her because members of the Illuminati have been skulking around his turf... and because he wants her to fulfill her contract. It involves an ancestor trading the lives of her descendants for a demon sword and Hachiro falling in love with her. Long story short, every Kirigakure dies at thirty, but first bears a child to live on and stay with Hachiro, and now it's Shura's turn, but she's not really into the idea anymore. Too much time spent with Shiro and the Okumura brothers, but there's no way for her to break the contract herself. They'd have to get Hachiro to do it himself, which gets Yukio thinking... but then Shura's kidnapped again, oh fuck, because why not.
Since she's had a chance to heal up, Hachiro intends to force Shura to bear a child using his convenient eyeball-mind-control powers. Rin and Yukio show up for rescue times, and while Rin's occupied trying his usual hack-and-slash on the a pretty much immortal being, Hachiro decides Yukio would be an acceptable baby daddy. Mind control powers mean the bad touch very nearly happens, but some well timed flames from Rin break Hachiro's concentration. There's fighting and a suicide attempt from Shura and blah, blah, blah, but no real solution until Yukio decides to offer up an alternative: Hachiro can shift the contract for the demon sword to him.
... Yep. In exchange for the demon sword and the regenerative ability of Shura's blood, Yukio offers to spare Hachiro from having to force Shura to conceive. He's close to her, so he can persuade her. He spits one heck of an offer, stating a desire for power convincing enough that Shura and Rin aren't entirely sure if he's lying or not. He even goes so far as to literally shoot Rin in the face to sell the scheme, and it works. Hachiro removes the contract seal from Shura and starts placing it on Yukio, but he doesn't get very far before Rin's up and interrupting with his fighting ways again. Turns out Yukio pulled out his old trick of using nutrient bullets instead of real ones. So... problem solved, right? Shura's contract is broken and Hachiro went up in flames.
Except no. Remember how Hachiro's immortal? Yeah, that's still a thing. Also, his true form is huge and comes with giant hypnotic eyes that are difficult to avoid. Shima even shows up to help, but they're still no match. Shura eventually realizes she wants to continue living, gets a dramatic haircut, and shifts the tide of the fight. Rin burns Hachiro enough that the constant physical regeneration degrades his intelligence, temporarily leaving him little more than a common snake. Back up finally arrives to help clean up and everything wraps up in a very heartwarming manner... until Shima decides to have another creepy chat with Yukio. Seems Shima was the spy who tipped Mephisto off to Yukio's extreme training methods. He pulls his usual nonsense of trying to tempt Yukio toward the Illuminati before being called away and leaving Yukio to mentally freak out. Yukio then collapses from the injuries he sustained during the fight with Hachiro.
[Sol Raveh pull point]
