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tonguetiedraven · 1 year

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Birthday Wish

“You’re making a mess!” Yukio worried, and Nagatomo looked over at Mimumi with a raised eyebrow. The older exorcist gave a knowing nod as Rin hissed back a, “Shut up! I’ve got it!”

“They’re making something.” He said sagely.

Nagatomo frowned. “They’re not using the stove, are they?”

“Does it matter? We’ll have to eat it either way.”

“Yeah, but… Rin.”

Misumi paled. “Surely Yukio will keep watch?”

Kyodo appeared around the corner. “What’s that smell?” He frowned at seeing the other two exorcists huddled together. “Guys?”

“They’re making something,” Misumi explained.

Kyodo’s entire face scrunched up. “To eat? Not eggs. Please tell me it’s not eggs.”

Nagatomo looked entirely unimpressed. “Why would they be making eggs today?”

Kyodo looked between them. “Today? What’s today?”

“Seriously?” Misumi asked before shaking his head and peering back around the door. He squeaked and pulled back, pressing himself back against the wall with a look like he’d seen a decaying Demon King in their kitchen.

“Misumi?” Nagatomo encouraged, shuffling a little closer like he wanted to peer around the door as well.

“Think they saw me. But… whatever they were pouring in the pan was lumpy. Lumpy and green.”

“Green?” Kyodo mouthed while Nagatomo looked towards the hall.

“You better not be spying on us!” Rin shouted, sounding furious while Yukio muttered about the temperature and time and rain.

“No one is spying!” Nagatomo called, giving Misumi an annoyed look for getting them caught. “We’re keeping watch.”

Rin appeared in the door way, covered in a thick green batter with a wild scowl and his hands on his hips. His apron was on backwards and tied in a messy knot and there was something sticky in his hair and on his arm, and his blue eyes were fierce.

“Well?” He demanded.

“Well what?” Kyodo asked.

“Where is he!”

Misumi spluttered and Nagatomo sighed. He didn’t know how any of them managed to keep any secrets with how shit they all were at lying and thinking up stories on the go.

“He’s going to be back in the next hour. He’s not here yet.”

Yukio yelped inside the kitchen and appeared around the corner with messed up glasses and a worriedly flushed face.

“What? But—“

“That’s enough time. It only takes forty minuets for the cake to bake.”

Nagatomo’s eyes turned to Misumi’s in worry. That was long for a cake, wasn’t it?

“But we’ve got to clean up!”

Rin rolled his eyes. “You worry too much. They’ll help.”

“We will?” Kyodo asked, looking like he regretted coming down the hall.

“’Course ya will!” Rin marched behind them and gave them a push into the kitchen with no idea he shouldn’t be able to push them anywhere.

Calling it a mess was underselling the sheer destruction the twins had caused. There was flour and sugar and egg and butter and milk and dye everywhere. On the counter and the fridge, on the cabinet and ceiling, on the stove and the sink. At least a metric ton of sugar had been dropped on the floor and was gritting under foot, and they would be blessed if they only got ants from this.

“Yukio’s right,” Nagatomo declared. “We’re in trouble.”

Rin huffed. “That’s quitter talk. I’ll get the ceiling.”

Misumi caught him around the middle and hauled him off the counter. “You’ll cover the floor. Kyodo will handle the ceiling.”

“I will?!”

“You will,” Nagatomo said, pressing a cloth into his hand. “Quickly.”

— — 🎂◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜🎂 — —

Shirou knew the minute he got home that something was happening. The hall was quiet, and this place was only ever quiet when something was up. There weren’t any report cards or tests due, and Shirou hadn’t been accosted by any complaining parents, so it wasn’t a fight, which meant it had to be something because of today.

It always baffled him a little how they all kept up with it so effortlessly when he could never get any of them (except Yukio) to keep track of anything else.

There was a strange scent in the air a little like burnt sugar that had him thinking Rin had left something in the microwave for too long again, and there was a distinct tension in the air that had him strolling a bit louder so they’d know he arrived.

There was a squeak, a hurried mumble of words he couldn’t distinguish, the scrape of feet, and the light in the kitchen went off, leaving that end of the hall dark.

Definitely a surprise then.

Shirou took a bit more time than he needed going those last few feet, and then he was pushing the door to the kitchen open and making a show of reaching for the light.

He flipped it on, and immediately found himself assaulted by bright light and happy shouts (and screams) of “Happy Birthday!”

The boys were standing in front of the table with a large platter held between them. It was something absolutely slathered in whipped cream with a few candles quickly falling into the creamy depths and disappearing from sight. It was strangely lopsided and Rin was wearing a fair bit of the cream on his arm and cheek.

They were both beaming up at him, and the others were behind them, looking torn between pride and exhaustion, and he couldn’t possibly help the size of the grin that spread over his face.

“A birthday cake?” He asked. “For me?”

“Yeah!” Rin declared, hurrying forward and dragging Yukio along. “A homemade one! Extra cream!”

Shirou looked over there head where the others looked worried.

“The boys made it,” Misumi explained. “All by themselves.”

Shirou looked back down at the cake. That explained the shape of it then.

“Well then we better cut into it.” Shirou said, dropping his hands on their heads and ruffling their hair. (Both of them sticky in different ways.) He motioned for Rin to set the monster of a cake on the table and walked to get a knife to join the plates and forks they’d set out already.

The floor was gritty and there was a bit of something green on the front of the drawer, but he got the knife and returned to them, ignoring the irritating grit under boot.

Rin insisted on cutting, so Shirou let him, watching closely and snickering a bit at Misumi’s palpable worry. He cut easily through the cream, a bit less easily through the cake, and reached the platter with a loud clatter of knife hitting ceramic.

He repeated the process again and pulled out a surprisingly neat slice, plopping it on the plate and giving Shirou a glimpse of shockingly green cake. (Which was absolutely a Rin idea and a Yukio save, because he had no doubts Rin forgot his favorite color and Yukio knew everyone’s.)

The cake was strangely flat and spongey and crusty on the edges and there were patches of something that looked like scrambled egg, and a scent that wasn’t quite pleasant, but it really couldn’t be worse than the eggs, and the wide-eyed and hopeful looks the twins were giving him was enough to have him grinning widely and bringing the fork to his mouth.

He bit down, found the texture every bit as strange as it had looked, and that it mostly tasted like food dye, which was probably the best thing it could have tasted like. The cream wasn’t at all sweet, but it was cool and not salty, so he nodded at them and grinned all the wider. Better than the eggs had been.

“Delicious!” He lied, and didn’t feel bad about it.

Rin beamed enough to show his missing teeth and grabbed the knife to cut another slice before Yukio made an upset noise.

“Your candles!”

Rin slapped his forehead, thankfully not with the hand holding the knife, “We forgot!”

“Just light ‘em now,” Kyodo offered.

“It’s not too late?” Rin asked. “The wish will still work?”

“Course it will,” Shirou hummed as he pulled out his lighter. He knew nothing about the finer points of birthday magic, but he didn’t see any reason it wouldn’t. (He couldn’t remember if he had ever actually blown out birthday candles. Was there a trick to it?)

Rin hauled the candles back out of their creamy prisons and scowled until Yukio helped him get them to stay upright while Shirou lit them. (With a bit of trouble. Cream didn’t want to ignite.)

“Alright,” Rin bossed, “now ya blow it out.”

“And make a wish,” Yukio added, adjusting his glasses and moving some cream coated hair out of his eyes. Shirou might just have to hose them off in the backyard before bath time.

They both gave him entirely determined expressions, implying the importance of this act and the wishmaking it was, and they had taken time to make a cake for him and color it green because he loved it, and they didn’t want him to miss his wish, and they’d remembered his birthday and spent one of their days off doing this when they could have been outside having fun, and they’d made a mess but cleaned it up, and the others had clearly helped and known, and…

“Blow ‘em out and make a wish.” Shirou nodded. He pulled in a breath, didn’t look at the other three who would probably realize this was something he’d never done (or might realize it later) and let out as big of a breath as he could, catching all the little flickering flames with his exhale.

“You did it!”

“Whaddya wish for?”

“Don’t tell! It’s against the rules!”

“Is not!”

“Is so!”

Shirou shook his head with a growing smile and picked his plate back up. Against the rules or not, he didn’t think he could verbalize his wish anyway.

#shirou fujimoto #shiro fujimoto #my tumblr fics #father fujimoto #ao no exorcist #blue exorcist #rin okumura #yukio okumura #birthday surprises #nagatomo #misumi #kyodo #happy birthday shirou #it was an angel food cake as a joke about him being a priest #lol

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thecosmickight · 7 months

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Prompt: Hot chocolate (Izumo, Rin, Shirou)

She sighed happily as she was hit with the sent of chocolate and spices as soon as she stepped into the house.

Coat, shoes, and workbag were left in the hallway as she briskly walked to the kitchen.

Izumo leaned against the entrance of the kitchen as she watched her husband move about.

Rin had pots heating on the stove, one with a glass bowl above it. Two mugs sat on the counter next to an old cookbook opened towards the back forgotten. On his other side were different jars of spices. He grabbed one and dashed its contents into what ever he was mixing in the glass bowl.

After a minute or two, with mitten cover hands he poured the mixture into the other pot. With one hand he whisked the pot and turned the burner under the pot and bowl off.

after another thirty seconds he grabbed the single pot and poured the steaming liquid into the mugs.

Izumo pushed off the entrance and entered the kitchen.

Rin picked up one of theugs and turned around just as she was in arms reach. With a smile he handed her the mug and wrapped his tail around her waist to pull her closer.

"It's a recipe my old man use to make when we were having bad days." He grabbed his own mug and took a sip.

Izumo had heard the stories of Shirou Fujimoto since her freshman year of highschool.

Paladin, Clone, A great man, An amazing Exorcist. Most importantly, The man who raised her husband instead of killing him. She took a sip of the hot chocolate.

"It's wonderful Rin. Thank you."

#blue exorsict #aoex #rin okumura #izumo kamiki #rin x izumo #shirou fujimoto #izumo/rin #rin/Izumo #writing #writing prompt #Hot chocolate #thecosmickight

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ao3feed-izuku-midoriya · 1 year

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God Slaying Kings

God Slaying Kings by FTG82

Words: 5446, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia, Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist, Campione! (Anime)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Characters: Okumura Rin, Midoriya Izuku, Fujimoto Shirou, Pandora, Yagi Toshinori | All Might

Additional Tags: We're killing gods, BAMF Midoriya Izuku, BAMF Okumura Rin, Pandora is so done with Rin's idoicy

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43724088

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Izuku #♠#Izuku Midoriya #Rin Okumura #Shirou Fujimoto #Pandora #R:M #A:FTG #Crossover

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ao3feed-assassin-class · 1 year

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Satan's Child

Satan's Child by uaigneach

Before he was Akabane Karma, he was Okumura Rin. And before he was strong, he'd been beaten down.

[knowledge of Ib and Ao No Exorcist are unnecessary as they are trivial tie-ins to the series I am writing]

Words: 6749, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Assassination Classroom, Ib (Video Game), Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: Akabane Karma, Fujimoto Shirou, Okumura Yukio, Okumura Rin, Akabane Karma's Father, Akabane Karma's Mother, Ib (Ib), Garry (Ib)

Relationships: Garry & Ib (Ib)

Additional Tags: Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Prequel, Backstory, Depressed Akabane Karma, Hurt, forgotten portrait ending

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13660680

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Karma #♠#Karma Akabane #Shirou Fujimoto #Garry #Ib #R:T #W:S #A:Uaigneach #Crossover #Mental Illness #Abuse #Angst #February 2018

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lesbian-myth · 8 months

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Omg how did shirou survive parenting 💀 yukio was this nice cute kid, and rin broke metal bowls, destroyed public property, and ATE A FCKING PLATE

#ao no exorcist #blue exorcist #rin okumura #aoex manga #yukio okumura #shiro fujimoto #all hail shirou tbh #Paladin or not that’s absolutely insane

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megane-boys · 1 year

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Today's Megane is: Fujimoto Shirou from Ao no Exorsist

#Fujimoto Shirou #fujimoto shiro #blue exorcist #ao no excorsist #todays megane #fulltime megane

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vinetabris · 11 months

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To commemorate me getting into Blue Exorcist again, how about some throwback fanart? this one's back from 2017

#so long ago lol #but i think it still looks alright #also no spoilers please i'm not caught up on the new stuff lol #blue exorcist #ao no exorcist #shiro fujimoto #shirou fujimoto #🔪💀post #🔪💀art #🔪💀fanart #100

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lapseinrecs · 2 months

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Closure

By Vividly_Violet @violetlou2020

On Archive of Our Own

Status: Complete; Oneshot; 1737 words

Summary: Rin made a motion to grab for the door handle but at the last moment turned to the Paladin. ***SPOILER WARNING for ch120 of the manga***

My thoughts: Lemme have that sweet sweet angst! Shirou really loves his kid. Kind of OOC, and the writing has a few spelling errors, but it’s rather decent.

#fujimoto shirou #okumura rin #anex #complete #oneshot

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tonguetiedraven · 1 year

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We need Shirou to come back to life for a day! Rin, Yukio, Tatsuma, and Shura would all be happy :D (and ofc, add ships if you'd like ;3)

This ended up rather angsty, but I hope it fits the vibe anyway <3

The talented @marble-wolf helped me with it!

-- -- -- -- --

It hadn’t fooled Shirou for more than a handful of seconds. The door shut behind the worn and fragile looking boy, and Shirou had turned the stove off and wiped his hands off on his towel.

He didn’t know how and he didn’t know why, but Shirou Fujimoto knew that was his son, and he knew something horrible had happened to Rin. The boy that had just left was too thin and tired, and his hair was white (and god, there was only one thing that Shirou could think of that would give Rin white hair, and it went with the sharp teeth and the red in his sad eyes.)

Turning from the spot, clutching the towel in his hand, Shirou let his eyes fall back on his sleeping boys.

Had some future version of himself not protected Rin from whatever had happened? (And where was Yukio in it all?)

He couldn’t be that old. Shirou wasn’t kidding when he said the exorcists were getting younger, but Rin couldn’t have been more than sixteen. Still a kid. His kid.

Shirou set the rest of the rice balls in the fridge and made his way to the couch where the twins were asleep. Crouching in front of them, he gently brushed Yukio’s bangs out of his eyes and peered into Rin’s still blue ones. He traced the curve of his ear and pinched a few black locks between his fingers.

No trace of white. Still the boy he knew. Still his son.

There was only one way he could think of to get answers, and it was a dangerous game to play. (It was always a dangerous game.)

“I’ll be back,” he promised even though they were asleep. He stood up, ruffling both of their hair and moved to the door, taking off his apron and dropping it on the chair. Nagatomo was on the other side of the door, and agreed to watch the boys.

He always agreed to watch the twins. He hadn’t shown any fear of them in ages and he worked to make this old monastery feel like a home.

He was one of the better choices Shirou had made.

Ten minutes later had him in his full uniform and knocking on Mephisto’s opulent and overly tall door.

Mephisto didn't bother with a "come in", instead he waved his hand and let the door open.

"Shirou! I've been expecting you!" Mephisto greeted, already anticipating the conversation. He had known as soon as Rin had been careless and forgotten his hood. "How are you, my dear Paladin?"

Shirou strolled into the office and decided not to play around. He had a few simple questions, and he wanted the answers to them.

“Why did I just see a teenage Rin?” He asked as he reached Mephisto’s desk. “And why was he unsealed?”

Mephisto took his time answering, continuing eating his cup of noodles, watching the tension in Shirou's face grow as his silence extended.

"The boy got a hold of a Kamikakushi key, if I'm not mistaken." Mephisto finally answered.

“You mean you gave him one.” Shirou could feel the weight of that key around his own neck. “And the other part?”

"Circumstances proved necessary for him to be unsealed." Mephisto said with a shrug.

Shirou pulled the chair out and sat down with a heavy sigh. This entire thing was just them dancing around the real questions. He already knew Rin had Mephisto’s help to end up in his kitchen, and he already knew that something had happened to Kurikara. Both those things were obvious.

The only question was why. Why he had the key, and why something had happened to make Kurikara unsealed.

Why had he not stopped it?

“You know why.” The voice in his head mocked. Shirou ignored it as he always had and locked his gaze on Mephisto.

He could see Rin in his head. Rin all of sixteen and already looking so worn. Looking like Shirou felt most days. Like the weight of the world was firmly on his shoulders and he’d seen some truly horrible and unforgettable things. Things that were weighing on him and would continue to weigh on him. Possibly forever. Not necessarily afraid, not quite like the haunted look in Yukio’s eyes (so young to already have that frightened gleam.) It was weary. It was the kind of worn that made Shirou think of guilt.

“Circumstances you can’t explain?”

"I could explain but there are always consequences." Mephisto said, though Shirou already knew the price of knowledge all too well.

Shirou was living in dozens of consequences. He was fairly certain he knew what had happened to bring them to a future with an unsealed teenage Rin, but did he ask? Mephisto would tell him if he asked. If it was what Shirou thought, he’d tell simply to see Shirou’s reaction to that truth.

It was a bit strange how easily he could bring the memory up. He’d been half frozen at the time. Winded, bleeding, exhausted and a breath away from utter despair, but he could still remember the difficulty of each step. He could remember the taste of blood and how numb his body had been from the cold. The weight of their bundle in his hand and how piercing their cries had been. So desperate to stay alive.

He hadn’t made any promises to them at that moment. He’d simply said they could try and do it together, and somewhere in the years he’d found himself wanting to do it with them. Not simply because he was alive, but because he wanted to be alive. He wanted them all to be alive, and safe, and he couldn’t imagine a world where he just let Rin get unsealed. Where he let Rin deal with the same struggles and pain he had struggled with.

He exhaled wearily and looked to Mephisto again.

“You meant him to find me.” Shirou couldn’t decide if it was a question or not. It wasn’t the real question, but it certainly led to it.

"He wanted to find you." Mephisto snapped his noodles away and sat back with a sigh, watching Shirou expectantly.

“‘Cause I’m no longer around.” Shirou said, quitting with the walk around. “Something happened?”

"Something happened." Mephisto confirmed. There was no point in denying it. Especially not when the reactions could be so satisfying.

“Did they see it happen?” Shirou didn’t exactly live a safe life, there were a lot of things that could kill him, even if he’d only really imagined one thing ever doing. (The thing laughing in his head.)

Mephisto let his eyes drink in the expression as he spoke again. "Rin was there. Yukio was not."

Shirou nodded. That made sense. It also explained why Yukio wasn’t with Rin. (Not really. Not unless Rin had been the reason, and that wasn’t what had happened. Shirou didn’t care how rough the next few years got, Rin would never act like his father had.)

Sixteen or seventeen at the most… That just left Shirou a handful of years. Not nearly enough to do everything he wanted. Not nearly enough to teach them everything they were going to need to know. He’d never even touched on Yuri and everything she was. (He couldn’t without risking Rin.)

There was so much to do and no real time to do it in. Loose ends that needed to be tied off and secrets that needed to be buried as deep as possible so they couldn’t come back and hurt, and he had to—

He’d miss everything. Sixteen was high school, and it would have already happened. Yukio wanted to be a doctor. Would he make it? And what about Rin? What had gotten him in that uniform and alone? Would his lonely boys find someone? Friends? Family? Who would take care of them? And the monastery! The men couldn’t easily go somewhere else. Not with their history.

What could he do? There wasn’t time to handle it all.

He looked at Mephisto again. This wasn’t the sort of information he’d be allowed to keep, was it?

“He was, what? Sixteen?” Shirou asked, not really wanting that answer, but not entirely sure how to ask what he really wanted to know.

"He had just turned sixteen." Mephisto answered.

“You’re not going to let me remember this, are you?”

"Your memories will be returned to you at the right time." Mephisto vaguely told him.

Mephisto, in all honesty, rarely lied. He was picky with his words and didn’t need to, even if they rarely meant exactly what it sounded like they did.

He wouldn’t remember this, but he might someday. (And right time was ominous.) There was every possibility he’d already had a conversation exactly like this. A lot of conversations like this. There was rarely any real telling what sort of conversations and interactions he’d had with the Demon King of Time and Space who had memories and shape shifting in his domain.

“Then tell me this: how does it turn out for them? Rin and Yukio. Are they happy?” Did they live?

Mephisto's decision was easy. He knew exactly the correct path to take (for this timeline) and he outstretched his hand to Shirou.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" Mephisto offered. "No consequences or any threats to our current time. Though I caution you to not interact with the twins."

Shirou stood up, feeling the stiffness in his joints and feeling ancient suddenly, but nodding anyway.

“No interacting with the twins. No letting them see me? I can do that.”

The immediate puff of pink smoke didn’t even really surprise him.

-- -- --

It was warm, not unpleasantly so, and the sun was already high in the sky as Shirou pushed the door open. He blinked up the bright surroundings, letting his eyes adjust for a moment while he listened to the sound of a lot of voices all talking over each other. There was the scent of something sweet in the air, along with grilled chicken and rice balls. Spring was also heavy in the air, flowers and plants and a freshness that made him think of his first time walking into Amahara.

He blinked again, took a step into the yard, and promptly knew where he was, and was a bit confused as to why he was here.

Kyoto was lovely, of course, and he suspected that the twins would eventually meet the Myodha, but not enough that he’d be here.

When was here? How far into the future was he?

"You—" Mephisto chuckled at the startle that his sudden voice, next to Shirou's ankle, drew from Shirou, "are in the spring of 2024."

“Twenty four?” Shirou asked, glancing down and taking in Mephisto’s expectant look with an eye roll. He picked the now furry demon king up. “So they’re, what? Twenty eight?”

His babies were full adults. They might have babies of their own.

So they were at Tatsuma’s place, though it had changed since Shirou had last seen it. Was his old friend still here? Had he finished his own fight?

Taking a few steps into the yard proper, he looked around and frowned a bit. It was bright and open out here. He’d be spotted in a second if anyone looked. He needed to find someplace to offer him at least a bit of cover so he wouldn’t be spotted.

After all, he was dead in whatever timeline this was.

There was a grouping of shrubs he quickly made his way towards and knelt behind, duck walking his way forward a bit awkwardly with Mephisto tucked under his arm so he could peer around the old inn. The building was bigger if he wasn’t mistaken. Apparently business had been good for the ryokan.

"You will find Rin in the kitchen. Yukio is in the garden." Mephisto directed, silently amused at Shirou's attempts to not be spotted.

“Kitchen, huh?” Apparently he had decided to teach Rin how to cook. Or the kid was eating. (Twenty eight. Not a kid anymore.)

Shirou peered around the corner at the front of the inn. The yard had been set up for some kind of party, and there were monks and people rushing about to finish setting everything up. Tables had been set up across the lawn with balloons tied to them (a party for a kid?) and brightly decorated packages were on one of them.

An adult chasing a gaggle of kids confirmed in his mind that it was a children’s party, and had him smiling with memories of the parties he’d hosted for a pair of little boys.

They weren’t who he was looking for, and even it was years, he was certain he’d recognize the twins he was here for, so he waited for a toddler with dark black hair and a booming laugh to run by and draw a few of the lingering monks away to make his run for the inn.

The scent of food was stronger in here, and it had him realizing he’d never actually eaten any of the rice balls he’d made.

Rin was ahead, and Shirou wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to see him. Mephisto had never actually said if they were okay. If they weren’t…

Shirou pushed those thoughts away. Time had never been on his side, and now it really wasn’t. (Sixteen… hardly any time at all.)

It took him a moment to remember where the kitchen was, and once he found it, he was a bit surprised to hear a childish giggle, along with Torako. A moment passed as he curled his fingers around the edge of the door, and as he moved to slide it open, he felt his heart squeezing in his chest at the new voice answering with a light “Haru, not like that.”

It sounded just how the boy that had wandered into his kitchen sounded.

Shirou shoved the door open and stepped inside, trusting Mephisto to handle it if he shouldn’t be seen, because he needed to see.

They were all gathered around the counter. The toddler was sitting on it between the two adults, shaping something between her hands and making a mess as she giggled at the rice spilling everywhere. She was young, probably three, and her dark brown and wavy hair was tied back in two pony tails. Her eyes were a vibrant blue, and for a moment, all Shirou could see was Yuri.

The eyes weren’t quite the right shape, and her skin was a bit darker of a shade than hers had been, but the resemblance was uncanny.

Torako was keeping a hand at her back, some gray in her dark hair and a bit of rice stuck to her cheek as she murmured something to the toddler, pointing at the man’s hands.

There was no mistaking Rin. His hair was black again, and he had a hachimaki to help keep it out of his eyes — still messy as ever. There were freckles on his cheeks and nose, and his eyes were still bright blue, with a bit of red in them that was visible even from the distance. His ears were tipped as well, and —tail! It was just hanging out, swaying in a casually happy way as he shaped out a rice ball and showed it to the toddler. (Haru? Rin’s?)

He was smiling, and it was enormous and giddy, and even the fangs didn’t dampen the smile.

"Like this." Rin gently corrected her, showing her the formed rice ball. "They're going to be grilled with soy sauce, butter and bonito flakes. A pretty easy recipe, you just have to be careful to not have the pan too hot and shape 'em right."

That was the exact recipe Shirou wanted to teach Rin. It was why he’d been cooking them when the teenage Rin came in.

“Perfect,” Torako praised, taking one of the finished rice balls and setting it aside. She pressed a kiss to the babies head and ruffled Rin’s hair in passing. Rin shifted like he had anticipated the movement, and it was suddenly obvious to Shirou that Rin had spent a fair bit of time here.

Rin grabbed some more rice to shape, and Shirou watched as his tail lifted up and around to teasingly poke the toddler in the shoulder as she focused on shaping the rice ball. She shrieked out a giggle, and her face scrunched up in the same way Rin’s always did when he was really laughing, and there was no doubt in Shirou’s mind that he was looking at Rin’s cooking with his daughter. Alive and older and giggling together.unsealed but okay. Unsealed and happy.

"Satisfied?" Mephisto asked. "Rin and Haru, his child. A hard headed and stubborn child, with a good heart and many people who care about her."

Rin watched Haru form another rice ball, guiding her gently and he cheered when she got it. "Good job!" And he pressed a kiss to her head, earning a giggle.

Shirou couldn’t really wish for him to have anything more. A family and people who cared. A future, and by the looks of it, one where he wasn’t living with the time bomb that was Kurikara.

“Yeah, I’m satisfied. For Rin.” Shirou stared at them both hungrily for another moment, and finally nodded his head. He would be satisfied with that. Satisfied that the struggles would be worth it.

“Yukio’s in the garden?”

"Yes, he is in the garden." Mephisto confirmed. He pointed a paw in the general direction.

Shirou walked back out in the hall and back out the front door. They’d made progress with the party preparations, and he was a bit surprised to see Nagatomo and Lewin Light in the crowd. Who the hell was the party for? Who had brought such a strange assortment of people--

Shura!

It took him a second to recognize her. She was taller than he'd left her, and she cut her hair short. The playful style suited her, and she had a kid on her hip she was pointing something out to, laughing and bouncing them a little as she talked.

She'd grown up. The curse in her line hadn't followed her? Or had she beaten it? He couldn't see the familiar tattoos, but it might just be the distance--

Mephisto drew his attention back with a nip. Shirou stared for a moment longer, something settling in his chest that had him nodding and turning back on path.

The garden was past the ryokan, and he didn’t have to do much stealthing to get there. There seemed to be children everywhere, and he remembered Tatsuma saying the temple was shrinking, but apparently they’d fixed that problem.

(Rin had a baby named Haru, and they were making rice balls together. True Cross was here and it wasn’t a problem.)

The garden cemented that it was spring in Shirou’s mind. The plants were still small and there were a few people tending the plants. A pretty and young blonde woman that had to be Shiemi because she looked just like the current Shemihaza, a bald monk pointing something out to her, a few greenmen running around excitedly, and the person Shirou had actually come for.

Yukio was crouched in front of a cucumber plant, plucking a few blooms and checking around the roots as he spoke quietly. His hair was as neat as ever, his glasses were slipping down and he gently nudged them back up his nose with his knuckle (the same way Shirou did and the way he’d taught Yukio.) He was in casual clothes that were actually appropriate for the garden and child heavy party that was apparently approaching, which was unusual for Yukio who always tended to wear nicer things. He was laughing at whatever the bald monk had said, and it made his glasses slip down a bit once more.

Happy and gardening. Not exactly where he’d pictured Yukio, but fitting—

Shirou squinted and shifted a bit closer, but it hadn’t been some trick of Yukio’s glasses. One of Yukio’s eyes was paler than the other. Dramatically paler.

Had he been hurt? There weren’t any other visible scars on his face that Shirou could see. But the eye was different than the little boy sleeping on the couch in Shirou’s actual timeline.

Had he lost sight in it? (And Shirou knew what could cause that. He’d seen that sort of color before. But Mephisto said Yukio hadn’t been there when he died, so when had Yukio run into Satan?)

Whatever had happened, Yukio didn’t look to be troubled. Or even frightened. There was a naga squirming between the rows and a greenman chattering to him from one of the leaves, and he didn’t seem at all bothered by the demons’ presence.

“Is he okay?” Shirou asked softly, taking in the way Yukio was interacting with them all and looking content here. His story wasn’t as easy to read as Rin’s.

"He is surprisingly resilient. He is healthy and doing well." Mephisto supplied.

Yukio Okumura's journey had been particularly interesting to watch unfold.

Resilient? Shirou frowned a little at that descriptor. But Yukio was doing well now, and resilience was what he’d wanted Yukio to have. The ability to cope with the life he’d been left with. To face the nightmares and come out stronger and not frightened by things he didn’t have to be frightened of.

“Are they close?”

"They are." Mephisto said. "They had some difficult times in the past— well, future — but they are stronger now from it."

Shirou nodded, only half listening as Yukio moved to sit between the other two. He looked comfortable there, and the way they shifted to accommodate him soothed something in Shirou.

A giddy giggle and a gruff laugh drew his attention away. Tatsuma? His old friend was here too?

Shirou got up and moved towards the laughter. He’d check on him too before he left. Just to make sure.

(They were still close. Yuri’s dying wish hadn’t been broken yet.)

One last glance showed Yukio planting something, and Shirou could see the tiny timid boy who hated how much he cried, but the man he’d become looked confident and okay.

Shirou moved to the back of the house, fluffly dog in tow.

Get the full story on ao3 here!

#shirou fujimoto #ao no exorcist #blue exorcist #my tumblr fics #ane #aoe #aoex #father fujimoto #shiro fujimoto #rin okumura #mephisto pheles #tatsuma suguro #yukio okumura

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thecosmickight · 7 months

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Prompt: Murder (Renzou, Shirou, Satan)

It's not graphic.

Shiro stared at the mangled dead body a few feet away from him.

He turned to stare at the boy standing in front of him with a sheepish look.

"What? I was told to take care of it. So I did!" Shiro ignores the cackling laughter from Satan as he tried to process the scene.

"Shima I don't think this is what they meant." He watched Shima shrug before picking up the man's leg and start to drag him out of the building.

"Well can't change it now! Excuse me teach, got a mess to clean~"

God help him. He hope the other two kyoto kids weren't like this.

#blue exorsict #aoex #shima renzou #shirou fujimoto #writing #writing prompt #murder #thecosmickight

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statistiquesfrancophones · 9 months

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Stats de ship : Fujimoto Shirou/Mephisto Pheles (27/07/2023)

Statistiques globales

Statistiques francophones

Pas assez de fanfictions sur ao3 pour faire un graphique

#ao no exorcist #fujimoto shirou x mephisto pheles

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translationandbetrayals · 7 months

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Demons and depression: mental health in Ao no Exorcist

Introduction

Mental illnesses are not pretty. That’s a fact. They are debilitating and overwhelming and they make your life hell.

I have seen multiple people asking for realistic and raw depictions of mental health issues in the media, yet when they actually get it, more often than not they do not have an understanding of it past surface level nor try to offer empathy. And it’s sad, honestly, because I think we need less sanitized portrayals of the times when your brain is against you.

Whenever I think about poor mental health done right in animanga, I think about Okumura Yukio, one of the main characters in Katou Kazue’s Ao no Exorcist. Every single time, he will pop into my head.

When I started reading the manga in 2021/2022, after finding my way back to Ao no Exorcist following my first encounter with it in 2017 pre Kyoto saga, I was immediately drawn to his character like a moth to a flame. There were layers upon layers to his arc and misadventures, and I thought it was beautiful because of how ugly it was.

Imagine my surprise, however, when I started seeing online discussions and found out that people not only misunderstood—or just straight up didn’t try to understand—his arc, but were actively hating on him. I got whiplash, honestly, because to me it was nothing short of amazing.

Who is Okumura Yukio?

Yukio is one of the sons of the Demon King, Satan. He is a fraternal twin to Rin, who is the oldest of the two and the only one who inherited satanic powers, also known as the blue flame.

He is shown as a calm and collected person, despite his young age, and he’s been quite successful. He is the youngest exorcist in the history of the Knights of the True Cross, a world-wide exorcist organization, and a highly skilled fighter.

However, there are dark emotions manifesting within him, and a lot of them that have surfaced after Father Fujimoto, their guardian and previous Paladin of the organization, passed away protecting Rin.

[ Manga spoilers ahead. :) From after the Impure King arc. ]

Demons and depression

Yukio is depressed. Like, severely. And it’s been brewing since before Rin’s power was unleashed or Shirou passed away, like a time-bomb set into motion since the moment he was old enough to grasp the world around him.

It shows subtly at the beginning: bitter comments towards his brother, exhaustion, lack of drive… and it makes sense, honestly, because not only was he completely orphaned, he was also thrown into the workforce at the young age of 15. Before he could drive or buy a pack of cigarettes, he was already a teacher at the cram school on top of being a high school student and a teenager—which, let’s be honest, is already hard and also kind of sucks. And who wouldn’t be depressed after being caught by capitalism and not being able to afford lunch in the school where you live, study and work at? I know I would be.

And things only go downhill from there. After always feeling inferior to everyone around him and constantly going through medical check-ups to make sure he was “normal”, to make sure he hadn’t inherited the blue flame, he realizes he is not, and he doesn’t know what to do about it. He couldn’t fathom the idea of letting the Knights of the True Cross or his brother know, and because of that he projects his insecurities onto him—because accepting Rin’s demonic side would mean accepting himself, and he can’t unless he is completely sure. Slowly but surely, he begins to isolate himself.

Before you realize it, Yukio becomes obsessed, and it’s scary to see how human and crude the process is. His curiosity is both his greatest strength and his worst weakness, and when he tries to discover by any means necessary what the blue flame coming from his eyes is all about or what his heritage actually is, he starts to lose himself. He begins to be consumed by the desire to become stronger and to satiate the lingering question about his existence.

He grows apathetic, as he tries to achieve his objectives no matter how far off the deep end he goes. He stops caring about his friends, about his brother and himself, and so he becomes imprudent in plenty of ways. The only things that keep him somewhat sane are his obsessions, as it’s the only fuel he has to keep going—it’s his reason for existing.

He is grasping at straws and there’s nothing he can do to help his situation. He had vowed to keep his somewhat incompetent older brother safe from those that wanted to take advantage of him and also from his own power, making that his mission and basically his reason to exist—but then Rin became strong enough to take care of himself despite his recklessness and his lack of knowledge, and that tore Yukio’s world apart even more than it already was. Once again, Yukio found himself without a purpose.

As he tries to test how far will his demonic eyes protect him, he becomes suicidal. Time and time again, he tries to put an end to his life through different means—from jumping off very high from the ground, to risking his safety by exorcizing demons all on his own, to kneeling down on the ground with a gun against his head and ready to pull the trigger.

Yukio becomes reckless as well, going way too far to get the answers he desires—he points a gun at his own friend/student, violently pins his first friend to the ground to shut her up and puts a gun against her head, intimidates the people who had raised him, and shoots his own brother in the face to get him out of the way. He grows desperate to know and he hopes to die trying.

He also has no sense of identity or personhood. He’s always Rin’s brother or Rin’s next guardian, or the protégée of the Paladin, or a teacher at the Academy, and so on and so forth. But who is Yukio as an individual? He doesn’t know. And he can’t even begin to comprehend it because he has no idea of where he comes from.

He knows he is one of Satan’s bastard sons, the weak one, but he knows nothing about how their mother came to birth them or why they ended up in Shirou’s care, and no one is offering him any answers. In fact, it is explicitly stated that what he has to come to terms with is the present, not the past or the future, but he doesn’t know how to accept the person he is today without knowing the circumstances that made him who he is.

He refuses help. People around him pick up on his weird demeanor and how he hides everything behind a smile, but he refuses to actually let anyone in. Yukio isolates himself from everything and everyone, too depressed to bring himself to care about the things that were once important to him. He pushes everyone so far away from him, they’re afraid they won’t be able to pull him back in.

It is not until a third party reveals everything that was going on with him to Rin—and they have a physical fight—that he is able to start moving on. But the consequences of his actions still linger, haunting him as he tries to make amends. However, despite the state of the world, the future does begin to look brighter for him.

Conclusion

Ao no Exorcist touches upon a lot of topics. Action battles and diligent training, romance, loss, messy family dynamics, friendship, and I could go on and on. It also has a lot of comedic moments, perfectly blending in with the narrative style, making them feel natural and organic. However, when it has to get serious, it does. Katou goes the full nine yards and gets the job done.

If anyone is interested in seeing a realistic portrayal of mental health issues and breakdowns, I fully recommend this story. The tragedy of Yukio is probably one of my all-time favorites.

Francisca Salgado. ☆

#Anime #Manga #essay #submission

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