The dinner on Friday was actually a picnic in one of Amaimon's gardens in Assiah. The place was filled with both Assiah plants and Gehhenan plants.

Amaimon had actually convinced Shiemi to have dinner with them and now they all sat on a large blanket with an array of foods and drink spread out in front of them. They talked casually about classes for a while and then about Exorcist studies. Then, Mephisto started with the real talk.

"Miss. Moriyama?" He called her attention. She looked at him questioningly. "Your path ahead is much more complicated, depending on what you wish to do." He started.

"How?" She wondered. "Ah, you see, your grandmother used to be the host for a very powerful entity–the Empress of Creation, Shemihaza. Every cycle, a new heir is produced and named Shiemi. Shiemi is raised to take over the throne of Shemihaza as her representative." He explained.

"However, because of the Blue Night, things regarding that got very complicated. Your grandmother stayed the host for Shemihaza for a longer term than what had been done before to help clean up the damage done by Satan. After that, no one replaced her, even though your mother had training and was even pregnant with you to produce a new heiress at the time. The Order was fine functioning without a Shemihaza once your grandmother passed because nothing complicated was happening in the world then." Shiemi began to look suspicious of where this conversation was going.

"But, with the Order finding out that the son of Satan is still alive, they think they will need Shemihaza's power and guidance. They plan to bring in her followers and train you as the new Shemihaza. You will retain your personality, but you will be limited on what actions you can take and they will force you to have a daughter while you're young so you can raise and train her to take your place." Mephisto looked like he didn't approve of the method.

"It's not a very nice life, but it's best to go along with it." He said. Shiemi opened her mouth to oppose, but Rin reached forward and grabbed her hand. She looked at him in question. "Please, just listen. We have a plan, if you'll agree to it. But your choices are really limited, Shiemi." He told her, deep-blue eyes pleading. She sighed and nodded, turning her attention back to Mephisto nervously.

"You'll go along with it, let them teach you how to use your powers, and host Shemihaza. You have a choice to make once you get to that point: Take the side of the Order or take Rin's side. Rin has decided to be the Neutral Party in this war and he's fighting to simply end it so no more innocents have to die. He's not fighting to win. Currently, we have Rin, myself, Amaimon, and Bon here, along with the demons loyal to us. Rin trusts you to make the decision you see best for yourself. But if you side with the Order, we won't spare you. We'll take you down with the rest of the Organization." Mephisto proposed.

"The second choice you'll have to make, depending on the first one, is where you say you stand. You can either completely withdrawal from the Order and say nothing about why, or you can pretend to go along with the Order until the time comes to destroy it. We'll be destroying the Illuminati and Satan first, using the Order's firepower. Then we'll be turning on the Order to destroy it as well and reform a new way to protect Assiah." Mephisto finished.

"We won't make you choose right now, but you'll have to by the time Shemihaza's followers come to get you." Amaimon told her.

"That's....a big choice to make." Shiemi sighed, taking a drink of tea thoughtfully. "But it's easy. I choose Rin."

"Are you sure? This is bigger than just preserving friendships, Shiemi." Rin asked her. "I know. But you opened my eyes to the world outside of my garden. You helped me see that there was more to the world than just the Shop. And even though you barely knew me, you helped me however you could whenever I had trouble with things in the outside world." Shiemi smiled at the daffodils that bloomed next to the blanket on her side in the grass.

"You taught me how to deal with people who didn't deserve my attention and how to see the best choice in situations. You taught me how to know when to rely on myself and when to rely on others and that it's okay to turn down things I wasn't comfortable with." The daffodil stems extended and wrapped around her fingers gently, not restricting her movement at all, but caressing her.

"The longer I see what happens in the Order as an ExWire, the longer I don't want to be a part of it. I kept seeing you and Yuki torn apart by it again and again just because of things that didn't actually matter, like who was a human and who was a demon, who had blue fire and who had holy water bullets. The Order isn't the Good Guys. The Order is just the lesser evil." She recalled the thoughts she'd only ever told Kamiki, who agreed with her.

Shiemi remembered watching the twins argue and Yukio would storm off and Rin would be left all alone and looking so, so sad as his brother left him again and again. She remembered seeing how Rin was never really angry at his twin, only ever sad that Yukio would never do it say what Rin hoped he would. She saw how bad Rin wanted his brother to understand him and how much it hurt him when Yukio just outright refused to do so.

That was all because of the Order. If they'd not been such panicky, whimpering babies about Satan's children, Yukio wouldn't have been raised an Exorcist. Rin wouldn't have spent the better part of this year clueless and lost and afraid. Rin wouldn't have been cast away by everyone.

She looked up at Rin. "I trust you and I admire you for still being so good even when everything around you just kept hurting you. You chose to live to avenge the man who raised you even though he didn't even give you a halfway-decent childhood. Why would I chose the lesser Evil when I can choose the Good? It's not like my mother ever cared much about me. I grew up with the plants and my grandmother. I have no loyalty to my mother, or the Shop, or the Order." She smiled softly at the half-demon.

A sprig of Fuchsia flowers grew around Rin's hand that wasn't being held by Bon and Rin smiled. He'd started learning flower meanings once he'd seen how Amaimon expressed himself through them when he didn't want to talk.

Daffodils meant Respect, which Amaimon had for Shiemi. Fuchsia meant Good Taste, which he was telling Rin for picking her out and trusting her. "Amaimon, use your words, Dear." Mephisto chided, picking up on the subtle reactions. The Earth King glared at him and Rin snickered. "Let him be, he's emotionally stunted." Bon waved it away. Gillyflowers grew to lace around Bon's fingers, meaning Bonds of Affection.

"Excuse my bluntness, but are you all together?" Shiemi tilted her head curiously. Indian Jasmine bloomed right next to Shiemi's daffodils and Rin stifled his laughter in Bon's shoulder.

"What's funny?" She wondered. "Ah, nothing. Amaimon just thinks you're cute. And yeah, we're all together." Rin answered with a grin. Next thing he knew, thorns pricked his hand. He gasped, then leaned out and blew flames at the Earth King, who reeled back in surprise and fell backwards. Mephisto huffed out a laugh. "Ah yes, I love babysitting, don't you, Ryuji?" He looked to the human, who was already laughing.

Amaimon pounced on Rin and pulled him onto the grass. They tumbled before Amaimon came out on top, pinning the half-demon demon to the ground. "I win." He grinned. Rin scoffed. "Because I let you." He blew another plume of flames into the demon's face. They weren't hot enough to burn. Rin would never hurt Amaimon unless they were training.

Ambrosia grew around Rin's wrists, ankles, and neck, curling across his skin lovingly, spreading over his clothes like a pretty net. Rin gladly met the Earth King's kiss and hummed into it happily. Ambrosia meant Love Reciprocated.

Mephisto and Bon watched the scene with easy smiles. Aster grew to twine around Mephisto's gloved hand and red Catchfly flowers creeped over Bon's free hand and up his arm. Mephisto smirked at the red flowers. He leaned over to whisper in the teen's ear. "That's Catchfly. Red Catchfly means both Youthful Love and I fall victim." He murmured, turning to place a chaste kiss on the boy's cheek. Bon's cheeks flushed and he glanced back at Rin and Amaimon.

Shiemi smiled at all of them. It was such a pure sight. She'd never seen Rin so happy before. She was glad they wanted her to join them. Shiemi wasn't as oblivious as she used to be. She knew Rin liked her a lot and she could tell Amaimon was fond of her. They wanted her to fight with them to bring peace, but they wanted her in other ways too.

Shiemi had turned Rin down a few times already because she hadn't known what romantic love was, what it felt like. And Rin hadn't protested any of those times. He'd simply gone on with life and stayed her best friend instead, stayed by her side to help her understand the world he'd brought her into even though he didn't really understand it either. He'd appreciated Shiemi for who she was and he'd stayed with her even after she kept turning him down.

That was love. You cared about someone enough to respect their decisions and stick with them even if they didn't reciprocate the same Love you had for them. You still helped them, still talked and joked around with them, and still got along with them just as well as before. You still loved them.

Rin had taught Shiemi a lot about life. Now, she was realizing he'd taught her what Love was without knowing it. If someone wanted to learn what love was, they'd look at Rin and how he cared about the people who cared about him. If you gave Rin a chance, you'd never regret it.

So Shiemi got up and snuck around before tackling Amaimon into a flower bush. She laughed and she could hear Rin's loud laughter and Mephisto and Bon's cries of surprise at the action.

Amaimon chuckled underneath her and she jumped up and started running before he could regain awareness enough to pin her. Rin, Amaimon, and Shiemi played a dangerous game of tag involving blue flames, Greenman, pebbles, and plants shooting out of the ground. Bon laid down with his head in Mephisto's lap as they watched the three play, the Time Lord absently running his fingers through the thick curls.

Shiemi was glad she'd agreed to come to this dinner when Amaimon offered.