Lightning burst into the room unexpectedly when Rin, Mephisto, Amaimon, and Bon were in the bath together.

Rin had smelled him a kilometer away and he was sure Mephisto and Amaimon had too. Hell, Bon could probably smell that man at least half a kilometer away. So, Rin was ready to catch the man's hand when he went to grab Mephisto by the face to pull him out of the water. The Time Lord berated Belial for letting the man pass him.

Lightning pulled his hand back and showed them a picture on his phone. "This seal showed up on the nape of a man who died this morning after I interrogated him. He was bound by a Morinas contract and killed by "Death" when he spilled the beans. Death is a messenger of Time, so you either ordered it as your familiar or made the contract yourself." He accused, still smiling like he hadn't just accused the Demon King of Space and Time of murder.

Rin remembered where he'd seen that symbol as soon as he saw it and Lightning carried a familiar scent that he only just now noticed under all the filth.

"You killed Gramps?!" He stood abruptly, grabbing the Investigator by the throat. "Why were you in my old home?" He demanded, his blue eyes going demonic in a second, irises glowing electric-blue and pupils slimming to slits "This is exactly why I left." Suguro muttered, sinking down further in the water. "Woulda been sworn to secrecy and I didn't wanna know things that could hurt you."

"I'm doing an investigation on the Blue Night–your rumored birth. Know anything worth my time?" Lightning turned his questions to Rin. "I know that my birth isn't something anyone should look into. Sometimes, you gotta know when to let secrets stay secret. For some reason, humans never seem to understand that even after being told so." Rin growled, fed up with people treating him like a puzzle to be solved.oghtbing was slooking at him now like every exirvist looked at him as they passed–like Rin himself was a secret to be revealed. A gentle hand grasping his wrist encouraged him to let go of Lightning's throat. He let go, but there was no mistaking the hostility in his glare. Those eyes had a glow in them that gave even Lightning chills. Dig up my past against my wishes and I'll bury you with it.

"Ah Dearest, you're learning how to play the games you need for war. That's good." Mephisto pulled the boy to him with an approving grin and Rin relaxed some, though his piercing gaze on the Torturer didn't let up until  Mephisto tilted his head to look at him.

The two seemed to have a silent conversation between them and Lightning sighed. This interrogation wasn't going how he'd planned it. Of course, he hadn't planned for his ex-apprentice, the son of Satan, the Director of the Japan Branch, and the Demon King of Earth to all be in a bath together and totally comfortable with each other either. He briefly wondered how Suguro had gotten involved with them, but quickly deduced that was probably Rin's doing.

"Who are you loyal to?" Rin demanded, finally turning back to him. Lightning raised a brow under his shaggy hair. "Why does it matter?" He countered. Before Rin could snap at him again(Lightning could tell he was going to because the teen's tail was lashing the water like an angry whip with a mind if its own), he held his hands up in surrender. "I just like Demons. I like studying them. I like knowing the truth. Whoever lets me do that, I'm fine working for them." He answered honestly. Rin considered the response.

"Hm. I see. Well, you won't get any information out of any of us today, so scram." Rin told him. Lightning wondered what was going on in the boy's head. He'd really let Lightning go, just like that? Even after it was clear the man wouldn't stop until he knew the truth? Rin Okumura was interesting. He played with demons, but his heart was very human, it seemed. Lightning took his leave.

"Should we stop him?" Rin wondered quietly to Mephisto when the doors closed. The demon shook his head. "No, Dearest. I'll send him some much needed clues and then we'll follow him in his endeavors. I shall explain on the way there." The demon answered.

"But I don't wan–"

"It doesn't matter whether you want to know your origins or not, Rin. This is something you need to know. For now, it will be small things, but later, I will have to reveal the whole truth to you." Mephisto cut him off. Rin pouted, a low growl sounding in his chest as he turned away from the man, obviously not wanting his company at the moment.

The Time Lord sighed and watched as Amaimon threw him a smug smirk while Rin settled into his embrace on the other side of the bath.

§~•~§~•~§

"Riding in style, eh?" Lightning grinned at them as he got in the limo that pulled up outside where he was staying during his visit to True Cross.

Instead of the bright pink limo Rin and Yukio had been picked up for school in on the first day, it was Mephisto's black Rolls Royce Phantom Limo. Rin had picked it out, practically begging Mephisto to use it.

"Please! Come on, you've got all these nice ass cars just sitting here collecting dust! You don't spend millions on nice cars for them to sit there and look pretty!" Rin had insisted.

"Where would I even drive them, Lovely?" Mephisto sighed. "Anywhere you want, you own a whole town inside Tokyo. There's so much room to drive around in!" Rin reminded him. Then, his grin turned sly and he strutted up to the Time Lord, wrapping his arms around the demon's neck and getting up on his tippy toes. Even with Rin wearing heeled boots, Mephisto was still much taller than him. He leaned in close, but just before their lips touched, he stopped.

"And I'd rather have you fuck me in one of these cars than that pink limo." He whispered, watching the Time Lord's pupils dilate to just tiny slits. "Especially that shiny black Rolls Royce Limo." Rin purred against his boyfriend's lips. It didn't take much convincing after that to get Mephisto to take the Rolls Royce.

The Time Lord actually had a 50 car garage filled with classic cars, modern cars, a couple motorcycles, and some custom limos. Rin loved all of the vehicles and was working on convincing Mephisto to drive a different one every time they drove anywhere.

"Yes, you can thank Rin for that. I would've just taken my usual limo, but he insisted the Rolls Royce was the way to go." Mephisto sniffed pettily, showing what he thought about that suggestion. Rin was sitting in his lap pleased as a punch, Amaimon sat on his left and Bon sat on his right. Lightning sat on Amaimon's side, not bothered by the Earth King's presence at all.

"So where are we headed exactly?" Lightning wondered. "To the Cram School. We're taking the scenic route. Rin insists we should take the cars out more often." The demon huffed, like it was such a bother to flaunt his multi-million dollar transportation variety. "You don't buy pretty things just to stare at them! You show them off!" Rin exclaimed.

"Oh, but I flaunt you all the time." Mephisto pointed out, tipping Rin's chin towards his with a grin. "You didn't buy me. You only have me because this fool talked me up to you while he was trying to convince me I was worth a damn." Rin pointed at Amaimon, who grabbed his hand and laid a kiss on the knuckles.

"I have to sell him on the things I like, otherwise he gets jealous and takes me away from them. It was either both of us or neither of us for you." Amaimon agreed. Mephisto shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a greedy demon."

"So is this relationship love or entirely physical attraction?" Lightning asked. "It started with me being sad, as most things do." Rin snickered and Amaimon did too. "He was pathetic and I hated how it looked on him, so I changed it. We've been training him and teaching him things a Demon Prince should've been taught growing up. We've given him a home and happiness and everything a human needs to live as well." Amaimon explained, sitting up straighter like he was proud of his accomplishment of taking care of Rin so well. He pulled the half-demon to him to plant a kiss on his lips and then plant one on his jaw before Mephisto yanked Rin back to him. "Quit it, he sat on my lap for a reason!" He snapped. The two Demon Kings glared at each other, a silent argument warding in between them. Bon stepped in by leaning forward to initiate a kiss with the half-demon the two Demon Kings were fighting over. Lightning sat there patiently, watching the spectacle with his ever-present bright smile.

"Damn, the human's got him this time." Amaimon noticed. Mephisto snorted and sat back up, straightening up his clothes again.

"Ah, I suppose I shall start explaining before we get there." The Time Lord launched into a story of the beginning of the Demon Kings.

"Gehenna's power structure is simple. There's been a long-standing conflict between Lucifer's faction, who view humans as hostile–and the Order's faction, who wish to cooperate with humans. Yes, the Order was actually founded by demons. We've somehow let the humans take over and make a mess of the Organization–one of the few decisions I regret." He definitely looked hexed by the thoughts of all the things humans have ruined in his carefully built Organization.

"In ancient times, we Ba'al were merely a concept. However, as Human Civilization developed, our "silhouettes" became much more prominent. We maintained a fixed distance from humans. We gained well-defined appearances, and then at long last, we were incarnated. The Awakening of the "Ego," the intoxication of the five senses....after experiencing it just once, we couldn't live without it." There was a far away look in Mephisto's eyes as he recounted the tale. Rin stayed silent,

"The three of you, who naturally have bodies, probably wouldn't be able to understand. But for us, obtaining a body was immensely thrilling. Even I was completely immersed in pleasure when I was first incarnated." A shiver ran down his spine at the phantom sensation of having a body for the first time ever.

"However, a body doesn't last forever.
Because of our power, the regenerative ability of our cells exceeds that of humans. But for a high-level King, the deterioration is correspondingly high. And yet, we Ba'al can't die. Even if our bodies perish, we will continue to exist as a concept." Rin was listening intently. He wondered if he'd ever be a Demon King. Would be have an Ego of his own? How would it work if he got something that wasn't elemental, like Mephisto had gotten Time and Space and Azazel had gotten Spirits? How different were those two from all of the other Demon Kings?

"For us Ba'al, after having your "Ego" sprout, such a fate is excruciatingly unfathomable. It is not physically painful to exist like that, but it is emotionally painful after having something so extraordinary to ourselves." Amaimon was frowning and now pressing himself to Mephisto's side, like the stronger Demon's presence would chase away the phantom feeling of longing plaguing him at recalling the painful repressed memories.

"The first to experience it was the eldest of us, the King of Light, Lucifer. Out of the Ba'al, he suffers the fastest degradation. His bodies don't even last ten years. Humanity was the outlet for all that stress. He convinced us to join him in attacking humanity. The result was an era of wanton destruction, fire, flooding, and disease." Rin cringed. That sounded like the 1300s and something he would definitely never ask about because he really didn't wanna know.

"Some of my brothers and I decided that humanity would go extinct if this continued. So we gave them knowledge of how to fight demons. That was the beginning of the True Cross Order." He finally made it to the more interesting part.

"By doing that, we created a conflict that has preserved the equilibrium of the world. After that we cut off ties with that bully Lucifer. But that was only about a hundred years ago, maybe a little longer."  Mephisto sighed. Lucifer was bratty. He wanted whatever he couldn't have and if he couldn't have it, no one else could have it either. He literally wanted to burn away every living thing on the planet and start over again so no one had the pleasure of life just because he couldn't have a physical body in a world that wasn't even his. Mephisto may have liked to keep his treasures to himself, but Lucifer wanted things he had no chance of even reaching. Honestly, Mephisto should've been the oldest. He would have led the Demon Kings much better than Lucifer.

"We gathered once, after we'd all gotten bodies. Some of us were doing fine, others were a little worse for wear, and some were horrid, misshapen husks of flesh and bone. I, being Time itself, have always been able to slow down the degradation period on my host. Astaroth had an easy time of it, as did Egyn and Beelzebub. Lucifer, Azazel, and Iblis all had harder times. Amaimon was almost worse off than Lucifer due to him being the Earth itself given humanoid form. He needed a certain strength and durability in a host if he transferred, along with a certain symbiosis with a host body." Mephisto explained.

"Lucifer decided that because he suffered worse than the rest of us, that he should just explode and blast the entire damn planet to pieces so it could go back to us all being "equal." Literally no one thought it was a good idea, but we had to play along and respectfully offer arguments lest our bodies be blasted into oblivion." Mephisto rolled his eyes. He'd disliked Lucifer from the beginning. In his lap, Rin nodded sagely. Lucifer was a dick.

"I brought up the concept of cloning, making artificial bodies for Demon Kings to inhabit. At first, we attempted it with humans, but the results weren't satisfactory, so we decided to use our own DNA mixed with humans to make Nephilim bodies in hopes that if we possessed one of them, the DNA would merge well with our own and would also be strong enough to hold us. We didn't realize until much later that it also depended on compatibility among Demon Kings for who possessed what clone bodies. Amaimon couldn't manifest in any of his own Nephilim clones, but he found a body in one of mine, Ambrosius. This was because he was more comfortable with me than any other Demon Kings." Mephisto went into detail on how it worked and Rin perked up at the new term: Nephilim. If anything, that was what he was.

"Oh, so you know Lucifer's issue and he hasn't even figured it out yet?" Lightning guessed. "Oh, I told him the issue long ago, but he refused to listen, saying it was too illogical. His loss. He's the one dying all the time." Mephisto answered. "Lucifer does not trust any other Demon Kings, even Egyn, who works for him in the Illuminati. And he doesn't trust his own DNA to hold up in a clone body, so he's stuck in this loop forever until someone ends the cycle."

Rin snickered. "An asshole who refused to believe feelings are the answer and can't even keep a body for even a full decade and bitches about his struggles constantly. Aren't his nerves fried 24/7? He thinks he's suffering because he can't frolick in a body without collapsing and vomiting blood, but he doesn't know actual physical suffering. That's such a pathetic existence." He shook his head. He'd been beaten until his entire torso was bruised and his ribs were broken before. He'd been lucky none of the ribs had punctured a lung. And that was only injuries from humans. Rin had lost count of the horrible injuries he'd sustained and healed from demons. Lucifer knew nothing about physical pain.

"I'm guessing that huge artificial Gehenna Gate is so he can explode Earth and transfer Gehenna over to take it's place?" Rin snorted at the thought.

"He must have some sort of plan to make that happen. He's too weak to make an explosion that big without a host to amplify it in Assiah. He'll probably use various high-level demons to accomplish the task if that's what he's really trying do. Although, he could just transfer the demons in Gehenna to Assiah and basically terraform the human world to be fit for demons by letting them inhabit it and let Satan take over that way. Both of the plans suck for anyone that isn't Lucifer or Satan, basically." Bon piped up. "And maybe me." Rin added. They all looked at him.

"Satan still can't exist in Assiah even if the demons terraform it for their needs and wants. Satan still needs a host, he'll go for me. He's been trying for a while, it's why I stopped sleeping." The half-demon reminded them. "And then there was that one dream you had that put you in shock...." Amaimon said.

"That wasn't Satan though, that was something a lot older than Satan. Maybe even older than you guys." Rin told them. "I don't know why, but I keep waiting to have another dream like that. I know it's gonna happen sometime, it's like a gut feeling." Rin admired. "Will you be able to handle it this time?" Mephisto wondered. "Hopefully. Maybe if I'm prepared for it, there'll be less mindfuckery happening." Rin shrugged a shoulder. "I wouldn't mind fuckery...." Mephisto muttered, directly into Rin's ear. The only ones that heard him were Rin and Amaimon. The half-demon's tail snuck around behind the man and caressed his tail. Mephisto did his best not to jolt at the feeling and threw the boy a glare.

The limo stopped moving at that moment. "Ah, it seems we're here. Everyone out!" Mephisto said cheerfully. Lightning, Bon, and Amaimon left the car. Just as Rin went to get out, Mephisto's tail unfurled and pulled Rin back by coiling around his tail. Rin shivered and collapsed back into the Time Lord's lap. Mephisto stole his breath with a heated kiss before releasing the boy with a grin. They hid their tails once more before exiting the vehicle.