All Hail, The 9th Prince (Blue Exorcist)

Demonic Celebrations

        "Young Master, you have dirt on your face," Yenzo scolds.

I'm a bit surprised when my hand is lightly slapped away and Yenzo wipes my face himself with a handkerchief, but oddly pleased nonetheless. Yenzo has been distant and kinda cold these past few days -I think this is the first time he hasn't subtly moved out of the way to avoid physically touching me. Even the dreadful ruler hasn't made an appearance since my fire test.

"Sorry," I mumble automatically.

"Yes, well, please do avoid making a mess of yourself from now on." Yenzo's tone is stern, however the slight curl of his lips betrays his amusement.

"No promises," I reply cheekily.

He only sighs. "Do you remember what you must do concerning the Qougekia Ritual? We shall have to leave earlier than the others, in order to prepare you-"

"I remember," I interrupt with a roll of my eyes. Yenzo really does worry too much.

Two days ago Father explained the different Old Traditions and Rituals to me -and they're so old, in fact, that only us royals and a couple of extremely traditional clans still do it. The Qougeki Ritual in particular became a thing during Clown-nii's young childhood years, and I can't even remember how many digits Azzy-nii told me he has. (Only that's it's a lot.)

The Qougekia Ritual is solely for birthdays. What happens is that there's a big bonfire, and Heads of important and wealthy clans (which is to say the Lords and Ladies) each offer a live sacrifice. I personally, since the ritual is being held in my honour, have to kill each of the animals and throw them into the bonfire. The idea is that each sacrifice symbolizes something, like strength, beauty, smarts, cleverness, etc. Burning them is supposed to 'give' me the following characteristics for the following year.

It's kinda similar to the Desquu Ritual, which is for the New Years'. Only in the Desquu it's for everyone's benefit, and instead of sacrificing animals you have to give up something important to you, like a family heirloom, a picture of a close but dead family member, or even something that you've had since you were a baby. The superstition is that you'll somehow get stronger and/or lucky in the new year once you've collectively burned them. (I don't know why; the tradition/ritual doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, why would you willingly burn the stuff you care about?) And unlike the Qougekia there's a special song and two dances, one for before everyone burns their item and one for after. The Desquu doesn't demand traditional robes either, though there is still face and body paint.

Anyways, I didn't like the sound of the Qougekia Ritual at all, when Father first informed me of it. I told Father as such, but when he started lecturing about how normal it is to kill animals for both demon and human's benefit I couldn't really argue. He went into depths about what exactly humans do to animals before they kill them for food, like a nursing cow's calve being killed in front of the mother just so that the cow will continue to produce milk.

-"Do you believe that what we do is worse?" Father challenges with an arched brow.-

(I stayed silent. He's right; it's not.)

-"Besides, Rin, you've already killed both demons and humans alike," Father reminds me with a smirk. Here he ruffles my hair, nails scratching my scalp that sends tingles down my spine. "Are you telling me that you can slaughter them, but not a few idiotic animals?" he jeers.-

I got mad at Father -mad at his words, because I hate that he's right again. It doesn't make much sense for me to be able to kill the criminals and the humans -people- but not the animals. I know I can do it, knew it then without having to search too deep within myself. So in the end, I gave in but stubbornly told Father that they can't be babies. I refuse to it if the animals aren't fully grown or better yet old. Father agreed with obvious amusement.