Hellbound | Blue Exorcist/My Hero Academia Crossover

Chapter Forty: Twinstinct

RIN'S P.O.V

"How much further~?"

"Stop your whining, kid. We're getting close, and there could be demons all around us. So keep a zip on it." Easy for her to say! Scaling these damn cliffs has been nothing but pain, cold and aching for the last three hours! Sure, Todoroki's left side has been keeping me kinda warm, but the further up we go, the more of me freezes over, and I dunno how much longer I can take this.

And here Shura is, wading through the snow in a pair of booty shorts and a bikini. I swear, I'll never understand her. Or Bakugou- whilst he's shoved on his winter costume, he's keeping pace with her pretty well. He hasn't got himself glued to Todoroki like I have, and he's definitely walking with a purpose I know I should probably share. I mean, sure, I wanna get my brother back, but this shit's hard! I've never had to climb a snowy mountain before, let alone in a freaking blizzard.

Only, things finally get a bit more bearable when the road seems to level out a bit. The steady incline falls flat, and we're left looking out over a huge expanse of white, interrupted only by- "There. That's where the trail ends," Shura mutters, extending a finger towards the small structure. From this far away, it's hard to tell, but if I had to guess, it's a cabin. Not much bigger than the one we left a few hours back.

My brother's in there. We're so close!

So I take off. I don't stop to wait for permission, or let Shura's shouting penetrate the sweeping winds swirling around my face as I stumble forward. I just focus on keeping my footing, and getting closer to the tiny building, a newfound heat swelling in my palms. Before I know it, flames are dribbling from my fingertips, reducing the snow to slush around my legs so I can easily plough through. Almost there. Almost there!

Until I'm forced to a stuttering halt. A smoking palm grips my collar, and I barely have time to swing around before trickles of holy water sear streaks into my forearms, snuffing my brilliant fire into pitiful embers. As soon as the liquid hits my nerves, I scream out into the blizzard, the pain far worse than it ever used to be.

"Don't take off next time, idiot," Bakugou snarls beside my ear, crushing the water bottle in his fist and tossing the plastic into the snow, barely holding me up. Every nerve quivers and convulses, and it takes all I have to squeeze air down my throat.

"Stop being dramatic, kiddo. It ain't that bad," Shura huffs, by my side and hauling me up in no time at all. "You shouldn't go running off like that." I can barely move my hands. My fingers are locked up, and the tension in my knuckles threatens to snap my bones in two. Is this how every demon feels when holy water is tossed over them?!

"Maybe the holy water was a bit far," Todoroki sighs, gently prying Bakugou and Shura off of me an calmly taking my hand, running his thumb over my twitching palm. Even though you'd think I could want anything less right now, the ice he smooths over the burning patterns brings a relief the snow hasn't come close to offering. "Better?"

"Y-Yeah," I hiss, struggling to push the word out from between my teeth. Shura doesn't even look guilty- she just starts walking again, McSplode not far behind her. If either of them try anything like that again, I swear I'm gonna lose it.

"Can you keep going?"

"Yeah," I hiss, gripping Todoroki's hand as he helps me stand up straight, every muscle protesting and every bone stiffly grinding against one another. It's like someone has come and sucked all of the energy out of me- like I've been running on a treadmill for hours on end. But I can't stop, even if it hurts like hell. I need to get to my brother.

With Todoroki's help, I finally get back to putting one foot in front of the other. The snow clings to my every movement, but I don't let it weigh me down at all- I just follow the slushy pathway the icy-hot boy carves with his quirk, keeping my gaze fixed forward. Right on that cabin. The closer we get, the more I can see. And I honestly wish it worked the other way around.

The wood barely looks like it's even holding up. The pores gape open, and cracks between the panels yawn, inhaling sweeps of snow at a time. If there were once windows here, they're long gone, only a few shards left to protect against the weather. What little there is left of the roof still sheds panels when buffeted by the wind, and part of me wonders what's keeping the shack standing in the first place.

"I'm gonna scout it out first! You three stay out here till the coast is clear!" Shura calls over the howling of the snowstorm, holding out her arm to keep the three of us back. Bakugou snarls under his breath at first, but he obeys nonetheless, reluctantly stepping away. Like hell I'm just gonna stand around and wait! Yukio's in there, probably half frozen to death! Todoroki doesn't even try to stop me- if anything, he creates an opening for me to go first. I don't know who Shura thinks she is, but this was never her mission from the start. There's nothing in there I can't handle.

So, as soon as amber fire blisters through the snow, I plunge into the path it's laid out for me, staggering towards the sheet of metal that's probably meant to be a door. "RIN!" Shura snaps, unable to reach through Todoroki's quirk to grab me- the moment the slush has pooled at my feet, he creates huge walls of ice to keep me on my way. Nobody's stopping me. Not Bakugou, not Shura- nobody. Nothing's gonna stop me getting to him!

Obviously, I don't even bother opening the door gently- I near enough tear the thing off of its hinges and stagger into the tiny cabin, and it takes my eyes a moment to adjust. But, with all the small holes in the walls, the light spilling in doesn't take long to illuminate the only thing I need to see. Yukio, slumped against a wooden support beam, his glasses halfway down his nose and his eyes slipped shut.

"Yukio!" I exclaim, stumbling closer to him. There's blood seeping from his hand, but I ignore it. I just cup his face and try to get him to look at me. His eyes aren't opening. Why aren't they opening?! "Y-Yukio?! Hey, wake up. Wake up!" I snap, shaking him a little. That gets a soft groan out of him, his head lolling back a tiny bit.

But when his eyes open, they're a vivid blue. Practically blazing.

"I can always count on you, can't I?" He chuckles, gripping me by the throat with his bloody hand. My breathing stutters to a choke, and my legs desperately flail for footing. And he just holds me above him, a sick grin twisting over his face. What the hell's happening to him?! His eyes, they-

They're just like how my old man's looked when... No! NO! "Well done finding me, my son." One more squeeze, and my head rolls back. 

All I see is the outline of a Gehenna Gate before going limp.