The 9th

Bonding Time

The drive away from the cemetery was uncomfortably silent. This was Astaroth's fault.

Each time the one in the driver's seat would open his mouth Astaroth would fling a Coal Tar into his mouth, the purple-haired one didn't dare to speak, but she played it off as stubbornness.

Once Astaroth was sure the pink-haired one wouldn't speak he turned to care for his brother.

"There's a first aid kit in the back of the seat."

Astaroth sent a glare towards the driver but scotched closer to the seat nonetheless. He held open the small compartment with his tail and scrambled its insides looking for the first aid kit. He didn't show any emotion but let out a small grunt when he grabbed the small box. He returned to Rin's side and started to apply his magic onto Rin's wounds. The best he could do in the puny body was close and erase some of the scars. He blamed the body but mostly blamed himself. He should have gotten there sooner, he should have known his brother would be kept that close to Mephisto, he should have paid attention when Iblis was teaching healing spells. He was the King of Rot, healing wasn't what he was meant for. Cursing internally, he moved to open the small box and scratched away at the small locks holding it shut in frustration. Gehenna didn't have such things, they used magic for a lot of things.

The purple one saw that he was having trouble with the box out of the corner of her eye and wordlessly reached back to open it. Astaroth let her take the box and watched unblinkingly as she opened it, determined to not need help opening such a simple mechanism ever again.

He grabbed the box as soon as it was opened and begun to put disinfectant on Rin's body. He put a barrier in between them and the front two seats and pulled Rin's pants off to wrap and cleanse his legs, he put it back down once Rin's back had been doused and his pants were back on. Astaroth handed the bandage roll to the purple one for her to open. A King must know when to ask for help or his subjects may suffer. She slowly peeled the tape off of the front and opened a small bit for Astaroth to grasp. He picked at the small peel until it began to unwind. He wrapped Rin's arms thoroughly, they were in the worst condition, his back fighting for first place. Astaroth applied the bandages with unsuspecting care, trying his best not to wake his younger brother up. The two upfront shot them occasional glances and seemed to intake new information every time they did.

Such as the fact that demons use their tails as an extra arm.

Astaroth held the bandage roll on his tail and used his teeth to snap off the appropriate amount.

A demon's teeth were used for more than biting.

"He was injected with blood, with his current state it will take a while before he doesn't need it any longer," he turned and pointed to the driver, "pink one, give me your arm."

"Why me?!"

"The purple one was already of use."

"I'm being of use right now, too! I'm driving!"

"I can kill you and let the purple one drive."

The pink one held out his arm, "The name's Shima by the way, not the pink one, and that's Kamiki."

Astaroth made a faint noise of indifference and plunged his teeth into Shima's arm. 

Shima nearly yanked his arm back but Astaroth's long-nailed hand held his arm in place, "What the heck man?!"

Astaroth waited for two minutes before releasing Shima's arm and biting into Rin's instead. Kamiki looked backward and Astaroth lifted his lips to show the blood inside of his fangs. He released Rin's arm once the red tint to his teeth became white again. Astaroth wiped his lips and gently cleaned Rin's arm again before looking at Shima with a vacant expression, "What?"

Shima angrily glared at him from the mirror, "What? What?! Why did you bite me!?"

"You have a problem with me biting your arm?"

"Um, yeah!"

"How else was I supposed to transfer the blood? Do you have any tools for such a thing in this... van."

Shima wanted to come up with a witty comeback, but the demon was right. There was no equipment in the van for blood transfusions. There was, however, a very nice futon and a battery-powered easy bake oven. Large batteries.

Astaroth pulled out the futon and sat Rin on top of it, his eyes daring them to stop him when he was unrolling it. Kamiki didn't care, it wasn't her futon, her's was stored under the floorboard in the back area of the van. That futon was Shima's, but the flock of Coal Tars that sat on his shoulders kept him from opening his mouth, but it wasn't like he was going to anyway. If he was injured he wouldn't want to rest on the cold hard floor of a moving van.

Only when Rin was tucked under a blanket that he had found did Astaroth stand up and move to the front seats, "Where are we going?" Japan was unfamiliar to him, he didn't know what highway they were on or where it led to. He didn't even know what part of Japan they were in, he just knew that there was the monastery that smelled like Rin and death, Samael's 'school', and the cemetery. That was it. Not the street names of the streets they were on or the name of the city. He only knew the language because Satan forced them to learn all of the languages, including the ones that were nearly extinct like Navajo.

Kamiki took a map out of the glove box and handed it to Astaroth, she pointed to a long black line near the south side of the paper. "We're on this high way," she said, she carried her finger up a ways and turned right, strolling right by a small, almost invisible line, "we're going here. This is my and a couple of other's houses. By others I mean other. It's me and a small pipsqueak named Neko."

Shima gave Kamiki a sharp look, "Hey! You're forgetting someone!"

"Oh, you guys will be there too from now on, won't you?"

"Kamiki Izumo!"

"Eyes on the road, pinkie." Izumo looked out the window, "And I didn't forget you, I just didn't mention you."

Shima whispered something under his breath and Izumo's head took a quick turn, "What did you say?"

Shima backed down and slouched closer to the steering wheel, "Nothing, Kam."

Astaroth, the King of Rot, but still a demon, decided to see what would happen next, "He said 'Tsundere'".

"You bastard! I am not a tsundere! Where would you even get that idea!? You just wait until this car stops!"

Shima sent Astaroth a betrayed look and was tempted to keep on driving forever, but a pained groan from the back of the van vanquished that thought.

A demon sleeps better when cold.

Astaroth retreated to the back and hovered above his brother, summoning a cooling packet and setting it on his younger brother's head. Rin's wrinkled face smoothed out and he fell back into a noiseless slumber.

Seeing that his brother was safely asleep, Astaroth practically teleported to the front of the van. His nailed hands clenched Shima's shoulders. "Hit a pothole that big again," he growled out into Shima's ear, "and you won't have any hands to drive with."

The rest of the ride was bump-free.