Of Ghosts and Demons

Chapter 10: A Demon King

"Are you sure that this is necessary?" Asked Rin, rubbing his sore foot.

"What exactly do you mean by "this"?" Danny raised an eyebrow, sipping from a cup of Nasty Burger coke, "The training or the fact that I hit you with a ruler?"

"The last thing!"

The flying teen approached his trainee with a non amused look on his face. Not that the former actually noticed it. It had been several days under the Ghost King's tutelage and vigorous trainings that left Rin dried up by the evening. The days off for the latter were filled to the brim with his somewhat kinsman's instructions. Under normal circumstances, Rin would have complained more, but Danny had already revealed his more demonic side. And if anything, he was sometimes really scary. Besides, he got what he wanted out of studying all along, namely putting his abilities, humble as they were, to use. And even still, the methods...

"And just what are you going to do about it? Resume the course, I need that line of fire to wrap around all those traffic cones."

At his words the thrashed objects resumed their position on the ground.

"But do you have to hit me?! Ouch!"

Rin grabbed his hand that now had a red marking on it.

"Maybe. Maybe not. Try again."

The tossed away ruler reassured the half demon a bit. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, released it. After this a thin sliver of blue flames the size of a wire went forward akin to a snake. The task seemed simple on paper, and Rin could already make a small flame, so the tools were all there. He had to direct the fire around as if putting a rope, as many times as possible. There was an obstacle, however. The trainer took out the straw from coke and then, suddenly, something tiny hit Rin. Then again. The concentration, the steady breathing broke, and the improvised rope flickered.

Another hit. Rin turned his eyes in direction of the trainer, who, like a grade schooler, seemed to enjoy firing balls of paper at him. Each time the ticking of the boy's eye grew stronger and stronger. Finally, he snapped.

"Knock it off!" Rin yelled and the fire burst wildly, knocking everything over. The plastic cones melted. This only added to his frustration, making the half demon to shout in frustration, falling on his back and on the solid ground.

"Oof, someone needs to learn stress-control," Danny commented, firing the last ball and approaching him.

"I was fine until you began messing with me like that! Seriously what gives?!"

"Shall the demons bring you tea and cookies, Your Highness?" Danny leaned to the eye level of the sitting trainee. "Sure, calm situations are always simpler for any trainee, the only problem is that no foe is going to go easy on you. You must hold yourself together. This applies to the enemies, too. If they are pissed, if they lose their heads, you gain control of the fight. Now, imagine this. You are in a tense situation, everyone's lives are on the line and the only way to save them is to use your fire. What makes you certain that "Burned to a crisp" won't be their epitaph, I repeat?"

"Well, I..." Rin considered his words, and the rage seemed to subside.

"Finally got it? Good. I am hearing none of this again, Rin. You are prepared when I say so, you think I want to stay here longer than needed? I am not going to perform a half-assed job. You will come out of this trained in handling your demonic heart."

"Then why do you even do this? You obviously don't want this."

"Mephisto forced me, in case you forgot."

"He didn't force you to be so hardworking, though."

Phantom sighed, "The sooner we do this, the better. That entails hard work. Speaking of which, we have a job at noon, so we better get down to it."