Chapter 2: Out Of the Frying Pan & Into the Fire

"It's been a whole week and now everyone in the world knows Rin Enshino is the Devil of Light and Elizabeth Forne is Jaeger. On top of that, the secret of you and Shiro being adopted into one of the most well known and powerful families is also out, alongside your home address. This isn't exactly what you had in mind for a fresh start is it Rin?" Arthur asked.

"Remind me why you're in my house? And how the hell did you get through all of the paparazzi outside to get in anyway?" I replied. Turns out students were streaming the entire incident from when Jaeger showed up to Hale's arrival, so now everything is just out there, including my home address somehow.

"I came from the roof! And also, you won't believe how rowdy the World Council has been at this announcement. Even the queen is stressed out from everything that's happened!" Arthur replied ecstatically.

How in the world is that a good thing? Seriously, man, you are way too excited about everything.

"I don't see how that's a good thing in any way. The Hale family is pissed at the old man, Aunt Jamie, and even Shiro and I! I can't even turn my phone on without seeing 80 trillion messages or social media notifications," I said while throwing my head into one of my couch cushions.

"You said it Rin. Mother is so tired from having to deal with all of this and it's even starting to get to me with how annoying the council is about this. Being the queen's son is hard," he replied.

Sorry, did I hear that correctly? "HUH?! YOU'RE SENA'S KID?! AS IN HER SON? LIKE LEGALLY AND MAYBE BIOLOGICALLY HER SON???" I asked with a look of shock on my face.

"Did I not tell you? My bad," he said while scratching his head.

No, you didn't say anything about that you ass. "Is your life's purpose to piss me off?" I asked with my head still sunken into the couch cushion.

"No! What makes you think that Rin?!?!" Arthur replied with an outraged tone.

"You pissed me off the moment we met when you openly blabbed your true name like it was nothing even remotely important, and now you tell me you're the son of the woman who made me be her manservant and wear that... thing . So in the one week we've known each other you've pissed me off twice. There has never been a single person to piss me off and survived in the entire time I've lived," I replied as I lifted my face from the cushion.

Arthur sighed and set his hand on his face. He was probably thinking something like "That's just petty and mean." I stood up and went to the kitchen so I could pour myself a nice mango juice.

"Anyway, does school reopen tomorrow or next week? And do you want some mango juice? It's tasty," I asked as I opened the fridge.

Arthur looked over at me with a curious expression on his face. "I've never had mango juice before, so I guess I'll try it. And school was actually supposed to open today, but with every news outlet on earth storming the gates they had to delay the opening for a few hours."

I walked back with both cups I had poured with the juice and set them down on the table. "It's been so hectic around here to the point where it's even affecting Shiro's ability to work. I didn't think it'd affect you just as bad too though," I said as I sat down. Arthur didn't even have the energy to speak anymore, only enough to nod and drink. He was super energetic just a minute ago. Did mentioning school snap him out of energetic trance?

"I can't even work in peace anymore! If I get another call or text from the Royal Council, World Military, or anyone in the Hale family I think I'll pop a blood vessel!" Shiro yelled as she ran into the living room with a blanket over her shoulders and threw herself onto the couch I was sitting on, dropping the blanket at my feet in the process.

"Rin, I'm gonna borrow your lap and just cry myself to sleep in it," She said as she sat her head on my lap.

"Have you been spending the entire week in your lab?" Arthur asked.

"When she can't sleep she tries to work in her lab for as long as possible until she passes out. The poor girl just overheated herself. When this happens it's best to just let her do whatever she feels will make her feel better," I said as I grabbed the blanket she'd came in with and covered her with it. She'd already been fast asleep and I just smiled at her.

"How long is she gonna be asleep? I think the school is gonna open in a few hours," Arthur asked as he finished his cup and set it down. I sighed and looked over to the window.

"She'll probably be out for at least 12 hours. I know she's lost at least that much sleep since she's been stuck in her lab for the past week. If the worst-case scenario happens, I have the perfect thing to wake her up with," I answered.

A few hours later, Shiro still hadn't woken up and we just got the news that school was opening up in an hour.

"So what was that plan you mentioned about getting her up? It'll look really bad if the R&D Representative can't show up," Arthur asked.

I sighed and whispered into Shiro's ear, "Free cuddles and praise from me if you wake up."

It works every time, and flawlessly too.

In an instant, Shiro jumped up and hugged me so tightly I thought I'd die for real. "REALLY??? DO YOU MEAN IT???" She asked while I struggled to breathe.

I just barely managed to get a tiny amount of breathing room after using more strength to push her away than it takes to punch a Titan class demon. "YES I WILL! I PROMISE!" I exclaimed after catching a breath.

She had that adorable smile afterward and it's super cute, but the strength it gives her frightens me. "Works every time," I said to Arthur with a thumbs up.

"Well, are we leaving or not?" He asked with a bored look on his face.

I nodded and stood up to walk to my room upstairs to get changed, to which Shiro did the same. "Percy, how is everything outside right now?" I asked loudly as I went up the stairs to my room.

"It is an absolute mess outside right now Master Rin! I recommend leaving through the underground exit!" Percy replied.

From everything he'd been dealing with and hearing, I was surprised he still had a voice to use. I continued to head up to my room to change and once I did, I went back down to the living room to wait with Arthur for Shiro to finish up getting ready.

"Hey Rin, what'd Percy mean by 'underground exit' earlier?" Arthur asked once I sat down.

"Oh yeah. We have an underground exit that we use in case of something like an emergency to quickly get out. This could technically be considered one of those cases," I explained as I laid down on the couch and looked at the ceiling.

"Oh. Well, I could just fly my way to school! I flew my way here after all," He replied.

Wait for a second, if he flew here and entered through the rooftop, then that means that the reporters saw him! In a panic, I grabbed the tv remote and turned to the news channel covering my place. It turns out they'd seen Arthur entering my place and confirmed it by using their advanced as hell facial recognition software. How the hell could they even have gotten their hands on software that advanced? Either way that's not important now.

"Rin, I hope you're ready for a surprise!" I heard Shiro yell.

"Kind of in the middle of dying inside right now," I replied with a low voice.

She didn't say anything, only threw something for me to catch. I quickly noticed what seemed to be a black and gold baton about to hit the window and jumped to catch it. I'm lucky I didn't have my head in a couch cushion or that thing would've hit the window.

"What's this thing?" I asked loudly.

Shiro ran out of her room and instead of being a normal person and going down the stairs, she decided to jump over the ledge and straight down to the living room. "That's the new bike I spent the last week perfecting. You can praise me all you want now," she spoke in an annoying tone.

"Care to explain how it works?" I asked.

"It's a simple and quick process. You send electricity into the baton and pull it apart. Once that's done, the nanotech bike will form and be powered by you as you ride it. You can even create a lightning trail that shuts down any vehicle that touches it while you ride!" She said in an excited tone.

I didn't reply, only walked up to her and patted her on the head with a smile on my face. When I did, she lit up and hugged me. "Let's get going now. I'll give you more head pats later."

After she let go of me the three of us began to head to the underground exit via the stairs, with me in front.

"Hey Rin, mind if I ask a question?" Arthur asked as we walked. That's a question right there but whatever.

"Go ahead," I said with my hands on the back of my head.

"I realized something during the attack on the academy. And after thinking about it for a few days, I've come to no straight answer. So tell me, what is up with your Sacred Weapons?" he asked in a serious tone.

I can't say anything but the truth or he'll instantly be able to tell when I lie. Assassins are able to hear heartbeats and detect even the slightest changes in tones of voice. It's a pretty useful skill but it can be our own greatest enemy if one of our own uses it against us.

"So you caught on to it? Good eye you got there." Shiro said as we walked.

"I'll explain it as best I can. Basically, Seiya and Riei aren't normal sword type Sacred Weapons, or at least whatever can be considered normal for a Sacred Weapon at least. Each one's true power is almost never used since I'm already a God Challenger, and because of that, they often perform at an extremely low level since their power is dormant most of the time. If I ever used even 10% of their true power I could decimate a planet and that's just from their power alone," I said as I took my hands off of my head.

"A Sacred Weapon's true power only grows with the bond between soul and master. So that means the bond between you and all of your weapons are beyond words in strength. That's only ever been seen with weapons that were born from the souls of their master's family in human life," Arthur said with a confused expression on his face.

"That tends to happen when spending more than 4,000 years with your weapons and going through the darkest times with them by your side," I replied. Once I finished talking, Arthur had been looking at me with an expression that said "I get it now," and I asked "Anything else?"

"I have a question for Arthur," Shiro said as we headed down the final set of stairs.

At this point, we'd gone down the whole 25 floors that Shiro's lab and my training area had occupied.

Hearing Shiro, Arthur leaned forward and didn't say anything but a "hm?", to which Shiro replied, "How were you able to pick that up about Rin's weapons? The only way for a regular Assassin to pick that up is by looking like crazy for those types of energy patterns in the weapons, and with the way you said it, it makes me feel like you didn't even try to pick those up. Rin's told me that the only other Assassin who's ever picked that up with ease was Jaeger, while with me I had to search for those changes."

She's right, Jaeger first picked up that difference with no effort at first sight.

"She's right. And actually, the reason why she was able to pick them up so easily unlike every other Assassin I've met....." I said before stopping myself to look right at him and grin, finishing with "...is because only a God Challenger like me can sense these changes and disturbances."

Hearing those words, he stopped in his tracks. "When did you realize it?"

"I didn't. The whole thing about only God Challengers being able to sense those disturbances was a lie. It's actually just a theory. Then again, I only know two God Challengers and not all of the ones that exist," I answered. After I finished talking, we made it to the first floor.

"The underground exit is located over here," Shiro said as she pointed to a floor tile to my right. We all went over to it and once I'd gotten close, I lightly stepped on it, to which a small section of the floor opened up and a small platform came out. "Oh and Arthur, you'll be riding with Rin. I only made two bikes." Shiro said as she stepped onto the platform before we followed. "Fine by me. I just don't wanna hear any complaints on the way," I replied. Arthur didn't say anything, he only let out a sigh. The ride down was short, but it was nice.

"Ready Arthur?" I asked as I pulled out the baton Shiro had handed me earlier. He stretched his arms a little before saying "We don't have any time to waste you know!" That's the right attitude. I smiled as a pulled the baton apart. As I pulled it apart, tiny bug-like machines leaked out from both sides and soon lined up to form a bike. The entire time I was in awe at the process and Arthur was the same way. "So this is what it's like to have one of the greatest engineers in the world as your little sister?" Arthur asked.

"I'm not 'one of the greatest', I AM the greatest," Shiro said as she mounted her bike. She's not wrong but she at least needs to try to be subtle about it. "I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut on that one," Arthur replied with a nervous chuckle as I mounted. When he finished talking, he mounted the bike and I smiled as I gripped the handles of the bike. The feeling of the handles was surprisingly smooth, allowing my hands to rest comfortably. Send lightning into them and the entire bike gets power, right? I took a deep breath and sent a large amount of lightning from each hand into the handles of the bike, powering the engine and causing it to let out a quiet hum. I thought it would've released the roar of a beast when started, but it seems not.

"The school's address should be set into the GPS so if you want it to set a route to follow, go ahead. If you don't, have it as a waypoint for the bike's hud to display for you. See you at school!" Shiro said as she took off with into the darkness with incredible speed. I could tell Arthur was about to say something, but I revved the engine and took off with extremely high levels of speed. After just about four seconds, we'd been three quarters through the underground exit, and Arthur's heart had been skipping beats all over. I, on the other hand, had been enjoying this so far. I could see the exit into the front of the building, and as we approached, I could hear reporters yelling and cameras flashing. Poor Percy.

"Hold on tight!" I yelled as I began to speed up. Arthur didn't even say a word, he just gulped and held on tight. As we got closer, the giant hole began to open, allowing "Sol's light", as my adoptive grandmother would say, to pierce through the tunnel. The opening made the reporters go silent almost instantly from the sound it created, as well as the sudden shock of the ground beneath them rumbling all of a sudden. Before a single camera clicked, Arthur and I had burst out of the hole and landing right at the beginning of the crowd, with Arthur finally letting out a scream that could rival the roar of a Titan class Demon. No one was hurt, but what was more intriguing to me was where Shiro was. If she wasn't nearby after exiting from this way, then did she take the longer route out? It would make sense since she's never really liked being in giant crowds.

"WHAT THE HELL?!?" Arthur shouted as we drove through the labyrinth of a city, with me laughing of enjoyment the entire time. I fly all of the time, I run through places too. I even perform a lot of stunts as I roam around places with the gear Shiro's made for my Spirit Armor, just to enjoy the rush I get, combined with the sensation of the wind blowing against my body and hair. That sensation I love feeling so much is right here again. We raced all around the city, but not even two minutes into our ride, I had multiple news copters on me. "P.E.R.C.Y., pull up any news coverage on the bike's hud," I ordered.

"It seems as though multiple news organizations have caught onto your location, and rather quickly at that. A small amount of internal digging has revealed that there's a 50,000 Nias bounty for an interview with you or even just the best pictures. This is completely legal as well," the AI had replied. So this new currency is called "Nias"? I thought Sena would've named after her sister, Aya, just like she did with the academy. But still, 50K for a few pictures of me? Humans are annoying to no end in times like this. As I read the headline on the bike's HUD, I noticed we'd been getting closer to the academy. "Hey Arthur, relax because we're almost at the academy!" I said. Arthur didn't even have it in him to respond with words at this point. How can a God-Challenger not handle something like this? Or.... has he NEVER done something like this?

"Rin, are you at school yet?" I heard Shiro ask through my comms. "I'm waiting for you near the entrance, so hurry. I seriously don't wanna go in through the front gate all alone," she said with pure despair in her voice. I didn't respond, but I laughed as I turned into an alley out of copter view and stopped for a moment. "Shiro is it possible to overload the bike with lightning?" I asked. Shirou laughed for a moment before replying with "Don't worry about it. You can't overload it." I smiled and sparks began to violently emerge from my arms. I quickly gripped the handles and in an instant, we burst out of the alley at lightning speed and made it through the city's disgusting amount of news crews to the academy in what felt like only a few minutes.

"There you are!" Shiro yelled as she ran over to us. I'd stopped in an alley nearby the front gate, dismounted, and had the bike revert into its baton form. "Sorry for taking so long. I wanted to enjoy myself a little," I said with a smile. Shiro didn't even need me to tell her how proud I was, since she could see it in my smile. "Well, let's get going. The sooner we get this over with the better," Shiro replied.

"Next time, I'll be flying top school," Arthur said as he shook his head. I almost feel bad for him. I went over to him and grabbed the back of his shirt to drag him with me, to which he protested until we got out of the alley, where I let him go. There sadly wasn't any other option for entering the school that wasn't via the front gate, which had been swarmed with reporters. Surprisingly, there'd been a walkway for students that was clear of them, as there'd been guard rails keeping the reporters back, along with what looked like 20 or so guards.

"Enshino, are you going to stand there all day?" a voice said from behind. It'd been the Student Council Vice President, Walker Cens, my upperclassman. "I- Sorry about that Vice President, I just needed to mentally prepare myself-" I said as I looked back to him, only to see what looked to be about 11 other students behind him. "It's alright. If you're wondering who the people behind me are, they're the other representatives and Disciplinary Committee members. You can all talk to each other later," Cens had replied with a calm tone. I didn't reply at all, only nodded, and began to walk forward towards the gate with Arthur and Shiro. Staying as far from them as possible is the best choice for now, but that doesn't mean there aren't other consequences to face. As we got in view of the reporters, they all turned to us and began to scream and take pictures of us walking.

"This is unbearable," Shiro said under her breath. Trust me, is, I know exactly how you feel right now. As we walked, I was expressionless. I've almost always been able to keep a calm and emotionless look when I've needed to, and this was one of those times. I managed to drown out the yelling and loud noises from helicopters and cameras as I walked, though it was difficult.

I never want to do that again. We finally entered the main building instead of stopping to speak to anyone, I went straight to the Student Council room that the map on my watch had displayed. I came to a stop as I walked, causing Shiro and Arthur to look back at me with confused looks, only for me to push them back the moment I heard the sound of a dagger- no, daggers, rushing at me. I turned back instantly and saw nine daggers coming at me, to which I extended my left arm out to and sent eight of them straight into the ground with my Gravity Control, and let one hit my hand, only to shatter into pieces as it came into contact with my glove. Earth hardening is useful when someone least expects it.

"Rin Enshino, age 17. Or should I say 'Devil of Light'? You did a good job stopping my holy daggers, I'll give you that much, but you won't be so lucky again.....," a person spoke as they came out of a literal shadow. It was a young man who came out of the shadow, a girl behind him as well. Before I knew it, I had hundreds of daggers around me. How did they even get here without me sensing them? ".....you disgusting Devil!" he furiously yelled. Just who the hell does this guy think he is? And what kind of magic does this guy have to pull this shit?