Title: Logical Fallacy
Author: Kristen Sharpe
Date: October 10, 2014
Rating: K
Warnings: None.
Continuity: Animeverse, centered around the anime-only episode 18
Disclaimer: “Ao no Exorcist/Blue Exorcist” belongs to Kazue Katou, Shueisha, Aniplex, and various other parties.
Author's Note: See end.

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              Konekomaru didn’t want to remember being possessed by the Gufu.  Didn’t want to remember the sensation of spectral talons curling around his heart, of sibilant whispers filling his mind.

            But, he was an exorcist, and what he wanted wasn’t important.  He needed to remember.  To analyze.  To understand.

            So, he fought past the fear to record every whisper.  It took a week. A week of painful stops and more painful starts.  But, when he finished, the depth of the demon’s lies was finally clear.

            Some he already knew.  Protect his friends?  Only until the demon could poison his heart against them. 

            But, there was one lie he almost missed.  Because it wasn’t any single thing the Gufu had said.  It was everything.

            “If you had my power, you wouldn’t have to fear the son of Satan.”

            The Gufu was a mid-level demon.  Dangerous, intelligent, and ruled by its hunger for negative emotions.  But, hunger didn’t override survival.

            A mid-level demon defeat Satan’s son?

            The Gufu wouldn’t have even tried if it hadn’t realized the truth Konekomaru had refused to see.

            The demon couldn’t give him the strength to over-power Okumura.  But, Okumura could. If he refused to fight a friend.

Author's Note: I know there's a good chance that the Gufu was so dense it didn't realize that Bullying a Dragon is a bad, bad idea. But, I thought it would be interesting to explore the angle that the Gufu had a better understanding of Rin's character than Konekomaru did.