Alright, I am going to have confidence in my analysis skills and give you my full infiltered opinion on the whole Rin vs Yukio fight before the chapter releases tomorrow! In the meantime, have this WIP lol
Buckle up, buckeroo, I tend to ramble (thread)

So. Who should win? Imo, neither.
AoEx is a very unique shonen manga in that not only are the fights scarce and far between, but they also aren’t just fights for the thrill of it. Each fight between either two named chars or demons has a purpose.

In every single battle that we’ve had so far, Rin and those present with him are there to realize something, either about themselves or those around them, and I believe this fight adheres to that rule too, now more than ever actually.

The fights have never been about who wins and who loses, it’s always been about the realizations the characters make. Rin vs Amaimon, both times? Neither won, both times they were stopped. But its purpose was achieved, in that-

Rin realized his powers were beyond his control, and he only truly gained control of them in the next big fight, against the Impure King, and that was its purpose too. I could go on about the other fights, but you get the idea.

How does that apply to Rin and Yukio? Both need to make some big realizations at this moment, and I believe that either one of them winning would only cripple their growth, even in victory or loss. Rin winning as Demon!Rin would make him go even more-

-down the road of “I shouldn’t have been born”, while failing and letting Yukio win would feed into Yukio’s “I don’t need anyone’s help” mentality, make him think that he doesn’t need his brother’s help in getting through this.

Yes they both need to be more independent from each other, but they also need one another as family and support, not as burdens, and that’s what they both need to realize. Yukio needs to realize he can, in fact, accept help without being seen as weak,

And Rin needs to realize he’s not the only son of Satan and can share this with Yukio, who is having issues with Satan himself. Remember Shiro and Yuri? They both went too long without acting on their love for each other, and that lack of communication-

-in the end, lead to tragedy. Yuri’s last words to her kids were “Be good brothers to each other”. I believe Rin and Yukio both need to understand that they care for each other for equal support of one another.

Note the word equal! Their story is about not re-enacting the same tragedy as Shiro and Yuri, and that was why we saw the past right before this fight. And thinking that, I cannot wait to see what else Kato’s amazing writing has in store!

TLDR; rin and yukio need to hug and eat riceballs together, blease.
And that, as they say, is that.