Hiyori put all her weight into shifting the door and heaved her shoulder into the frame. Finally the door budged. And then jammed again.
She stood back for a moment to catch her breath. It was an unfamiliar issue for her, as she lived in a fairly modern house with western style doors and oiled hinges all her life. This door was clearly not maintained or had even been cleaned recently.
She took a deep breath and gave the door one more shove with her shoulder. The door suddenly gave way, slamming into the frame holding it into place and dumping a thin shower of dust over Hiyori's head.
She smiled triumphantly. "It's open!" She called down the hall towards the kitchen. No one replied. She supposed the sound of cooking food and an unattended boiling kettle was muffling her voice but it was no matter, she still had to find what she was asked to fetch from the storage room.
Hiyori peered into the cupboard she had finally opened. The size immediately startled her; it was large enough to be a small room but was filled from the floor to almost-roof with stationary, clothes and unidentifiable objects of possibly high value. However, there were no windows so there was no way to see further than a couple feet before her nose. Most of what she could see was clutter; old pot and pans, a small pile of discarded stuffed toys won from arcade games, a broken clock, many many cardboard boxes of assorted shape and size, a basket of broken umbrellas.
The contents of the room were varied and curious enough to pass as a junk sale in itself, ranging from tack Hiyori could imagine lying around her grandmother's house to items which were undeniably not from the twenty first century.
Hiyori had been squinting into the darkness for more than a few moments now; she shook herself and carefully dropped a toe into the dark and dusty realm of Ebisu Kofuku's storage room.
She quickly found what she was looking for. The desired box of spices had been placed in the cupboard recently and was sitting over a case of fabrics and sewing equipment near the front of the room. Hiyori reached over a stack of books to grab the spices. It seemed simple enough in her mind, however there was very little floor space between her and the target so Hiyori quickly found herself tiptoeing on one foot, balancing her torso over a clothes rack and only managing to nudge the spices with one index finger.
It was not an elegant position but there was now not much Hiyori could do for herself. She suspected that moving a single muscle in her lower body would trigger her collapse, or worse, an avalanche. She gingerly pushed the spices ever so closer to herself with her outstretched middle finger; the pots moved a miniscule distance towards her with a quiet rattle, then a little closer, then tipped over sideways.
Hiyori caught her breath as the row of pots slid off the surface of the wooden case. Time seemed to slow as she watched them fall into the black crevice to the floor of the storeroom, possibly never to be found again.
Hiyori panicked and swung her arm towards the descending spices, knocking them out of their date with gravity and into a speedy course out of the store room door behind Hiyori.
As the spices passed by her face, Hiyori felt a small glow of pride in her chest. The spices were safe. She had found and retrieved the spices. Mission successful.
The moment didn't last long as Hiyori plunged into the boxes and cabinets below her with a deafening crash. She was quickly smothered by a wave of cardboard boxes covering her head to foot as she seemed to sink into an endless pit of junk. Hiyori immediately descended into panic and tried to thrash the blanket of tack off of her but none budged. A pulse of terror gripped as she realised she had no idea which way was up and which down.
How do I get out? She thought, fear stricken.
What if I never make it out?
I'll never see my family again.
There won't even be a body to bury.
As Hiyori began mentally writing a farewell letter to her mother, a voice called out to her through the clutter surrounding her head.
"Oh Hiyorin, you found it! You're an angel."
Hiyori twisted her head around to face where the voice had come from. Through a small gap between a book and a bronze statue she could see a familiar pair of black stockings standing a few inches from her face.
Kofuku picked up the rack of spices from the floor and hummed happily. "This will do just great for tonight's dinner, just a little of this and that, yes yes." She held the box up with a smile. "Oh I do hope our Yukine will enjoy this meal, he has a love for spicier meals, don't you think, Hiyorin?"
She turned back to the storeroom to thank Hiyori but was surprised to find not the usual cheerful young girl but a small landslide inside the room.
"Um, Hiyorin? Are you in there?" Kofuku edged closer to the opening, baffled.
"Mffmnff!" Hiyori tried to call out to her but was muffled by a pile of blankets now wrapped around a portion of her face and torso.
"Oh Hiyorin! I'll get you out of there as fast as I can, don't you worry." Kofuku called into the pile of junk.
"Nmnnumnffn!" Hiyori frantically pleaded Kofuku away from assisting her. There was enough going wrong as it was.
"I'll go fetch Daikoku. You stay still, alright?" Kofuku's feet disappeared from Hiyori's view.
Hiyori relaxed, relieved at the change in plan. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself and focussed on moving the blanket from over her mouth, which she achieved after a few violent twists and jerks.
The air in the cavity Hiyori was currently nestled in was becoming stuffy and her nose tickled uncomfortably from the dust. She tried to wriggle into a more comfortable position under the weight of the boxed lying on her, unsuccessfully, and settled for one in which she could still see the room beyond the cupboard, even if her legs were cramping up.
It wasn't all that bad, she supposed. She could breathe and speak and survive for now.
After around a minute more in the storeroom Hiyori heard a pair of footsteps enter the adjoining room.
She called out. "Who is it?" She feared Kofuku had returned alone.
"Hiyori?" The voice had recognised Hiyori's and sounded puzzled. "Where are you?"
Hiyori peered through her letterbox hole to see a pair of feet standing outside the clutter-room, facing away from her.
"I'm in here." Hiyori said, despondently. It sounded more like an admission than a direction.
A pair of clear blue eyes appeared in Hiyori's view and blinked. "What are you doing in there?"
"Running an errand."
Yato couldn't see more than a foot sticking out of the pile of clutter before him, a strange image to meet him as he arrived back at house but one that was not failing to entertain him.
"Let me guess! Kofuku asked you to fetch something from inside that death trap?" He said, falling into a crouch from laughter.
"Don't laugh!" Hiyori's voice piped up from the mound of clutter.
"Oh this is classic!" Yato gripped his aching ribs. "You really should have seen this one coming, Hiyori." He wiped a tear from his eye and cleared his throat.
Hiyori could feel herself falling into a sulk after Yato's arrival, she hadn't expected him to be helpful anyway.
"I'll get you out of there, okay?"
Hiyori opened her mouth to object but felt a hand close around her ankle before she could speak. She quickly found herself being dragged out of the cupboard backwards with a strong tug. The boxes and books tumbled around her as she slid out onto the floor next to a grinning Yato.
"There!" He raised his arms triumphantly. "And… you're out!"
Hiyori picked herself up from the ground and rubbed her head. The clutter had now spread across the floor of the sitting room from her emergence like a small flood.
She tried to thank Yato. "Uh, thanks for that."
"No prob. You really should have just asked me to help you out in the first place." He looked over to the tidal wave of mess. "Doesn't look like it was very comfortable, are you sure you aren't hurt?"
"I'm fine." Hiyori waved away his concern as the door into the kitchen opened.
Daikoku stuck his head into the room, looking troubled. "So...you made it out?" He seemed like he had been preparing to dive into the cupboard himself.
"Yes, I'm fine and Kofuku has the spices." Hiyori said to the worried Daikoku standing in the doorway. She added quickly, "And we'll clean up this mess before the meal."
Yato flinched. "We will?"
"Yes." Hiyori pressed the word, keeping Yato in her peripheral vision as he submitted.
"Yes, we will." He grumbled.
Daikoku nodded tentatively and backed out of the room, a little startled by Yato's new-found inclination to perform housework.
Yato continued to scowl at the back of Hiyori's head as she crawled over to the nearest dust covered book lying open on the floor.
"Do I really have to?" He whined.
"I bet you won't get any food if you don't." Hiyori said back.
Yato considered this for a moment, came to a decision and joined Hiyori kneeling on the floor scattered with junk.
Abruptly the sound of running feet and quick breathing exploded into another arrival to the room.
Yukine skidded through a doorway, panting and pale as bone. He came to a stop and frowned at the two on the floor.
"Hiyori…" He gasped, out of breath. "You're…not buried?"
Yato glanced up at him. "Sorry to disappoint."
Yukine glowered and turned to Hiyori for an answer.
"Yato helped me out." Hiyori said, trying not to meet Yato's gaze.
Yato beamed at Hiyori's response. "Yes. I helped her out of it." He said with squared shoulders and bright eyes.
Yukine sat down next to them and watched Hiyori push an encyclopaedia into a shelf of cookbooks.
"So they had all this stuff in there? This sure is one impressive collection." He certainly was impressed by the contents strewn around his crossed legs. Hiyori's place was neat and made up of a cleanly organised gallery of her life and family, something a stark opposite of what he had experienced in Kofuku's household. Here he rarely went one day without an incident such as the one before him.
Yato spun on his heels to face Yukine. "You should help clean up." He said matter-of-factly.
"Why? You're the one who made the mess, why should I? You should be the one cleaning, not Hiyori."
Yato pointed accusingly at Yukine. "Hey kid, I tell you what to do. I'm your master, yes?"
Yukine grumbled and crawled over to join in. He began by pushing a small galaxy of spilt marbles across the floor and back into their tin. Popping the lid on the top he scowled over at Yato who was cheerfully strapping a number of watches of varying size and shape onto his forearm.
"At least try to help."
Yato put a hand up to his ear. "What was that? I thought you were hard at work." He lifted an eyebrow in challenge.
Yukine opened his mouth to protest again but snapped it shut quickly once he saw Hiyori's face clearly speaking don't fight to the two next to her.
"How about you put this," Hiyori hefted up a large stack of cigarette cases. "…back into the storeroom." She handed the pile to Yukine who glumly stepped into the dark and now significantly emptier storage room, away from a grinning Yato.
Hiyori turned to Yato. "You didn't need to pull him into doing this. He's been pretty busy recently with homework and training anyways." She didn't want to bring up the fact that the whole mess was his doing in the first place too. That would only have upset him.
"Don't worry about him, he's a tough kid." Yato strapped an eighth wristwatch onto his arm. "This is character building, good for a growing boy."
Hiyori didn't point out that he was not, in fact, a growing boy but frowned at Yato who was now looking for a new object to be distracted by. She shook her anxiety away quickly; this was a peaceful moment relative to the usual liveliness of the Kofuku household which would normally be shaking from a particularly heated argument or some catastrophe brought about by Kofuku's sheer presence. Well, Hiyori noted to herself, this situation technically could be pinned on that particular god of poverty's influence.
Hiyori's train of thought was halted by Yukine's voice from inside the storage room.
"Hey guys? I found something…interesting." He sounded mystified by his discovery within the darkness of the storeroom.
"Is it breathing?" Yato called back absently.
Hiyori instinctively sensed danger in the finding. "Yukine, if it's from inside that place it's not worth bringing out here. It'll only cause disaster." She looked up from folding clothes to see Yukine standing in the doorway holding a small crate in his arms. "Too late."
Yato scampered forward to see what Yukine had retreated from inside.
"Ooooh, Hiyori take a look at this." Yato said, in mild awe.
Hiyori turned her head away and crossed her arms. "No, no, no I'm not getting myself into any more trouble thank you."
Yato reached into the crate and a moment later appeared over Hiyori's shoulder wearing an eyepatch and blue feather boa.
"I'm a pirate! Hiyori I'm a pirate!"
The sight evaporated Hiyori's anxiety pretty quickly.
She pushed Yato's beaming face to the side and walked over to Yukine and his crate. The box was filled with bits and pieces from costumes, bad ones at that. There was more of an array of fancy dress costumes in that tiny box than Hiyori had seen in her many years of school plays. Looking at the quality and state of some of the clothes she could have believed they had been used in those afterschool performances too.
"These were hidden behind a rack of suits." Yukine said, looking down at the crate. He looked so fascinated by the costumes Hiyori wondered if he had ever worn a costume for fun before in his life.
His pale eyes lingered on the selection of brightly coloured accessories and dresses.
"You can dress up if you'd like, Yukine." Hiyori said with a gentle smile.
"Really?" He said with bright eyes and a face of pure delight. Hiyori beamed back, seeing Yukine this happy always melted her assertion in these situations regardless of the risks. How bad can a dress-up box be anyway?
Yato bounded back in front of Hiyori gleefully chiming, "Hiyori! I'm a pirate! You see!" while pointing to his eyepatch. Hiyori laughed, grabbing the black circle covering his left eye between two fingers and snapping it back in his face, sending him rolling back to the floor crying in mock agony.
"Betrayed by my first mate! What a fate assassination is for the greatest pirate this world has ever seen." Yato cried out, clawing at the air with one hand and holding his face in the other. "Oh woe, woe…" he trailed off and fell still.
Hiyori giggled and poked his unmoving body with her toe.
Once he had finished his little display of anguish he pulled the eyepatch off his head to see Yukine furiously digging through the box.
"Whatcha looking for?" He asked, still sprawled over the floor.
Yukine mumbled into the crate not looking up the other two. "I saw it in here somewhere...I swear…" He leant over so far into the mounds of clothes his nose touched the surface.
Hiyori watched him dig through the costumes with interest. She had not played dress up with friends since before middle school and had very few memories of playing with her brother who had been too old to play by the time she was the age to. Yukine seemed incredibly enthusiastic to join in with Yato this time. The thought warmed Hiyori a little.
"Here."
Hiyori felt a slight pressure on her head all of a sudden and reached up to find a small tiara perched there.
Yato grinned and put a hand over his chest. "Your majesty."
Hiyori pulled the plastic tiara down to look at it.
Yato whined, dismayed at the removal. "Oh Hiyori, put it back on, won't you? Don't you like it? You can be my princess." He looked pleadingly at her with wide blue eyes.
It looked like something bought from a souvenir store, frail and cheap with most faux gems already missing from the front. She could probably snap it between her fingers if she wanted to.
Hiyori looked up at him. She placed the tiara back on her head, nestling it into her hair securely. "Of course. I love it." She said, smiling with her hand over her chest in a similar curtsy to Yato's.
Yato's face brightened up again. "Your highness." He bowed his head.
To hell with it, might as well play along anyways.
"Oh sir Yato of the seven seas," Hiyori wholeheartedly slipped into character. "Oh how your bravery and valour out in the wild and dangerous ocean has swayed her heart and soul to admire your great achievements as a magnificent pirate." She paused for a moment and added, "And a skilled performer of dance." gesturing to his bright blue feather boa wrapped around his neck.
Yato looked as if he could burst from the joy of Hiyori joining in. He swiftly placed the eyepatch back over his right eye and puffed his chest out in newly revived gusto.
"You flatter me, Princess Hiyori."
Yukine proudly held up his prize won from the depths of the dress-up box. He pulled the costume over his head and called to the others.
"Look! Isn't this cool?"
Yato jumped to his feet and gasped. "Yukine, you're terrifying."
"Dude, it's just a lion costume."
The outfit was simple, made for a smaller child to wear it but was still in decent enough shape to be worn by him. It was, simply enough, a hoodie. But the light orange hood had a lion's mane and face stitched on and a fur pattern covered the front and back, mimicking the design of a toy lion. Yukine clearly loved it.
"Yukine it's adorable." Hiyori remembered owning a hoodie of her own similar to this one as a child, but not being as purely gleeful as Yukine currently looked while wearing it. It was a wonderful sight.
Yukine pulled the hood further over his face, blushing slightly. "I've always wanted one of these."
"Well now you have one." Yato said, spreading his arms wide.
Hiyori sighed as she remembered where these costumes had come from. "I don't think you can keep that though, Yukine. It is Kofuku's after all."
Yato pouted. "Oh don't be such a spoil sport Hiyori. He can keep it if he wants."
"So that's not bad luck?" Hiyori asked.
"Nah. As long as she's not going to miss it." Yato doubted Kofuku would mind if Yukine took the hoodie for himself, it looked too small for it to be hers and Kofuku was always doting on him like her own child anyhow. It would have been a gift by now already if she had known about it.
Hiyori sighed with relief; she had been beginning to worry if their interaction with the costumes would be bringing on any misfortune by now. She imagined the possibilities. The costumes could be crawling with lice. An allergic reaction to the plastic of her tiara. Someone getting bound up and tangled in a feather boa. The many situations she had imagined melted away as she shook her head clear of her anxieties and crawled across the floor towards the pile of outfits.
She dug through the waves and puddles of clothes to pull out a couple of items she considered could match her current personality as Yato watched, captivated.
She got into her new costume quickly, putting them over her own clothes, a thin shirt and skirt to match the summer heat outside. She had selected a longer skirt than her own from the crate to wrap around her waist, one that hung past her knees with a pattern similar to that of an old curtain. Her plain white shirt was now under a little red waistcoat encrusted in faux gemstones and fraying gold thread. It was a little bit too small for her and pinched her shoulders but she thought it was cute and reminded her of fantasy hero costumes.
She still wore her tiara above her head but had added a necklace she had found which probably matched it. The necklace was missing a similar number of gems and was the same colour.
Looking down at herself she wondered if she could have picked more princess-like items to wear.
Yato beamed. "Your attire only pales in comparison to the beauty of the lady before me." Hiyori gave a deep curtsy and flourished her hand in appreciation of the kind pirate's compliment. He added, "But it sure is a nice outfit."
Hiyori laughed and span around, sending her skirt in a twirling halo around her legs.
Yato continued to watch as a dark shape emerged behind him and crept closer. Suddenly it burst forward, grabbing his shoulders and pushing him forward onto his knees.
"I've got you!" Yukine roared in triumph. "You answer to me now! Haha!"
Yato yelped at his unexpected demise. "Yukine you can't do that! I wasn't ready. It doesn't count." He whined as his face was pressed into the floor by Yukine, who loomed over him grinning with maniacal victory.
"The mighty lion, Yuki, has defeated the puny pirate lord Yato." Yukine declared, jiggling Yato's shoulders as he spoke. Yato scowled from his position below. "I have won. My strength has been known."
"Oh, woe." Hiyori swooned where she stood across the room. "This fierce and mighty lion has defeated my one true love." She flung her hand over her forehead and stifled a sob. "What is there which I can do to save my pirate sweetheart?"
Yato's eyes gleamed from under Yukine's hold. "That's me!"
Yukine's brow furrowed. "Wait. Since when was I the villain?"
Hiyori continued. "Oh brave Yato, do your best to defeat that lion. I have witnessed your victory in past battles and this occasion will be no different I am sure." She swept her arm forward from her chest, gesturing to the grinning Yato under the now rather dejected Yukine.
"I will fight, do not fear my lady!" Yato shouted out to Hiyori and squirmed under Yukine's grasp. He freed himself quickly by twisting his arm upwards to reach Yukine's stomach where he began furiously tickling and poking away.
Yukine immediately collapsed backwards in cries of surprise and uncontrollable giggles, swatting at Yato's prodding hands.
"And the mighty lion is down!" Yato continued tickling Yukine until he was tucked into a shivering ball on the ground. "I have defeated him with little more than my own wits and skill."
"The brave warrior Yato, you have saved us!" Hiyori proclaimed and began searching the room for a suitable reward for the victorious pirate. She grabbed a small bronze statuette of a tiger and hurried over to where Yato was waiting for his trophy.
He held a hand out to take the statue from her. "Princess Hiyori, your gratitude is flattering and greatly appreciated." He said, graciously accepting the reward.
Yukine glared daggers at Yato from under his hood. "That was uncalled for."
Yato held a hand up to his ear. "Oh no! Is that a promise for revenge I hear? Is the little kitten threatening me?"
"Yato stop." Hiyori said, with one hand on her hip. "The lion deserves some credit for his performance too."
"Why? I'm the one with the trophy." He waved the statuette by his ear where he had been resting it on his shoulder.
Hiyori ignored him and curtsied deeply before the crouching Yukine. She struggled to get into the curtsy under her long skirt as it wrapped around her ankles. She tugged the folds away from her legs and eventually reached a suitable pose with a muffled giggle. "I would thank you too, lion, for your performance."
Yukine remained in a mood and crossed his arms. Being tickled was an act well known for putting Yukine in a small sulk, committing the deed is betrayal of the highest standards.
Yukine began to take his hoodie off. "He'll turn anything into a way to get attention."
Hiyori hissed out the corner of her mouth at Yato behind her, "Apologise."
Yato frowned at her. "For what?"
"Apologise now." Hiyori said, and then added. "I'll take your trophy back."
Yato started and gripped his trophy tighter. "What?"
Before Hiyori could grab the statue from him, Kofuku's voice called from the other room. "Are you guys fighting? You'd better not be fighting."
Hiyori flinched and turned to Yato. "You don't think she'll…?"
Yato met her gaze and shared a silent understanding. He shouted out to answer Kofuku. "Oh no, we're just finishing off cleaning up. No need to check in on us."
"Oh, okie dokie then." Kofuku's voice answered, muffled.
Hiyori relaxed and began taking off her skirt. "We'd better get back to clearing up."
"Do we have to?" Yato whined, still clutching his trophy.
Yukine shoved the crate of costumes into his arms with a sharp glare. "Get cleaning."
Hiyori eyed Yato as she carefully peeled her jacket from her shoulders. "We've had enough fun for today."
Yato sighed then nodded glumly. "Fine." He unwrapped the feathery scarf from around his shoulders and stuffed it back into the box.
Hiyori hoped she hadn't put him in a sulk too but quickly became reassured as Yato's gloom melted soon after he resumed his wrist-watch collection and began humming as he got back to work.
She turned her attention to Yukine who was slowly placing jewellery into a box of glittering rings and necklaces.
"This was your first time dressing up, wasn't it?"
"It's not like I'd remember if it wasn't anyway but…" Yukine paused. He looked up at Hiyori. "It was fun."
He was no longer scowling or sending death glares at Yato across the room, for one thing. Perhaps there wasn't anything to worry about now. And it was rare for Yukine to be so honest about something especially when it had involved a run-in with Yato's ability to ruin the moment, so Hiyori jumped at the opportunity.
She broke into a wide smile. "Yes, yes it was."
Yukine frowned, confused by her sudden aura of delight, she was practically glowing.
Hiyori turned back to Yato now that she had the opportunity to ask.
"Why would they even have a costume box?" She asked him as she tossed a stray paperback into the storeroom.
"Oh you know, those two have taken almost every job available in the city, and brought disaster to every single one. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd worked part-time for a small time theatre before." said Yato, who had plucked the tiara from her head and was getting back to organising the clutter still lying around them.
Hiyori prodded the tiara now lying in the box with her finger distractedly. "More like a costume store."
Yato considered this. "Yeah that's more likely." He continued to move the final odd objects into the cupboard. "Just don't ask Daikoku about those old jobs, he's quite sensitive about them."
"Really?"
"Bad experiences. Bad bad experiences." His face looked haunted for a moment. Hiyori wondered what had happened to throw those two out of this particular job then hurriedly pushed the thought out of her mind. Best not to pry, it would probably be bad luck to do so anyway.
The door of the store room was finally shut closed just as Kofuku's voice was heard from the other room, calling for the three to come through for food.
Yato and Yukine, with his hoodie folded covertly under his arm, began to make their way through to next door. With a shock Hiyori noticed that the sun had begun to set through the window already, after looking at the time of her phone she realised how long she had spent cleaning the storeroom out with them.
And dressing up. That too of course.