"Hiyori...Hiyori please." Yato whimpered as a torrent of tears streamed down his face. "Hiyori." Her scrape covered face turned towards him, and a small smile crept onto her pale, sallow face. She raised a shaky hand to meet his cold cheek. "I don't...regret anything. I-I was...afraid. Afraid that I wouldn't get t-to say goodbye-that when my cord was cut, everything would just break a-and my reality would come crumbling down, like a shattered mirror. But-" her body shuttered, and began to grow colder. "I'm so happy." she smiled as the tears in her eyes spilled over and mixed with her blood, staining her porcelain cheeks. "Hiyori, I'll fix this. Somehow. You just have to hang on, okay?" he looked around, side to side, desperately, searching for help. Then, his eyes drifted to the tip of her cord, which was twitching sadly on the ground a few feet from them. Yato pulled Hiyori closer to his chest. "Just hold on." he whispered roughly, through his harsh, ragged breathing. "Yato." he looked back down at her face. "It's okay. This was supposed to happen. A God can only exist in the memories of humans right? If they're forgotten, they cease to exist. So, I'm glad I pushed you out of the way of that bus. I would have never gotten to meet you. I regret nothing." Yato whimpered as her body seemed to grow smaller and smaller. "Yato, one more...just..one more wish." his eyes widened as Hiyori's bloody hand shakily reached into her pocket. Her violet eyes danced as she held up 5 yen and asked, "Just like you, I-I don't want to be forgotten. So my request is: please, never forget me. Please." "Hiyori-" he whimpered. "Ah, it's a request, and I have my offering. So please accept it. Hurry." her voice began to get softer and weaker. Gently, he plucked the offering from her freezing fingers. "You're request has definitely been heard. May our fates.-" he choked on his words and tried to take a calming breath, then continued. "May our fates...intertwine...verily." he finished as his words dissolved into more tears. "Yato." he swiped the hair from her face and leaned towards her in order to hear her eerily calm voice. Quietly, and so breathlessly that he thought she might shatter in his arms, she whispered in his ear the words he thought he'd never hear.

Then, she did shatter. Her soul, in glimmering fractures, swelled and dissipated into the sanguine sunset.

Yato knelt in shock and despair, as he was left holding nothing but her offering. His sorrow grew exponentially within him, crashing over him. Suddenly he screamed-a deep, mournful wail that echoed between the trees and buildings, fading until it was lost in the burning orange and cool magenta sky. He clutched his body tightly, rocking back and forth. "Hiyori...Hiyori." he sobbed. He collapsed onto the ground, lost in his own guilt.

It was his fault, he knew it. Everyone he cared about came to meet a horrible and inevitable death. That's what being a God of Calamity meant. His own Regalia, his Yukine, was torn down, bathed in dark blood as he cried and told Yato that he was glad to have become his Regalia-his friend. And not even a week later, Hiyori -sweet, innocent, MMA-loving, prone-to-violence, beautiful Hiyori- was slaughtered protecting him from a Phantom because he had had no weapon. And she had thanked him, for gifting her with such beautiful memories. "I don't want this anymore." he whispered, his tears having dried up with the rising of the pure white moon, the light casted by it highlighting the scarlet landscape that surrounded him. Everywhere, everything around him, was stained with her blood, her raw emotion. "I don't want to be a God anymore. I want to die."

No. He shook his head. He couldn't think that. Slowly, Yato sat up. If he died now, he'd be breaking his promise to Hiyori. If he died, there would be no one left to remember her, and what she had done for him. Yato's eyes surveyed his surroundings, and he flinched at the bloodless, pure spot where the tip of her severed cord had lain. Gingerly, his body exhausted and cold, he stood up and began stumbling away. He didn't want to see it anymore. He didn't want to see the remnants of what used to be her existence. He gripped the offering she had given him in his right hand, so tightly that his knuckles turned white. A lone tear streamed down his face as her last whispered words echoed in his mind. "I love Yato the most." "Hiyori." he wheezed, his chest tightening.

Suddenly, a luminescent, transient, white ball caught his attention. He stared at it, as it lazily floated around the spot where Hiyori had fallen. His blue eyes shone hopefully as he slowly shuffled towards it. "Hiyori?" It danced then, and began to glow brighter. His heart pounded. This could be the most selfish thing he's ever done, but he would suffer for it later. Swiftly he pointed at it. "You, with nowhere to go and nowhere to return to," his voice shook. "I grant you a place to belong." The air around them began to glow as he continued, hope welling up in his chest. "I use my life to make thee a Regalia!" Suddenly, the luminescent orb expanded and began to take a different form. Yato shielded his eyes until the ephemeral light began to fade. Then, slowly, he removed his hands from his eyes and glanced over to his new Regalia. Yato's breath caught in his throat as tears washed over him again.

"Hiyori!" he pounced and gathered her in his shaky arms, her tail now gone and her wounds healed. "Yato." she breathed. He pulled away. "I'll protect you. I swear. I won't lose you again." She smiled. "But I'm your Regalia now, so I'll protect you too. It's okay like this. We can be together now, right? For a long time?" Suddenly, he brought his lips to hers, softly and tentatively, just in case she disliked it. But he could feel her smile against his lips, and knew it was alright. He separated from her hesitantly. "Hiyori, I love you so much. I can't lose you again, okay? So you just have to stay by my side, forever." he blushed deeply. "Yes sir!" she laughed, her blush slightly tinting her cheeks a lovely shade of pink. He smiled then. "Thank goodness." he let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding. Then, he stretched. "Ah, now time to work on getting a shrine!" He extended a hand to Hiyori. "Let's go." he smiled, and his eyes shone. She intertwined her fingers with his and nodded, skipping along beside him, basking in what some would call "those beautiful eyes of depravity."