"Tired, kid?" But Yukine didn't answer nor looked towards Yato and kept on walking.
"Yukine, wait!" Yato sighed as he saw his hafuri walking away from him and sinking further and further in the forest. Then, all of a sudden, Yukine disappeared. The god blinked twice before looking around him. Yukine couldn't have just disappeared like that, could he?
"What are you looking for, Yato? Or maybe should I say… who?"
Nora's sudden appearance made him feel uncomfortable. Her plain white clothes made her stand out, between the dark sky and the sombre trees, and gave her a seemingly innocent look. But then something clicked in his head. There was no way in the world that Yukine's sudden vanishing and her appearance weren't linked.
"Nora. Where have you taken Yukine?" he asked with a venomous voice.
The child smiled sadistically. "You should have listened to Father, Yato. You know where he is… Don't you remember the second part of the note?"
Yato's breath stopped entirely, and his voice became suddenly low and afraid. "Nora. You are going to answer me, and answer right now. Tell me. Where. Is. He. I swear it Nora-"
"I knew it… You grew too attached to this little boy, Yato. He and that girl are keeping you away from me and from Father. We are where you truly belong, you know."
"STOP TALKING AND GIVE HIM BACK!"
Nora's expression became heinous and jealous during a split second before she turned around. Yato was completely focusing on Yukine instead of focusing on her like he used to. It was unnerving. "You won't see him until a little moment, I'm afraid. Father has some projects for him."
"What kind of projects?!"
"You already know Yato, don't you?" replied Nora. Wild panic seized Yato's heart.
"Yato!"
Any words he had wanted to say died in his throat when he heard his shinki's cry. He jerked his head towards it, making Nora raise one of her brows towards her former master. "What's wrong?"
It was nearby, and without knowing precisely where it was exactly, he ran towards the mental sound. He didn't even realize or care that branches were cutting him on his face, because the only important thing now was Yukine. Yukine, who was hurt, who was stuck with Father.
Nora watched him leave with dull eyes, and disappeared.
Yato… That love and attention belong to me. And I'm going to do what it takes to have it back.
Yato… I'm s-
Yato fell to one knee and clutched at his jacket in pain. One of Yukine's thoughts had stopped mid-sentence, and this incredible feeling of pain spreading in his chest… Yukine was unconscious, that was for sure.
Fuelled by nothing if not the pressing need to find his kid right now, Yato ran towards where he had last heard Yukine. When he arrived next to the little bridge, his heart sank in his chest. No trace of person could be seen when he arrived: neither Yukine nor Father was here. However, when Yato knelt next to the bridge… When he put his hand in the grass and felt the blood on his fingertips… He understood.
He arrived too late.
Yukine opened half-conscious eyes in a place that definitely wasn't familiar, but winced as soon as he did. His whole body was covered in the wounds and blights where the Ayakashi wolves had bitten him... yesterday? Or was it just a few hours ago? He was feeling too tired and had lost too much blood to ponder about it.
When the fog in his head had disappeared a little, he tried to reflect on where he was. A light panic started welling up in his chest as he noticed that… He had absolutely no idea about where he was, or even why he was there. The only thing he knew about this place was that it was… dark. Very dark. And he decided he absolutely didn't like it.
His brain commanded his body to stand up; however the latter simply refused to move. He tried again several times, without success. Sighing at his own incompetence, he gave up and instead made his mind into finding a way to get out of there. Yato was probably worried not to have seen him the entire day. Or week. Or last hours.
He cursed slightly. He should have taken the threat more seriously.
"Wakey, wakey," sang a high-pitched voice next to him.
He heard the sound of sandals clapping on the floor coming closer and closer from him. Every cell in his body was telling him to escape right now, but he simply couldn't move. "Oh, so you are awake," noticed a manly voice.
Yukine stopped breathing as his whole body was paralyzed by fear. He was sure that it was the man who had been with Nora, and that couldn't lead to anything good. "What a rude little boy. You could answer when someone speaks to you. I just wish to ask a little service to you."
Yukine let out a dry laugh before finally speaking. He wasn't going to stay submissive and act like a victim, seriously. "Talk to me? If you had just wanted to talk to me then you didn't need to kidnap me. Where am I, and where is Yato? I hope for you that he is okay, because-"
"... Stop asking questions."
His tone let no room from the scalding reply Yukine had wanted to give him. Oh, he hoped he could come back soon to Yato, to his family… He was so scared here. The older man came even closer to Yukine, scaring him even further than he already was. "If I hear you mention Yaboku one more time, it will be his severed head that you will see. Understood?"
Yukine obediently kept his mouth shut. Without his shinki to protect him, Yato was defenceless, and easy to kill. Yukine didn't want to see his god's corpse. Never.
Angered by the shinki's silence, the man started to yell. "Have you understood!?"
"Y-Yes I understood!"
The man smirked while Yukine felt ashamed. He had obeyed so easily… "Good. So, about the little favour, young Yukine… I want you to work for me."
The answer was obvious. "I won't work for you. Have you gone crazy? I have only one person to work for, and it's not you."
"Ah… You still have fight in you, kid. Very well, then. Let me name a few reasons for you to obey." His mouth turned into a sadistic smile. "To begin with, in case you didn't understand, I'm Yaboku's father. I think you understand what it implies, yes?"
Anger flared up in the little hafuri as soon as his words left his mouth. He was Yato's father: the man who had made him suffer so much during all his life… The monster that made an innocent Yato slaughter hundreds and hundreds of people. He wondered for a second why he didn't recognize him back in the forest, but blamed it on his initial shock.
Then, something close to a sob came to his mouth as he realized something: Fujisaki was probably going to use Yukine as leverage to make Yato do all he wanted. Even Hiyori, or Kofuku and Daikoku… Oh, he despised himself so much… He was supposed to protect Yato as a hafuri, and it had come to this.
"Judging by your face, I needn't tell you more, do I? If you care about Yaboku, Hiyori-chan and all your marvellous other friends, you are going to work for me and obey to every single order I give you. Understood?"
Yukine didn't answer as he gritted his teeth. It wasn't possible... If he didn't obey then Yato and Hiyori would…
"Understood?" repeated Fujisaki with malice in his voice.
Nora knelt next to him. "Father asked you a question. You should answer."
He couldn't believe that he was really saying this. "If I do... you promise to let them alone? Promise it, otherwise we won't reach an agreement."
"I promise you. I just want you to stay here two days."
Yukine was sure that it was going to be the worst two days of his life and didn't know what Fujisaki had planned to do with him. But… he would manage. All he had to do is survive what would come to him, no matter how. For Yato, and all his friends.
For their sake…
Yato ran towards Kofuku and Daikoku's house and almost tore the shouji as he yanked it so strongly.
"YUKINE HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED!"burst Yato in a complete panic.
Kofuku and Daikoku jumped almost in the same time to the sudden noise. The goddess rubbed her eyes and sat up, relishing the warm covers of her futon, looking barely awake. "Mmh… What's wrong, Yat-"
"It's Yukine! H-He disappeared and Father has him and I can't find him and-"
Daikoku gripped firmly his shoulders. "Yato. Stop. Breathe."
He almost answered that he didn't have time to breathe and that Yukine was in danger but saw the look in Kofuku's shinki's eyes and finally decided to obey and breathe. Maybe it could help, and that he was right…
He took a breath in...
Out.
"That's good. Continue."
In...
Out...
In...
Out...
When he was calmer, Daikoku let go of his shoulders and retried. "Okay. Now tell us what happened."
"It's Nora… Nora… Father… They have kidnapped Yukine." said Yato in a tight voice.
"But weren't you with him, Yato-chan?" asked a more awake Kofuku in an anxious voice.
Guilt striked him badly as he answered. "I was... B-But at some point he disappeared, and I couldn't find him anymore, and Nora came and told me that they had taken him."
"How?" asked Kofuku in a small and terrified voice.
"Okay, now we're sure he has been taken. Do you feel something from him at all? Something – anything - which could lead us to him. A thought, or an image…"
Yato frowned and closed his eyes as he concentrated on his shinki's feelings, and solely on them. After a few seconds of silence, he cried out in frustration. "Nothing. I can't feel a single fucking thing from him!"
His friends let out small surprised gasps at Yato's outburst. The latter bowed his head, and his anger disappeared as quickly as it came as it let place to his sorrow. "Sorry… It's just that I can't feel anything, and… I don't understand why. It's worrying me."
His voice broke painfully as he remembered the note's contents. "What if he was already dead? Father had told me times and times that he wanted me to come back, and that Yukine was one of the reasons I wasn't... And, God, it's my fault… I-I didn't take the measures to protect him properly…"
How could he have let something like that happen? Sakura's images started to fill his head, making him dizzy and afraid. He didn't want to see Yukine, not his kid, like that. Not dead, not distorted, not crying. He couldn't…
"Y-You are imagining worst case scenarios, Yato-chan! There could be other reasons which could perfectly explain why you can't feel anything. Maybe Yukki is perfectly unharmed, but he is just too far from you, for example…" proposed Kofuku in a high-pitched and hesitant voice, gazing at the ceiling.
Yato scowled at her because her theory wasn't possible; given that he would at the very least feel his fear and she knew it as a goddess, but didn't say anything else. He put a trembling hand on his closed eyes and whispered. "I hope he is alright. I already know that he is hurt because there was blood where he was supposed to be, and…"
Nora was quite a possessive shinki, like Yukine in fact. These children simply hated to share. She always felt like Yukine was her replacement, and he knew that she loathed it. Yato and her had lived their childhood together, and he knew that she had absolutely not accepted in her heart that she would never be his again now. God knows what she will do to him…
Yato turned around sharply, despair written all over his face. "I… I have to search him."
Daikoku caught his wrist before Yato managed to get two steps away. "Yato stop. You can't go now. The blood you saw could be someone else's, like Nora's or your father's. And anyway, you won't help anyone in the state you are in. Go upstairs and calm down, Kofuku and I will find a solution."
"But Daikoku-"
"Yato!"
He slowly closed his mouth shut, immediately silenced by the look in the taller shinki's eyes. "You go upstairs, and you calm down."
I won't be able to sleep in peace now. And I won't feel better until I see him fine again. "…Okay, Daikoku."
Yato climbed the stairs under the duo's concerned gaze, gripping the stairs' railing tightly not to fall and dragging his feet at each step he was forced to do. He slipped quietly in his futon, and closed his eyes. Not to sleep or rest or anything like that, but to calm his wild-beating heart and tensed nerves and pray. Pray that Yukine would come out of this alive. It was a frustrating feeling to know the one of the persons he cared about the most in the world was being in danger because of him, and that there nothing he could do about it.
But a small, bitter part of him had always known that hanging out with him would lead to trouble. He was a magatsukami, after all. All he could offer to the child was death and destruction, not the love he really needed. He had hesitated to cut bonds with Hiyori after she had recovered her memory of them, but maybe he should have done so, and liberated Yukine afterwards… So that his life doesn't involve them anymore, like Tenjin had told him once. He preferred to be sad and alone and isolated again than seeing his family suffer.
Without knowing she had the worst timing of the world right now, Hiyori entered in Kofuku's little house with a warm smile. "Good morning, everyb…ody," tried the young girl, but she stopped when she approached the doorstep. There was an uncomfortable and gloom atmosphere floating in the room, so unusual in that house.
Kofuku hadn't her usual bubbly smile on her face and was staring at the ground glumly. Daikoku was in the kitchen, looking very bothered by something. When the goddess saw the young girl, however, she pasted a welcoming smile. "Oh, Hiyorin! Good morning! You are here early today."
Hiyori sat hesitantly next to her, not buying her smile at all. "Yes, I came earlier… Um, Kofuku-san? Did something happen?"
Her smile died down, and Hiyori frowned. "It's Yukki… He has been kidnapped by Yato-chan's father."
Hiyori's heart stopped beating for a second. "N-No way! Where is Yato? Isn't he searching him?!"
"He is resting: Daikoku told him to. He didn't sleep at all this night, with Yukki and all. But… I think what he really needs is some time to digest this information. Things could go in a horrible way, because Yukki could…"
Hiyori didn't wait to hear the rest. She climbed the stairs three by three to go in Yukine and Yato's shared bedroom: she knew exactly what Kofuku was going to say. She unexpectedly found the god there, lying on his side and his body hidden by the futon's cover. "Yato!"
His back faced her, preventing anyone to see how his expression was. How guilty he felt. How much he was regretting all this. Hiyori crouched next to him and leant on her hands. "Y-Yato, we have to go-"
"Why?"
It took her a few second to recognize that it was Yato's voice. "Every time I have something, Father has to take it from me. How could I have let something like that happen to Yukine? To my own kid? He must be so scared now... And I'm here, doing nothing…" He gritted his teeth, and Hiyori winced. "I-If only I had been more careful…"
"Y-Yato stop! I-It's not your fault if everything is happening, and wallowing yourself in self-pity won't help anyone! Now stand up: we… we are going to search him together, okay? The only thing we have to do to relieve our worries is to search. I promise you that we will find him before anything can happen."
Yato turned towards her with cold eyes which made her shudder slightly. He didn't think that he could move right now. He felt sick and all his muscles were cramped and refused to move, and that had nothing to do with Yukine's emotions. He stared at her before nodding slightly and leaving his futon.
"We will find him, Yato-chan."
"Yeah. We will search him first, and at the end we will find him, don't worry," assured Daikoku.
Daikoku and Kofuku were already the doorstep, ready to leave. Kofuku smiled reassuringly with slightly dampened eyes while her shinki only directed him a subtle nod of the head, with eyes shining with assurance.
Yato sat up and raised his head towards the ceiling. He then let it fall with a heavy sigh. He was calmer now, thanks to Daikoku's advices. Indeed, the time he took alone had helped clearing his head. He would search Yukine relentlessly, he would search him in the entire world if he needed to, and he would find him today. There simply weren't any other outcomes of the situation.
"We should ask Tenjin-sama and Bishamon-sama to help us. The more eyes we have, the more chances we got to find him. Right Yato?"
"…Yeah."
"Don't you wonder why you can't move, little hafuri?"
Fujisaki laughed at the shinki's fruitless efforts to answer as he struggled to even open his mouth. "You've been drugged. It's just a little something to numb your emotions and your body so that your little god can't find or intercept your thoughts. Pretty smart, isn't it?"
I feel sick.
"So let's start, shall we?"
Father grabbed a fistful of Yukine's hair and forced him to kneel in front of him. The thought of massaging his painful scalp didn't even occur to Yukine at the time. Fujisaki extended two of his fingertips, in a similar way to shinki when they formed a borderline.
He started reciting a spell, and Yukine feared the worst. "Thou, with nowhere to go and nowhere to return. I shall grant you a place to belong. My name is Fujisaki Kouto. Bearing a posthumous name, you shall remain here. With this name, I make thee my servant. With this name and its alternate, I use my life to make thee a Divine Instrument! Thou art Hikaru! As Divine Instrument, Kou! Come, Kouki!"
Yukine stared at the black kanji floating in front of him with dread and horror. He didn't think he would... be forced to become... a nora. He didn't want to, he didn't want to be named… But if he didn't obey to Fujisaki's orders, then Yato, his god, would die… He couldn't do anything. He couldn't resist. Between his sanity and his honour and Yato's safety, the choice was quickly made.
The black kanji sank in his left hand's skin. He collapsed on the ground sonorously, and allowed the tears which he had fought so hard to not shed roll on his slightly bloodied cheeks. He felt so ashamed of himself…
Yato…
"There were really a lot of Ayakashi, you know. Aah, I'm really proud of my kid! Handle them like that… You're really a genius!"
I'm sorry. I didn't want this to happen.
And Yukine couldn't help but mumble. "I'm… s-sorry…"
"What an interesting life you had had, dear little boy… Life you don't know about, of course… Yaboku probably didn't tell you about it. What an overprotective son."
"Well, the ritual went better than what I thought. I thought you would be more…rebellious, you know. But you look like you have understood the rule here." Father said with a satisfied smirk. "Now wait here. I must prepare the rest." He heard the sound of a door closing after some footsteps.
"Sleep well, Hikaru."
Here he was, all alone, again, in the dark. He felt severely weakened by... well everything, whether physically or morally. He cried, and honestly felt like he could cry forever given how much sorrow he was feeling.
Yato, Yato... He prayed with all his heart that he was safe, and that his hell would end soon before closing his eyes for the last time.
Still nothing.
It had been at the very least five hours non-stop since they had searched Yukine, starting from when they had been separated for the first time, and they still hadn't found any trace of him. Now nothing could reassure Yato at this point.
He couldn't hear any of his thoughts, or feel any of his emotions. Worst-cases scenarios were repeating in his head, making it hard to think properly about anything. He wanted and needed Yukine back now before he became crazy.
"There you were, Yato. I had been looking for you."
Nora appeared in front of the little group with her usual uninterested look. Yato placed a hand protectively in front of Hiyori and the others; because there was no way in hell he would let her take them away from him too. Honestly, what could she want? She was just adding oil on fire by choosing to come here. "Nora... Give me Yukine back!"
"All right, Yato. I suppose I can give him back to you," admitted Nora. Her smile became devilish as she added. "He won't be of any use for you. After all… He is dead."
Yato's body froze as the certainty in Nora's words struck him with full strength. He felt his heart beating more strongly, and something in his head was blurring his sight. "Y-Yukine isn't dead."
Father advanced, and Yato wanted to hit him because he only looked slightly bothered, even annoyed at what he had done. He didn't have the grace of looking ashamed by what he did. Like he had not murdered an innocent child.
If he had really killed Yukine, then Yato would… He would… He didn't even know what he would do to him. What he had in mind was violent, dark, and certainly bloody.
Father saw the look in Yato's eyes, and put his hands in front of him in a defensive manner. "Hey, don't look at me like that, Yaboku. I didn't want to kill him, you know. Not after only five hours, anyway, since I said that I would keep him for two days. But I supposed he succumbed to his injuries faster than what I have thought. What a weak shinki. Mizuchi is stronger, Yaboku. You should use her instead."
Daikoku saw his master's face turn a little green out of the corner of his eye. "Y-You're horrible…" mumbled the goddess. She was really having a hard time believing such sadistic persons existed.
"Don't talk about Yukine that way! He…" A lump somewhere in his throat was making him having difficulty to speak. "He isn't… dead," finished Yato with his voice decreasing at the last word, his electric blue eyes hidden by his fringe, and fists clenched so tight that they were white and shaking.
"Yes he is, Yaboku. Do you want to check his corpse that much? Ah… What fathers wouldn't do for their children, I swear…" said Fujisaki with a chuckle, amused his son's distress.
"Well, he is just there. Look; you will see he is dead. I'm certain of it."
Yato raised his eyes to look at his father. He stopped breathing entirely when he saw his kid. He was completely limp, thrown over Fujisaki's shoulder. Yato felt sick to see this.
He looked like a child that Yato had killed when he was a little boy.
And that lessened the probability that Yukine was alive. Yato knew that Father would have never taken such a risk if Yukine had even the slightest chance to be alive… He knew that Yato would save him, and he was a sadist. He wanted to see the last pieces of his son's heartbreak in front of him.
"Catch," said simply Fujisaki.
With a smirk, Fujisaki threw Yukine to the ground, as if it was nothing else than a weight on his shoulder, not a child, just something burdening him and that he wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. And, as he had expected, Yato jumped to catch him in time, before his shinki shattered in a thousand pieces on the ground.
"Yukki!"
"Yukine-kun!"
Everybody was coming closer to the shinki, except Fujisaki and Nora who were enjoying the great view of Yato breaking down from afar. Daikoku and Kofuku and Hiyori were trying to approach Yukine, and asking if Yukine was really dead, and asking Yato if he was alright, but Yato tuned them all out. His attention was focused on Yukine, and solely Yukine. He cradled his kid in his arms, under Nora and Father's satisfied eyes.
"H-His throat is..." mumbled Hiyori.
Yato laid him gently in the grass, and shuddered when he made contact with his bruised skin. His kid was frozen to the bone; he had never thought that someone alive could be this cold. It was like…
"Why are you shuddering, Yaboku? Of course he is cold… Have you forgotten already? You used to touch bodies as cold as these ones in the past. Did staying with your little friends made your forget that? Yaboku, that's a corpse. He is dead. See for yourself."
Yato ignored his father's comment and forced his attention to go back to Yukine. His chest wasn't rising at all. Yato felt bile rise in his throat when he saw a large and deep-looking cut on his chest, starting to get infected. Nora let out a little laugh at his reaction. It… It didn't belong there.
Yato felt like the situation was too unrealistic to be true. A few hours ago, they had been doing on a job together, and doing maths…
Yukine couldn't be dead. Not… so suddenly.
Yato called for Sekki, because it wasn't possible. Simply impossible. Father knew that losing Yukine would destroy Yato.
He was cruel and horrible and inhuman, true, but… even he couldn't have gone that far, could he?
"Se…kki?"
He called for Sekki, once, twice, but nothing happened. He hadn't felt like crying for what must have been centuries now. But now… He honestly wondered why he should hold back anymore. Yukine's heart wasn't beating anymore… He wasn't breathing anymore… He couldn't feel his pulse, and his vital organs weren't functioning at all. He felt something already fragile tremble and tremble more before breaking in him.
Yukine was dead.
Guilt broke his heart in two perfect halves. If only he had protected him properly, then none of it would have happened… Yato grabbed his shinki's bloodied shoulders, clearly in denial. His mind had painfully understood the death, but his heart had not and was absolutely not ready to accept it. "Yukine wake up."
Daikoku turned his eyes away from them. "You told me that you wouldn't die, right? Don't make me worry like that, Yukine; wake up, please."
Hiyori started sobbing. "Come on, this isn't funny anymore. As your god, I-I order you to open your eyes."
Kofuku fell to her knees. "Open them. Open your eyes, Yukine! YUKINE!"
Father yawned while Yato grabbed the fabric of Yukine's t-shirt tighter. "Open your eyes… Yukine… I'm begging you, open your eyes…" Warm tears fell from his chin to mix up with the blood on his kid's chest.
"He is dead, Yaboku. It's useless to call him."
"Yukine… Yukine! YUKINE! YUKINE!"
Yukine was dead. Dead. He was dead.
He had started to yell Yukine's name repeatedly before he could realize it, hands fisted on his shirt with no intention of letting his corpse go.
His world had just died right now.
Fujisaki advanced and picked up the lifeless shinki's body on the ground under Yato's dull eyes. Yato didn't move an inch and released his kid's clothes with stiff fingers and teary eyes.
He was frozen in place, unable to move or breathe in front of the horrible spectacle he had just witnessed. His gaze wandered to his hands, and he didn't know if the blood soiling his hands was from his shinki's wounds, or all the people he had slaughtered when he was a child.
Yukine is…
"G-Give me Yukine back, Father," hiccupped Yato. He passed his sleeve on his running nose and stared at his father defiantly. His voice was as shattered as he felt inside. "He is d-dead now. You don't need him anymore. Please, just leave me at least his corpse-"
"Uh-uh, I still need him. I'm going to bury him. Next to the tombstone you made for your beloved Sakura, of course." Father's face hardened. "That's just an example of what happens when you disobey me. I hope that this time, you will do the right thing. Yukine, at the end, is only one person to add to the pile of persons you killed, son."
