When Yato woke up from his too short night, Yukine still hadn't moved from his futon. The bloodstains on him and Yukine's silence confirmed him that what had happened yesterday was real. His expression turned into a frown as he looked at Yukine's unmoving form. "Yukine…"

Yukine wiped his eyes and his nose with his sleeve and sniffled a little, still hidden under his blanket.

You're letting your emotions get the best of you.

No matter how hard it was for him, he couldn't bother Yato with his problems, no matter how big or important they seemed to be. He was going to be strong.

"H-Hey, where are you going?" He asked when Yukine stood up. "You can't go downstairs like that: the others are going to have a heart attack when they see you. Take a shower before going to eat breakfast. You're all bloody."

"Training," answered Yukine's hollow voice. "I will see you later."

Yato frowned and was about to say something before his kid teleported. So still not ready to speak, then. He stood up and got into his head to find his kid. He couldn't let him be outside with blood all over his clothes like that, and he needed to talk. It seemed very, very unlikely after everything he had been through and survived to, and it wasn't Yukine's style to give up so quickly either, but Yukine was still a kid driven by his emotions who could do a big mistake if his state worsened further. Yato wasn't willing to take the risk.

"Hello, Yato-chan!" sang Kofuku. His shinki greeted him more coldly - maybe because of yesterday, when he didn't go to the shop despite being asked to - but Yato didn't pay much attention to either of their salutations. Hiyori's smile upon seeing the god's arrival turned into a small frown. "Yato, wasn't Yukine-kun with you?"

"Say Yato, why did he come home so late yesterday? Did something happen?" asked Daikoku with a touch of worry in his voice.

"…He wouldn't say. But he had cried a lot. I'm worried," admitted finally the god. "I never felt him being so sad. I'm going to search him."

"I will come too, Yato," said Hiyori, an Ayakashi tail appearing behind her as her body dropped to the floor.

"Kofuku and I will too. There is no way I can't let him alone when he is like that, and I haven't seen him at all since yesterday." Yato looked at each of their faces a moment, then sighed before grabbing his tracksuit and leaving the house, not checking if they were following him or not. He heard some noise behind him not too soon after, and the others were indeed ready to go with him. "Where do you want to start, Yato-chan?"

They checked every place he could think of. Yukine wasn't at Tenjin's shrine, and he hadn't come back to Kofuku's. After about twenty minutes of fruitless searching, Yato decided to give a quick phone call to Kazuma. The latter had kept the conversation brief, surely because Bishamon wouldn't appreciate it, saying hadn't any information more to give about Yukine's whereabouts and hung up.

Yato kept the phone to his ear a few moments after the call ended. Kazuma's voice sounded… off. Like something was tormenting him. So not only something was wrong with Yukine, but with Kazuma too. Great. He thought about calling Kazuma again to know what was wrong, but finally decided to focus on Yukine. Kazuma could always talk to the psycho bitch if something really bothered him. She was his goddess, after all. A crazy nympho, but his goddess nonetheless.

Ten minutes after that call, they still hadn't found him. Yukine wasn't at Hiyori's school, and he wasn't at her house either. Their search near the cherry tree turned out to be a waste of time too. Yato's worry increased exponentially each time one of their guess were wrong, but a strong yell from a familiar voice soon eased all his fears. "BORDERLINE!"

All of their eyes widened as they carefully advanced towards the source of Yukine's voice, a step after another, careful not to be noticed by him. Yukine was in the middle of what must have been a grove, or maybe a small forest before all its trees had been cut clean by his attacks. Yato frowned.

"BORDERLINE!" Another tree crashed to the ground, his trunk cut neatly by the horizontal borderline.

He didn't want to tell Yato. He needed to keep this for himself. He needed to hold on, just a little longer…

Yato rubbed his chest with his hand as he observed him with a frown. It wasn't really anger he was feeling from him, but more… frustration. A dangerously high frustration and a strong rancour directed at a specific person he couldn't name despite his best efforts. Was this person the source of all Yukine's problems? "Yukine-kun…" muttered sadly Hiyori. "He really isn't like himself."

"Yato-chan, you should go talk to him, shouldn't you?" From where the god was, he could only see part of Yukine's face, and he was wearing an expression of ire like Yato had never seen before. His teeth were gritted hard, almost like a wild animal, the normally white part of his eyes had taken a strong purple colour, and his warm orange pupils were slowly turning yellow.

He raised his arm once again, however this time the borderline only did a shallow cut on the trunk. A sort of monstrous aura had started to envelop his body, and Yato's breathing started to speed up as he recognized the beginning of a transformation into an Ayakashi. "Why…" he growled. "Why Didn't I cUt them alL?" Yato froze at the sound of that inhumane voice. "I… I thouGht I Was strOngTHat's wHy I couLdn't pRotect hIm…" Yato let out a strangled sound from the bottom of his throat, and found himself short of breath quickly. Hearing this voice brought one of Yato's deeply buried traumas to surface, something he had never really emotionally managed to deal with.

But then the aura disappeared as quickly as it came when Yukine coughed before falling to his knees and faint, to Yato's horror. That was effective in making him stop thinking about Sakura, and worry for someone else. "Yukine!"

They all rushed towards him, everyone sans Yato gasping when the god turned him on his back. "What's all this blood on him…?" asked Kofuku, going pale when she saw his face.

"It's not his, Kofuku," quickly assured the god upon hearing the waver in the goddess' voice. He cleared his throat to get rid of the lump in it before continuing. "H-He came home like that yesterday. I still didn't find out why, though."

"And it's high time I know," he added before teleporting back with the others.


"But why have you done that?! I thought our objective was only to cause pain to Ane-sama! So that she would finally notice us! You needn't murdering Suzuha under this child's eyes!" cried Aiha.

Kugaha had expected Aiha to reproach him his acts when he came back. Yukine's presence had been unexpected, but it's true that he could have done something else. Just knock him out, and do the job. He didn't need to necessarily see that. Okay, he had maybe done a mistake, but it has been almost one hour non-stop that she was complaining. He decided to put a stop to her questions when her voice prevented him to concentrate on his work anymore, "Oh, Aiha, won't you just stop talking! You're giving me a headache."

"But Kuga-sens-"

He whipped around from where he was sat, and came directly face to face with the pink-haired shinki, almost pinning her to the wall. "Stop that." He waited before taking a step back. "Relax, Aiha. Everything is fine now. The objective is that Yato kills Bishamon. That hasn't changed, and I assure you I will do what I have to so that the plan succeeds. The fact that the kid happened to be here is a coincidence, really. Don't worry about him. It's not that terrible."

Aiha pressed one of her hands to her chest, not daring to answer. He returned to Bishamon's prescriptions of medicine with a sadistic smile. "And now… All we have to take Iki Hiyori. Then it will be over."


No matter how fast he ran towards him, or how loud he called for him, he couldn't stop Suzuha from sinking further into the black void created by his dreams. He had run so much that he felt out of breath and that sweat started to run down his forehead, but he didn't care right now. He wanted desperately to be able to save him thistime, knowing he wouldn't bear another failure.

Then all of sudden, as if he had finally heard Yukine's frantic pleas, Suzuha stopped walking away. Yukine's surprise quickly morphed into a relieved expression as he extended a hand towards him. "Suzu-"

The voice which answered to him was definitely too grave and sadistic to be his friend's. "It's your fault I am dead, Yukine."

Yukine didn't even find words to answer him, and let his arm fall uselessly at his side. Suzuha whipped around in a smooth movement, an angry fire burning under all his tears, a face that had nothing to do with his usual sunny expression. "If you had protected me from Kugaha, then I wouldn't have died! I… I wanted to see Tomoko again! Why didn't you let me see her, Yukine?!"

His throat suddenly went dry at his friend's hard way of showing the truth. "S-Suzuha… I-"

"Don't you dare speak to me!" he roared, making Yukine flinch under all the accusations and raw pain directed at him. He felt his eyes start to sting him as he clenched his fists. "Yukine, you… How do you think you would feel if you couldn't see Hiyori again?" His voice wasn't angry anymore now. It was just utterly broken, and sad. He came a step closer from the trembling Yukine. "You care about Hiyori, right? She is an important human for you. It was the same for me. I…I loved that girl. How could you not save me, and let me see her again? How could you have been so egoist?"

Suzuha's voice was so soft that it was painful to hear. He didn't sound angry, just broken, genuinely wondering how Yukine could have done that to him. "Suzuha, I'm sorry…" Yukine fell to his knees, and put his hands on his head as he was trying his best to protect himself from this creation of his nightmare. "I didn't want to let you die, Suzuha… But I… I'm s-sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry…"

"Well, I'm dead now. And it's your entire fault. You were the only one who could have saved me."

Yukine felt his heart break.

His eyelids felt like they had been stuck together with glue while he had been unconscious. After more efforts that it had any right to have, he finally succeeded in the hard task of opening his eyes. His vision adjusted after having blinked a few times, and as he looked around him he noticed that everyone was staring at him with big and sad eyes without daring to speak. A heavy silence fell in the room as he sat up in his futon, still feeling as exhausted as before and shaken up from the nightmare.

"…So that's what has been bothering you all this time," whispered Yato. Yukine didn't dare to look up at his face, but he hoped his expression wasn't as sad as his voice sounded. "I'm sorry for your friend, Yukine."

Yukine stared at him incomprehensively with a blank look, brows slightly furrowed. Daikoku saw the unsaid question in his eyes, and decided to answer for him. "You… You have been yelling his name since a few minutes now… Yato wondered if you were having a nightmare. And you said that you were sorry to have let him die. You kept repeating that. So… the blood on you is his, then? You're not hurt, are you?"

"Yukki…" Kofuku had never seen Yukine in such a devastated state, eyes bloodshot, his face whiter than a sheet of paper. The young shinki's gaze lowered to his bloodied hands on his lap, his eyes staying there for a terribly long moment in the silence. Hiyori hesitated, but reached out to dry the remnants of tears on his face, and caressed his cheek with her thumb. "Yukine-kun… I'm really sorry for your friend. Is there anything we can do for you to get better?" Yukine still said nothing, so she gave up on her attempt to cheer him up and retracted her hand.

What to do… to get better…?

He bit his lower lip a short instant as he lowered his head further before slowly moving from his bed and taking refuge from the world in Yato's arms, burying his face in his torso. He wasn't thinking about if he would have done that in normal circumstances at all; right now, he was just sad and tired and grieving for the only friend he ever had and wanted to be comforted by Yato. A hint of a blush appeared on his god's cheeks. "H-Hey, Yukine…!"

He was about to question his weird behaviour further when he felt Yukine's presence slowly disappear from his mind, all his sadness disappearing, and his breathing become regular.

Yato's shock lessened a bit as he held Yukine tighter in his arms. "He is already asleep?" asked Hiyori in a hushed voice, surprised it had taken mere seconds. Yato nodded without making noise. "I will stay here until he wakes up," he answered her in an equally low voice. "He will have another nightmare if I leave. And he really needs to sleep." He looked at the innocence on Yukine's sleeping face, and placed a soft kiss on his pale forehead. He hoped he would be able to make him feel better soon. Or at least, he would do his best.

"It's okay," he said in his hair. "It's alright now."


He really wasn't looking forward to reveal everything to Yato. If he could, he would have chosen never to say a word about the tragedy which had happened because of his weakness. But he had bothered him so much… Yato hadn't slept the entire night because he was scared he would have another nightmare. Maybe he shouldn't bottle everything up, and talk to him.

He took a bath – it had been a moment since he last took one, he felt like Yato -, the warm water proving itself effective in calming his nerves. He dried himself, and frowned when he saw his clothes. Yato had told him that Daikoku had already prepared some for him in the bathroom, but he was certain he had never seen them before. A nice short-sleeved red top, and a dark brown pair of jeans. The feeling he had when he put them on was strange too, and he didn't take long to piece everything together and understand that they had been bought recently for him.

He smiled softly at this unexpected attention before going downstairs. "Hello, sleeping beauty!" said Yato with a big grin when he arrived. The god put a warm cup of tea in front of his kid, and a can of sake in front of him. "Here, drink that first. You cried a lot yesterday; you must be dehydrated."

"Yesterday…?"

"Yeah, yesterday. After you fainted, I brought you home. After your desperate plea of you asking me to cuddle you, I accepted, and you've been sleeping ever since. I left you a few minutes ago to make you some tea, and I was about to come back, but given you're already awake..." The god smirked at Yukine's expression. "Don't you remember, Yukine?"

"No I don't. You're saying nonsense again, Yato," lied Yukine, his cheeks all red. Yato let out a small laugh at this and pushed the cup of tea on the table towards his kid. "Drink anyway. It's going to be cold."

"T-Thank you," mumbled the shinki before taking a few sips. The tea had cooled down a little, but was just as agreeable for his dehydrated body. "All right," breathed Yato when he put the cup down. "Talk to me. What's wrong?"

"… Where are Kofuku-san and Daikoku-san?"

"Outside, they're bringing Hiyori home. Just one thing, because I think you're going to use that card not to speak to me. Speaking about your problems doesn't make you someone weak. I don't know what happened there, but it's important and I want you to say it to me."

"But you never say anything about you," mumbled the shinki. "You always seem so strong, like nothing ever bother you. You lived terrible things, yet you never complain about it. But I... I cry all the time, and I always make you worry about me and can't keep anything to myself because I'm not strong enough."

"Who the hell told you that?" asked Yato with genuine surprise. He knew his kid: this kind of idea had definitely been put in his head by someone. "It's not..." He sighed when he saw Yukine's face. "Yukine. I don't know if you remember, but you almost transformed into an Ayakashi earlier." Yukine looked at Yato with wide surprised eyes. "Something important is going on with you, and I want you to say it. Do you understand? Do you think you could you do that for me?"

Yukine gulped and looked away from his god's insistent gaze. He might not understand and know everything about his god, but he had sounded really afraid when he had told him he had almost transformed. Yato had really deserved some explanations, given how much he had been worried about him. "It's Suzuha… He is dead," said Yukine, his voice breaking at the last word. "He is dead and it's all my fault, Yato…"

Yato rubbed his shinki's arm with his thumb. "Breathe. Tell me from the beginning what happened."

"Y-Yesterday… I was coming home and I saw Suzuha in front of the tree he was tending to. I… I was wondering why he was there, but someone came. He said that he was Bishamon-sama's shinki and he started to… to say things to him…"

"…What kind of things?"

"That he wasn't going to be close to anyone, that he was useless, that he meant nothing…" Yato averted his gaze from his kid, but pushed his own discomfort aside to focus on his kid's story. "After that, I-I asked him to stop saying that."

"You asked?" repeated Yato, looking incredulous. The corner of Yukine's lips turned into a tiny smile. "Stop lying, Yukine, I'm sure you didn't just ask."

"…I was angry at him, so I shouted at him."

Yato's grin widened. "Shouted at him?"

"…Yelled at him," admitted Yukine with a slight blush. "I was angry."

"That's my boy," snickered the god, enjoying Yukine's slight blush. "I-It's true that I didn't just ask nicely. But he said that if I wanted him to stop, then I had to win a fight against him. And… I know his words were meant to break Suzuha. He just said some things that… that were meant to. I had never seen Suzuha looking so sombre. Bishamon-sama's other shinki couldn't have said that not on purpose. I didn't know why he wanted Suzuha to die, but… I wanted to protect him. I tried my best, I really did, but…" His smile disappeared suddenly, and so did Yato's. "I lost the fight."

Yukine's eyes watered as his speech accelerated. "He was stronger than me. He provoked me, and I reacted to it, and... I couldn't do anything… He used a spell on me, and I was forced to watch everything! The wolves tore him apart. They tore him apart, Yato! I-I can still see his corpse, and it makes me sick! He died, and he was covered in blood, and after that carrions came to eat what was left of him and they broke his bones and-"

"Stop," said suddenly Yato, stopping his panicked rambling. He sighed before tucking his shinki's head on his shoulder. "I understand now. None of this was your fault."

"I-It w-was, Yato. I was the only one who could have protected him, but I didn't succeed."

"No, it wasn't. Suzuha was your friend, and only your friend. You mustn't blame yourself for his death because it wasn't your duty to protect him, Yukine. You tried your best. It's Bishamon's other shinki's fault, and only his. Do you understand that?"

He understood. Suzuha was his friend, not his responsibility. He shouldn't feel like it was entirely his fault, but somehow still felt like it was. He was there, after all. He could have done something. "It must have been scary to see that, and I'm sorry for that. I wish I had been there for you. But… hang on, okay? It wasn't your fault. You will need time to mourn for him, and I will stay with you all this time, I promise. You will get better."

"I miss him, Yato. It hurt, seeing him dying like that. He never deserved something so terrible."

"I know, and I'm sorry." Yato pulled away slightly. "You must feel hugged out, don't you? Are you okay now?"

"Hm-mh," said Yukine timidly. "I guess. A little bit. Thank you… for listening to me. I'm sorry I bothered you."

"It's nothing," said Yato with a toothy and relieved grin. "I prefer to see you like that than all sad and crying. Go clean your face, and eat something too, okay? We can do a job if you want, to cheer you up. We will talk again tonight."

Yukine nodded shyly before standing up and going in the stairs. Yato watched him with a fond smile, opening his can of sake and taking a few gulps of the cold drink. He felt guilty not having been there to protect his kid, even more because it was his fault he was outside in the first place. If he had known going outside a few moments would lead to this… Then he would have gone to the shop instead.

"Y-You're here," rasped a voice coming from the entrance of the shrine. "Yato, I hate saying this but I-I need your help."

A wounded Daikoku managed to limp next to the table where he almost collapsed, if Yato hadn't managed to catch him in time. "What the- What happened to you, Daikoku?!"

Seeing Daikoku barely managing not to make the unconscious Kofuku in his arms fall was not something Yato had expected to see when the door opened. He carefully knelt before delicately posing the goddess of poverty on the floor. "H-Help my goddess. She is blighted, and wounded too."

Yato stayed shocked a few seconds more before obeying and grabbing a first aid kit in the kitchen along with a bottle of divine water. He fell to his knees behind Daikoku. "What happened to you two? Daikoku, are you alright? You look like you're going to collapse right now. Sit down, and try to rest a little."

"Not yet. I need to take care of her now. I would gladly let you do that, but I never know what you can do to her," said Daikoku, scrunching up his face. Yato made a face before giving up. "Okay, you take care of her. But take off your shirt; I can already see your wounds bleeding through it, and you can't reach your back anyway. Am I allowed to take care of your wounds or not, Daikoku-san?"

Daikoku grunted at the suffix before effectively taking his pink shirt off. The god frowned at the numerous blighted wounds on the shinki's back before starting to treat them. "Who did that to you?"

"It was one of Bishamon-sama's shinki," grumbled Daikoku. "He attacked us without warning with Ayakashi. And Yato, I'm sorry… My goddess and I did everything we could, but he has taken Hiyori-chan with him."

Yato froze. "I tried to protect them both, but he knocked my goddess and me out when we lowered our guard. We just woke up, and Hiyori-chan wasn't there anymore."

Yato gritted his teeth. Bishamon was going too far; what had she planned to do with her? What could she want to Hiyori? "I'm sure she will be fine. She is a strong girl. I'm going to take her back."

"You mean we're going to take her back," said Yukine, looking better now that all the tears and traces of blood had completley left his face. A fluffy towel was resting on his shoulders. He stepped into the living room further and crossed his arms, a few drops of water falling on the towel at this action. "We have to save her. I don't know why Bishamon-sama took her, but she's in danger there."

Yato eyed him a moment before nodding. "Okay, then." Yato stood up and zipped his tracksuit, sitting on the genkan to put on his boots. "Daikoku and Kofuku, you stay here. I don't know what or who could attack you both, so I'm going to ask Ookuninushi if he can look after you two. I don't like you two being alone when you can't fight back."

"You don't have his phone number, dumbass," said Daikoku dryly. "How are you going to call him?"

"He is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune, isn't he? Then Kofuku must have it on her phone. I'm going to use it."

"…You know the code to unlock it?"

Yato turned towards Daikoku with a smirk. "Hey, we're talking about Kofuku. Of course she gave me the code to unlock her phone."

Daikoku rolled his eyes, and Yato laughed a little. "Yato, let's go," pressed Yukine from somewhere close behind him. "We don't have time."

The god nodded, and after a quick call to a now worried god of agriculture, teleported to Bishamon's mansion. He didn't know what she was planning exactly, but there was no way he was going to let her do anything to his Hiyori. She would come home.