Pika318: Thank you for all your reviews for Chapter 1! As well as those who put this story on their favourites or alerts list. Here's chapter 2. I'm alternating Wakana's narration and the flashback scenes with every division, hopefully it's still understandable.

Chapter 2: Visiting

"And after that, being the only one left in the house, my life was in danger. That was then I met your father."

"Gwahhh! How…how could you defeat me…a powerful spirit like me, no…I don't want to…disappear…"

With those words, the spirit faded into nothingness, disappearing from the house which it occupied for decades, driving those who lived in it to their deaths.

The man who brought the spirit's existence to an end slid his spirit blade back into its sheath before he turned to the girl whom the spirit had been haunting all along.

"Are you okay, Miss?" The man with golden eyes and long black hair asked.

"I'm fine. Erhm, thank you so much for helping me." The girl replied, bowing politely.

"It's nothing. I just don't like it when youkai and spirits attack humans."

"Oh I see…but…aren't you something that's not human too? I mean, the way you defeated Spirit-san just now doesn't seem like something a human can do." The girl asked, thinking back to how the man in front of her evaded the spirit's attacks.

"You're right, I'm a youkai, but that doesn't mean that I will approve of humans being attacked in my territory."

The girl did not seem surprised or afraid when she heard his answer, but before she could say anything else, the door opened, revealing another person with blond hair and a scarf. Calling him a person wouldn't be that accurate though, because a normal person wouldn't have a floating head.

"Rihan-sama, there doesn't seem to be any other youkai in the surrounding areas." The blond "person" said.

"Oh thank you, Kubinashi. I guess we can go now then." After saying that, he turned to the girl.

"I hope you'll be safe from now on, now that the spirit is gone." With that, he and the blond "person" simply disappeared.

"And that was how we met." Wakana concluded cheerfully. "Now that I think about it, he was so cool that time."

Rikuo smiled awkwardly as he watched his mother swoon over his father as she finished her story.

"So…dad saved you when your life was in danger. And both of you dated after that?"

"What are you talking about Rikuo? There's no way things would progress that quickly. We didn't even get each other's name. In fact, I thought that I would never see him again. But after a few days, he actually came back to my house."

"Dad came back to visit you?" Rikuo asked in surprise.

Wait, this sounds familiar. Don't tell me dad fell in love with mom at first sight, like grandpa and grandmother.

"Yes, I was really surprised too."

Two days after the spirit disappeared from her house, the girl was finally able to restore her house back to a rather presentable state. Before this, any loose furniture would definitely be overturned or thrown about, and her house was always in disarray.

"Whew." She said, after finally placing a vase of flowers in front of a small altar. Placing her palms together, she offered a greeting to her parents, the first one in months. She was somehow grateful that the spirit never really broke the altar, even though it always stopped her from offering a prayer to her parents.

Just as she finished her greetings, the doorbell rang.

"Hmm? Is it the postman?" she wondered. Besides the postman, she never got any other visitors, especially not at this time of the day. Walking up to the door, she opened it slightly and gave a soft "Oh" in slight surprise.

The person on the other side of the door wasn't the postman, but the man who had helped her two days ago.

"Yo, miss, can I come in?" The man asked. He was polite, but his tone was really casual. The girl found it rather funny.

"Erhm...I guess it's fine." The girl answered, opening the door. As a high school girl, she would normally know better than to let a guy into her own house, especially since she was living alone. But it would be so rude, and ungrateful, to refuse entry to the person who saved your life after all.

The man strolled into the living room, and seemed to give it a once over, as if he was comparing the current state of the room to the room two days back. It made the girl really self conscious.

"I'll…go make some tea. You can take a seat at the table there." She said rather nervously before heading into the small kitchen.

A short while later, she passed the man a mug filled with some instant tea she had in the cupboard. Holding a mug of her own, she sat opposite him. Both of them seemed to be waiting for the other to speak, resulting in a rather awkward silence as they stared (or tried not to) at one another. The man decided to break the silence first.

"So, has anything been bothering you?" He asked.

The girl looked up when she heard that question, confused. "You mean…besides my studies and finances?"

The man paused for a while, raising an eyebrow at her answer. "No, I was actually referring to the spirits."

The girl gave a look of realization. "Oh so that was what you're referring to… No, ever since you got rid of the one in this house, it's been really peaceful here." Once she said that, she gave another "oh", like she just remembered something.

"Oh no, where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Wakana. What's your name, sir?"

"…It's Rihan, Nura Rihan"

"Oh, so it's Rihan-san then. Well, now that we know each other's name, I guess we can talk properly now." Wakana said, smiling.

There was a long pause before Rihan spoke again.

"Aren't you afraid of me?" he asked.

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Wakana asked, confused.

"Well, since you've been haunted by a malicious spirit for so long, I fully expected you to slam the door in my face just now. But you didn't, and even let me in."

"Why would I do something as rude as that? You did save my life after all, I'm really grateful for your help."

"Even if I'm a youkai?" Rihan asked again.

"Why would that even make a difference? The fact is that you helped me, so you can't be a bad person. Just like how there are good and bad people, there would be good and bad youkai too right?"

"Yeah, you're right." Rihan said

"And after that, we just talked about some things, and he left shortly afterwards." Wakana said.

"Dad's really shy, huh? That's unexpected." Rikuo commented.

"Hmm, why would that be strange?"

"Well, grandpa's a real flirt, so I thought dad would be the same."

"That's true, I did hear from the rest of the youkai later that your dad was quite a flirt, but he changed after Yamabuki-san left. Maybe that's why. But you know, after he visited me that first time, he started coming over every few days, sometimes every day."

"And you never suspected he might be in love with you already?" Rikuo asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"Hmm, rather than being in love, during that time, it felt more like he just needed a friend, and a listening ear."

"What did both of you talk about?" Rikuo asked. He found it hard to imagine that they would be able to have things to talk about if his father really visited her as frequently as his mother described.

"We asked about each other's day. And he always wanted to know how I was coping, since I lived alone and all."

"Don't you have any relatives?" Rihan asked. From what he understood from human society, it wasn't normal for a high school student like Wakana to be living alone without any support.

Wakana looked up from her tea.

"Hmm, I do. But I haven't seen them since my parent's funeral. They heard rumors about my parent's death, and well, I guess that they didn't want to take me in, fearing they'll be cursed as well. Who believes in curses anyway, isn't it just the youkai's fault? But I can't do anything about that, and I'm coping fine enough without their help, so it doesn't really matter." Wakana said, smiling.

Rihan was giving a look of disbelief at that time. The girl in front of him doesn't believe in curses, but is totally fine with youkai, now that's strange. Another issue bothered him even more though.

"Aren't you lonely? Living by yourself, without your parents? How…do you manage to continue smiling like that?"

"Of course I'll be lonely sometimes, and I do feel sad that my parents aren't here. But you see? There's really no use being sad like that all the time. My parents are dead, I can't do anything to change that. But unlike them, I'm alive, I still have…70…no maybe I'll live till 90…then at most 80 more years to go. With that much time left, it wouldn't be nice if I spent it being upset and not enjoying what I have right? That wouldn't be fair to my parents, who tried so hard to raise me, and to make sure I wouldn't be affected by the spirit. It's only right that I live my life to the fullest to repay what they did for me…I'm sorry, did I talk too much?"

Wakana asked, seeing the rather confused look on Rihan's face.

"No, you didn't. It's nothing. Thank you."

"Eh? There's no need to thank me, I didn't do anything."

"After that, he remained quiet for such a long time, staring into the tea. Then he excused himself and left rather suddenly. At that time, I was really worried I said something wrong, but he came back two days later as usual. Well, something about him did change though."

"And that would be?" Rikuo asked, curious.

"When I asked him about his day, he would normally reply with rather vague answers. But that day, he started talking about his family, and about the youkai. And well…promise you won't laugh, Rikuo?"

"Uh okay." Rikuo agreed, confused at how shy his mother was all of a sudden.

"I actually got so curious that I told your dad that I wanted to come along when he went out with his Hyakki."

"Huh? You what?"

Pika318: Okay, I'm stopping my chapter here because I'm running out of steam, and I like to divide each stage of their relationship into different chapters. Hope you enjoy it ^^ If Rihan seems too somber and angsty here, I'm sorry. But I think writing a more cheerful and flirtatious Rihan would be way too scary and unnatural. Right, Moko-chan?

Moko-Chan: Yeah…Given that it's probably hard for him to flirt when he's still thinking of Yamabuki. Besides, he only flirts with guys not with the women he loves. :D