Track 4.
Monkey Business - Skid Row.
The sound of the bat hitting the ball and the thrilled yells of the players conceived the loud way the pair let themselves fall against the baseball field fence once Yato considered they were far enough from highschool. Hiyori locked her fingers around the square holes on that fence, trying to catch her breath and finish processing what just had happened.
Never, in her entire life, she had run that much. She had never ran away from school with the headmaster chasing her back. She had never climbed a tree and definitely never had fallen asleep in class. Of course, she never thought about discovering a rock band to obsess over, nor she had stayed awake so many hours past midnight listening song after song. "I'm so screwed," she thought. A silent laughter brought her back from her own mind. Yato was sitting on the floor with the back against the fence. His hand was covering his eyes and by each passing moment his laughter was becoming louder.
"What's so funny?" asked Hiyori, chest still hurting and breathing heavily.
"Shoulda seen your face!" he said, "seemed like the world was gonna end at the moment!" the man continued laughing, and Hiyori felt how her cheeks were turning red. She stood up and did the first time that came to her mind: throw her school briefcase to his stomach. Yato let out a loud and painful huff.
"I'm sorry but I don't see exactly which part you find funny!" she said, with her hands on her hips and leaning forward to look straight into his eyes. "I'm practically running away from school! I honestly doubt this will look good in my good behavior report!"
Yato took her briefcase with both hands, looked straight to her and raised an eyebrow.
"Minutes ago I thought you barely knew how to speak and now you're using words too big for you," he smiled and got up, "but anyways, I think you should be thankful to me," he handed Hiyori her briefcase with a graceful gesture, and smiled. This was too much for her to handle, was this guy being serious?
"…the hell are you talking about?! You practically made me run away from my teachers!" Hiyori panicked as she spoke, "And my headmaster -In fact I think the whole school saw me running away with a complete stranger!"
"Well," said Yato, beginning to walk with the hands tucked inside his jersey's pockets, "it's really weird someone jumps the school fence to talk to a random stranger," he plopped over one of the benches under a tree, by the side of the park trail, "and it's even weirder that the random stranger actually plays along with the lunatic runaway to save her from her teacher's anger."
"So you actually believe you just saved me? The only thing you did was delaying the whole situation! This maybe will make it even worse!"
"Whatever, you don't have to worry about it until later" he said, moving a hand in the air.
"I can't continuously scape from all my problems" Hiyori said, with the most serious expression she could find.
"Oh, really? 'cause I've been doing it 19 years of my life."
Yato closed his mouth shut right there. He had said something very stupid and his cheeks were starting to look red. Hiyori looked at him, amazed, trying to contain her laugh. When she realized that Yato was embarrassed to the point of not looking at her, Hiyori sat next to him, on the bench.
"I'm sorry, but I can't thank you for this". Yato looked at her, completely confused.
"Oh, you're saying that my considerate action doesn't deserve a thank you? That's so unpolite!" Yato posed as offended, crossing his arms. Hiyori was intrigued about his attitude swings. She closed her eyes and turned to face the wall in front of her.
"I can't thank nothing to someone whose name I don't even know yet." The silence made Hiyori look at Yato with the corner of her eye. She found extremely hard to believe the same guy from the pictures, the virtuous guitarist from a popular rock band, was this goofy guy, looking at her suspiciously, sitting on a park bench, with a snapback hat facing backwards and a really weird attire, a jersey and boots.
"You mean you really don't know who I am?" asked Yato, more for himself. She chose to maintain the façade.
"Why? Should I know?"
"Where is your self-preservation instinct? I could be on the most wanted list or even a Shapeshifter."
"In any of those cases you wouldn't be here outside in broad daylight."
"Wow, miss-well-articulated, you know what a Shapeshifter is, I thought you didn't had TV."
"What, you think I'm amish or something like that?"
"Well, you certainly speak funny."
"Oh, so you think speaking politely and correctly is to live away from society and technology?"
"Uhm…" Yato was suddenly out of retorts.
"Anyways, the one that seems to be uncommunicated with the world is the person who doesn't has enough decency to simply introduce themselves and goes out there without any sense of personal style."
"Whats wrong with my clothes, granny?!"
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING GRANNY?!" Hiyori stomped hard on Yato's foot, who apologized immediately. They both sighed. Yato stood up and placed himself in front of her. Hiyori stood up by reflection.
"M-my name is Fu… I'm Yato!"
"Yato," repeated Hiyori, with a dreamy voice. It was actually him. "Nice meeting you, Yato-san, my name is Iki Hiyori." She made a small reverence. "May our relationship be rewarding."*
"How old-!" Yato interrupted his mouth when Hiyori shot him a murderer look and also did a little bow, with his hand on the nape of his neck."Uh… same to you"**
After a brief, ackward moment in which they just smiled at eachother, Yato spoke again.
"You called me Yato-san"
"Well, yeah, I barely know you," added her, a bit confused, "but if you like, I can call you Yato".
"What about Yato-sama?" he asked, with a big smile. Hiyori looked at him again, with a blank expression.
"I'm not going to treat you like a deity, Yato!"
"You already took away the -san" Yato cried.
"What other way should I call you?"
"Sometimes he answers for 'idiot'" added another voice, "'damn bastard' also works, or 'asshole', depending on the occasion."
The blond kid with middle school uniform standing in front of the expending machines next to the fence opened his can of juice and gave it a loud gulp, while Yato got close to him with a menacing face and raising an accusatory finger at him.
"H-hey you! Kid! Shuddup!"
The kid ignored him completely, he pushed away Yato's arm with his free hand and slowly came close to Hiyori, who was quite intrigued -and nervous, at being face to face with SHRINE's bassist.
"My name is Tendou Yukine!***" said the blond, and smiled, "how d'ya do?" He was cute. Hiyori watched as he sat were Yato was, and the later also came close, giving big strides and an exasperated huff.
"My name is Iki Hiyori!" she said, smiling.
"You're being too friendly now!" claimed Yato.
"I suppose he already thanked you for saving his life" Yukine asked, giving another sip to his apple juice.
"He tried."
"ARE YOU IGNORING ME?!"
"Goddamnit, you're too damn noisy! Sit!" snapped Yukine, massaging his forehead with his fingers.
"Are you seeing a collar around my neck, brat!?"
"I am seeing excessively ridiculous clothes, even for you!"
"Oh so you're also gonna give me that?"
"Bet you woke up late as hell and you threw over yourself the first thing you could find."
Yato let out a "Tch!" and ended up sitting at the other side of Hiyori, who didn't know if it was better to buy a juice to excuse herself and let them finish their argument or just laugh. Her face was choosing the second option.
"Well, if he already thanked you, I have to take him with me now," Yukine smiled. Hiyori's smile faded out, and Yato snapped back.
"Take me where?!"
"Kofuku misses you."
"You don't say!" Yato crossed both arms and legs, "she coulda' told me that herself. I'm not moving."
Yukine had had enough.
"Do you always have to act as a fucking brat?!" Yato turned his nose to the sky with his face away from Yukine. The kid rubbed his face with his palms, exasperated. "Okay, Tenjin called. He wants to see us at home. Happy? Now let's go."
Hiyori was wondering who Kofuku and Tenjin were, when Yato stood up and walked a few steps.
"Say, Hiyori," she jumped a bit, surprised. He had caught her by surprise, "do you still want to know who I am?"
It took them an hour and forty minutes to arrive to a nice residential area at the outskirts of the city. Hiyori almost had a rage attack when she realized where they actually were and that it should have taken them half the time to arrive… if Yato didn't insisted in taking confuse and alternative paths. Yukine simply let him be, arguing he was trying to cover his footprints. Yato was too odd of a guy. So weird that his own existence was odd in itself. Yukine didn't bothered to explain more about why was Yato always so defensive, so she didn't do any attempt of asking further. Somehow she felt Yukine wasn't entirely agree with her coming, and she could certainly understand. Walking through meandering streets, at sunset, she began to wonder how much more time will this façade last. To be honest she didn't even knew why she chose to act as if she didn't knew anything. Looking at Yato's back from behind, covered from his black jersey, she concluded she needed to know more about this guy. He was just too inconstant, too mysterious, too… Yato stopped suddenly and with a feline movement he turned around to see her. His blue eyes pierced Hiyori's ones and she imagined that's the feeling a prey gets. Se surprised again when the guy's face changed into a soft smile.
"We're not that far away now," and kept walking. Hiyori tried to regulate the sudden rush in her heart while trying to pay attention to the path they were following. Once to the right, two to the left and they were finally in front of a long brickwall decorated with a bush asleep because of the cold of the incoming winter. It surely was lovely on spring, but right now Hiyori felt it was doing nothing to solve a little bit the ominous feeling she suddenly got. Who was this Kofuku? Who was Tenjin?
A little beyond the brick wall, a white fence closed the path to a little cobble street, framed by tall cypress trees illuminated by built-in lights in the road. That road meandered a bit and finally it turned abruptly to the left, hiding the rest of the property away. Over an edge of the fence they had a switch connected to an intercom, and Yukine pushed it with enthusiasm.
"You love doin' that, don'cha?" Said Yato to the boy.
"Now you will have to say hello because you're an idiot."
Yato was about to snap back when a dreamy and young voice andswered Yukine's ring.
"Helloooooo?!" sang the voice. Hiyori thought it was very funny that such a small kid responed the intercom, but somehow she felt relieved.
"H-Hey, Kofuku! Um… It's been a while, huh?" Yato spoke, doubting.
"YATTY-CHAN!" after her supersonic yell, the voice became muffled as she had turned around, "Daikoku! Yatty-chan came to see us!" Again the little voice could be heard clear, "come in! we were waiting for you!"
A loud metallic "clack" was heard after a buzz, and Yukine pushed one of the halves of the gates inside, holding it for Yato and Hiyori to follow him.
What from the outside looked just as a simple garden, from the inside it revealed a place full with comfort. To the left it was a pool covered in black plastic, to the right a terrace with a wooden gazebo decorated with white string lights. The gravel cracked nicely below Hiyori's shoes, that almost didn't noticed they were turning left already. The twist on the road gave view to an spectacular fountain surrounded by some kind of parking lot. Hiyori saw several cars parked in it, and her attention was stolen from the huge black hummer, and for what evidently seemed like a Subaru of an intense blue shade, poorly covered with a dusty cloth. A little beyond was the residence, a California style construction, vanilla color with blue roofing. The lightning gave her the impression of entering a place within a dream. Her eyes went from one place to the other, the clear fountain, the white door with crystals that allowed her to see the hughe chandelier dangling in the stairs on the inside, the cypress that surrounded them, Yato, the wood entrance with beveled glass, the marble floor, the threatening figure raising in front of them with crossed limbs.
Hiyori stopped at the sight of him. No matter where you looked at him from, the guy looked like a Yakuza hitman, with a pink shirt rolled up above his elbows unbuttoned down to the chest, 3-day beard and a lit cigarette between his lips. So that's what this was all about? The house, the luxury, Yato's anxiety? Hiyori began to panic for following two completely rather strangers to the house of someone who looked like that, when Yato tried to say hello to that guy with good vibe, failing at the security of his voice.
"H-hey, Daikoku, long time no see huh!"
Daikoku furred his eyebrows.
*Hiyori used the standard Japanese to introduce herself, in contrast with Yato which was entirely different and informal. "Douzo yoroshiku onegai shimasu" , which is the phrase you usually end your introducing, literally means ""May our relationship be rewarding."
** Yato also used a formality here, by answering "Kochira kozo".
***"Tendou" reads "heaven" or "cherub", depending on the reading of the kanji. I think it suits him.