It was decided that in the fight against the Sorcerer they could use all the help they would get, so the morning that the Dragon Warrior and The Striking Six were to begin the long journey to the Forest of Despair they were joined by Takemikazuchi and Kiun.

"You sure you're ready to face the Sorcerer?" Yato asked them, not looking up from where he was fastening his saddle.

"Are you?" Take replied.

Yato chuffed. "Honestly, I'm not. But I know it's time."

"You're going to be fine," Kazuma said. "Your training has been going incredibly well. The Sorcerer won't know what hit him." Yato smiled at him, grateful for the encouragement, but still not entirely believing him.

Don't get into your own head, he scolded himself.

And so, the warriors set out with little further discussion, riding as fast as their horses would take them towards what they hoped would be the end of a centuries-long conflict. All of them knew that they could each die when they reached their destination, but when they did speak, they kept their mood light.

What use was it to spend their final days consumed with fear and sorrow?

"If we're to fight such an important battle together we should know each other a little better," Take said when they stopped to rest for the night. Not one of the assembled crew mistook the mischief glinting in his eyes.

"What do you want to know?" Yato asked warily.

"What was it like? Living in the compound with the others?" Take asked. Yato took a long breath, carefully considering what he wanted to tell Take.

Though it wasn't actually a secret anymore, Yato wasn't sure anyone had actually bothered to tell Take and Kiun that the Sorcerer was his father, and he also wasn't sure he wanted to discuss that particular detail now. Maybe they had put two and two together on their own, it wasn't exactly a hard connection to make.

"There wasn't much privacy, it felt like we were all tripping over each other, but at least The Sorcerer let us install locks on our doors after a particular… incident," Yato said, face burning at the memory.

"I thought he never gave you any freedom, I can't believe he let you lock your door," Yukine said curiously.

"...well there was a particular incident that was traumatizing for everyone involved, the Sorcerer included," Yato said tightly, feeling his flush deepen as he stared determinedly down into his food.

"What kind of thing would The Sorcerer find emotionally troubling?" Take asked incredulously.

"You know what I'm just not sure that's important."

"I think it is," Take insisted. "What if it could help us, if there's a weakness to exploit."

Yato made a sound that he did not possess the language to describe. "Believe me, it's of no use."

"I don't believe you, actually. Anything could be of use. Tell us what happened!"

"He walked in on me and Rabo being intimate if you must know!"

The entire circle reacted at once, Yukine practically shouted in horror, Bishamon physically recoiled, Take spit his drink all over Kiun, who leaped back, shouting, and Hiyori said 'oh no' in a very high-pitched voice.

"You're kidding," Take said when he recovered. Yato buried his burning face in his hands and shook his head.

"He tried giving us the talk after that. It was horrible. Hands down the worst thing I've ever experienced. He had diagrams. I made a break for it right then and there and he had to tackle me to the ground. Rabo and I couldn't look at each other for a week. He still knocks, even if the door is wide open. That was the only time I've ever heard him scream," Yato said into his hands.

"That might be the worst story I've ever heard," Take said, voice soft with horror. "The Sorcerer." Yato shuddered, shaking the memory off.

It was a long journey to the Forest of Despair, and there were many nights around the campfire spent laughing and talking, though none revealed any information as viscerally horrifying as Yato had the first night. Still, he was starting to think that he may actually like Take and Kiun, and perhaps that one day they might all be friends. Certainly, it was entertaining to watch them find things to fuss about when no rational person would be fussing over them.

"I'm starting to pity my dad, if Nora and I act anything like this," Yato said behind his head to Kazuma one day as Take and Kiun had some meaningless argument that no one even could determine the origin of.

"I'm starting to pity us because we're the ones who are going to have to live with the two of you from now on."

Yato winced. "We'll be good," he promised.

"Doubt it," Kazuma replied. Yato would have been offended, except Take had said something unnecessarily mean to Kiun and Kiun was giving him the silent treatment.

"Okay, I'm certain that Nora and I never acted like this," Yato said.

"Well, that's a relief to hear," Kazuma said. The two of them watched while Take and Kiun made up and were suddenly thankful they lived in different temples.

Yato didn't feel as nervous as he'd expected as they rode towards his childhood home. This was the first time he was returning of his own will, and there was something different when it was his choice when he came back under his own power rather than being dragged back. He hadn't expected the power that that choice had granted him.

The morning that the assembled warriors were to breach the Forest of Despair dawned without fanfare, feeling both different and the same as it had before. Yato had lived this morning dozens of times before, and much like his friends now, who were all careful of Yato, Rabo, and even Nora would be particularly kind to him. Yato had known their missions to retrieve him were a strain on all of them, and on certain occasions he'd caught both of them looking rather ill, knowing what was to come. Today his friends were smiling, offering him seconds, and offering reassurances that he hadn't asked for.

If any of them were surprised by Yato's composure they didn't show it, but he was surprising himself by feeling calm and just shy of confident. So when they mounted their horses and took the last few miles towards the Forest of Despair, Yato was able to grip the reins without trembling.

Yato stopped his horse several yards short of the Edge of the Forest of Despair. This, too, was a familiarity from his past life. Rabo would always stop here, just for a few moments, to allow Yato time to brace himself in whatever way he could manage, but never for long. Rabo was someone who believed in ripping off the bandage, the faster the better, and maybe he was right. Spending longer stalling outside the Forest of Despair would only force Yato to spend more time wrapped up in his fear.

Yato turned his head slowly from the Forest of Despair to look at his friends. "Kazuma?" He asked. Kazuma nudged his horse forward so they were side by side and furrowed his brow in focus.

"Well, there aren't any chi users ahead, at least," he said blandly, knowing that the Forest was likely crawling the Sorcerer's Phantoms.

"Well," Yato said, adopting some of Rabo's mentality, "standing out here isn't going to make this any less of a trap," Yato said eventually.

The group dismounted and tied the reins of their horses to the trees at the edge of the woods. Yato cast his senses around the forest just for the hell of it. Kazuma was still better than him at it, but Yato felt that it was a necessary measure for the sake of his pride. He took the lead as they stepped beneath the canopy. As the only person who had been to the Forest of Despair or even met his Father, he was the best one suited to spotting traps that may have been laid out for them.

Except there weren't.

The further into the forest they got without encountering a trap of any kind the more uneasy Yato became. It felt like Father was opening his arms wide and daring him to come in for a hug. Every snap of a twig seemed like an alarm to Yato, and he was only getting jumpier.

Yato's racing thoughts and pounding heart were driving him to distraction, almost causing him to miss the tripwire, but at the last minute it caught the light and saved him from whatever ugly fate had been in store for him. He observed it carefully while the others stepped over it. More than anything it felt like this trap had been left behind, forgotten. They ran into no more traps after that.

"Is anyone else freaked out that Yato was so insistent there would be a fuck ton of traps, but we've only run into one?" Yukine asked.

"Language," the adults chorused.

"The Sorcerer is probably trying to psych us out, don't let him. There's probably an ambush set up somewhere, so stay on your guard."

They walked on in silence for several more minutes before a snapping twig to their left caught everyone's attention just in time to see an arrow fly out of the woods for Hiyori's heart. An instant before it pierced her chest she snatched it out of the air, halting Yato's cry of alarm, his fingers outstretched uselessly. He barely had time to think that was so fucking hot before a hundred combatants poured out of the trees from all directions and they were fighting for their lives.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Yato called, knocking a Phantom out with a hard punch to the jaw and ducking under the attack of another.

The other fighters were too busy, well, fighting, to comment on Yato's smugness.

For every Phantom they disabled three more took their place. It seemed Father's strategy was a simple numbers game: to overwhelm them so that even if they made it to him, they would be exhausted. Coward. He must have raided all the nearby villages and taken the entire population to gain a force of this size after they'd taken out so many of his soldiers at the Jade Palace.

Take buried his sword in the chest of a Phantom and Yato cried out in indignation.

"They're not in control!"

"We can't save any of them if they kill us!"

Cull the herd.

The force of the echo nearly knocked Yato off his feet. He had been wrong about the purpose of this ambush. Father had been trying to force Yato back into the cold place of bloodlust that he'd fought so hard to get out of. Well, it wouldn't work. He wouldn't kill any of these people like he would have mere months ago.

A sharp pain in his forearm snapped him back to the present and he shouted, tearing the blade out of his flesh and using it to throw off the Phantom who had just attacked him.

"We're never going to get through all of these people!"

"You guys go ahead! We'll handle the Phantoms!" Kiun said, punching one in the face so hard they collapsed.

"What do you mean by handle?" Yato asked, glaring at Take.

"We'll hold them off," Take growled.

"There's too many!" Yukine said. "They'll overtake you!"

"Not if you hurry up and kill the guy controlling them!" Take snapped, disabling another Phantom and looking annoyed.

"We'll stay back and help!" Bishamon said. "You three go on ahead!"

The idea of splitting up made Yato's skin crawl. As long as they were in his sight he could keep Father from stealing them away, but they were right, and he knew it. He had to defeat his father, as soon as possible, not only to save his friends but to save the Phantoms they were fighting too.

"Hiyori, Yukine, Up!" Yato shouted. The three of them shoved through the onslaught and bounded up nearby trees while the remaining fighters closed ranks.

Bow strings sang and arrows sunk into the trees around them. Hiyori cried out as one clipped her, nearly crashing to the ground. She was saved only by her naginata getting tangled in the tree branches, suspending her in the air above their attackers. Yato watched in horror as arrows whizzed past her, two grazing her skin and one lodging in her leg before she managed to right herself and scrambled away into the canopy. She reached down and snapped off the shaft of the arrow then leaped into the next tree, slashing foliage out of her way.

They really hadn't thought this escaping through the foliage thing through, Yato realized, as a quick glance to his right told him that Yukine was having the same difficulties with his long weapon.

"Yato, keep going!" Hiyori shouted.

Yato glanced down at the Phantoms that were firing on them before hurrying after his family. Yato took the lead, cutting down branches to rain down on the heads of their pursuers and clear the path for Hiyori and Yukine with their cumbersome weapons. Their efforts slowed the Phantoms enough for them to gain a lead, and eventually they were out of sight.

They continued leaping from tree to tree until a familiar glinting caught Yato's eyes and he shouted for the others to stop. He landed unbalanced on a tree branch and nearly fell before he caught himself.

"What is it?" Hiyori asked, stopping much more gracefully than he did despite her injured leg.

"I think it's a tripwire," he said, indicating it with the tip of his sword.

"Up this high?"

"I guess dear old Dad really does know all of my tricks."

"Should we move to the ground? It'll be easier to spot traps down there," Yukine suggested.

"Yeah," Hiyori agreed. "We'll make better time without Yukine and my weapons getting in the way." Yukine nodded and the three of them dropped back to the forest floor. Hiyori cried out as her injured leg was jarred in the fall and she collapsed. Yato and Yukine both reached for her, but she brushed them off.

"I'm fine, we need to keep going."

They did a quick check for nearby booby traps before running on ahead. They were almost to the compound now, just a few more minutes of running and they broke through the tree line. Yato's chest gave a predictable squeeze and twinge of fear as his eyes landed on the facade of his former home. He swallowed that fear in favor of peering at the two people who were leaning against the stoop; a man of average height and a short girl dressed all in white.

"Nora, Fujisaki," Yato greeted by way of explanation. "I wasn't expecting my old man to post you as a guard, spy." Fujisaki's lips curled upwards in a smile that made Yato's skin crawl.

"Who says I'm a spy, Hollow?" Fujisaki's voice slithered up Yato's spine and wormed its way into his ears. Yato eyed the sword on his hip.

"So, you do fight, I always wondered. I guess the next question is are you good enough to take on one of the Striking Six, or did my father just send you to your death?"

"I suppose you'll see."

"Yato, Yukine and I will keep Fujisaki and Nora busy, you go ahead and deal with your Father."

"How ambitious," Fujisaki hummed.

Yukine and Hiyori sprang forward, engaging the two sentinels in combat so that Yato could sprint past them and into the building. He didn't bother to slow his pace to look for traps, he knew there would be none, and he knew exactly where he was going.

He slowed to a walk before he crossed through the threshold into the parlor, supremely unsurprised to see Father sitting calmly at the end of the room like he always had. Yato paused just inside the door and glanced around the familiar room, his decades-old screams echoing off the walls. He ignored them. They existed only in his memory now.

"Yaboku, so nice of you to drop by."

"I see that I was expected."

"Yes, I do hope that you liked the welcoming committee."

"It was fantastic, there really is no place like home," Yato replied shortly. He readied his weapons and took several more steps into the room so he wasn't just hovering in the door. Father raised his eyebrows.

"Are you going to stand and fight or will you give me the pleasure of killing you easily?"

"I can assure you I will not be easy to kill, even if you are now in control of your own chi," Father said, climbing to his feet. The rings on his staff jangled as he lifted it from the ground and tapped the end on the ground twice. Yato chuffed. So, Father had felt the severance of his hold on Yato.

"Once I defeat you and kill those people you've brought into our home, I'll have to ask you how you broke my spells, so I can fix that for next time."

"Next time you steal my chi or next time you steal a boy?"

"I would tell you, but I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

Having no desire to continue the conversation, Yato sprang into action. His sword collided with his father's staff with an almighty clanging as the impact set the rings jangling loudly. Father wore his usual unconcerned expression like his weapon hadn't just made the loudest and most obnoxious sound that Yato had ever had the displeasure of hearing.

Well, this fight is gonna be fun, Yato groaned internally.

"Nora told me you killed Rabo, I must say I was proud. I never approved of your attachment to him," Father said, with no apparent plans to shut his mouth anytime soon.

Yato gritted his teeth in anger and spun on the spot, hammering both his swords into his father's staff, setting off another round of ear-splitting jangling. Even more aggravating than Father's words was the fact that Yato's attack hadn't moved him an inch. Not even a tiny little baby one.

He's fucking with your mind, don't respond.

"But of course, your infatuation with him helped keep you in line, and he was a magnificent killer, so I let him live. I never expected you to kill him yourself. You're more like me than I gave you credit for."

The words struck something deep and sensitive inside Yato and he lashed out, screaming, with a kick aimed at his father's head to wipe that stupid grin off his face. He screamed again when the Sorcerer dodged. Cool amusement was met with unbridled hate and rage as Yato slashed for his father's throat.

"I'm nothing like you," he shouted, unable to keep a hint of desperation from his own voice. He slammed his knee into his father's side and was rewarded with a satisfying whoosh of air from his lungs before the butt of the staff slammed into Yato's temple, sending him stumbling back several steps with stars in his eyes.

"You've let yourself go," his father teased.

"So, have you," Yato said, pointing at his father's temple, where his curly black hair was just starting to stick to his skin, dampened with sweat. "Is it just me or are you actually having to try to fight me? Tsk, tsk. You should be ashamed, but don't worry, I think you and Tenjin could start an out of shape old timer's club."

Take's sides were heaving with effort, his vision starting to blur with exhaustion, but still, he pressed on, because none of the Striking Six were showing their fatigue yet and he'd be damned if he were the first one in this group to show signs of weakness. They still stood in their loose circle to fend off the Phantoms that still hadn't fallen. Or maybe they had, and they were just getting up again. At least they had finally seemed to stop increasing in number.

They were at a severe disadvantage. They couldn't morally kill the people who were coming after them, at least not without the Dragon Warrior bitching and moaning about it when he got back. Not that it was entirely possible to avoid injuring or even killing the Phantoms accidentally. This was a battle and a lot could go wrong in it, and there were so many Phantoms, none of whom were limited by the same no-killing-whenever-possible restriction that they were.

Still, it was a sure thing that this day would see its share of grief by its end.

All of the Six were sporting injuries inflicted by people who were not in control, but who were nonetheless vying very hard for their blood. Occasionally there was simply no choice but to disable the enemy permanently to avoid dying themselves.

Daikoku grabbed two phantoms and slammed their heads together, knocking them both out and then throwing them into the onslaught of attacking Phantoms. Bishamon didn't have the space to use either of her main weapons and was forced to fight hand to hand with only a small dagger to defend herself. Her arms were a tapestry of cuts and gashes, though she was no less a terrifying force of nature, her long hair whipping about as she took down opponent after opponent, fierce glare never showing her fatigue.

Kofuku's line of vision was a blur of friends and enemies. Even though she was attacking mostly with the blunt in of her fans, digging them into pressure points, she still occasionally had to slash with the blades, and her skirt was splattered with an alarming amount of blood. It was mostly her own, which was more alarming to her husband, she was certain, not that he could tell precisely whose blood was covering her in the midst of all this. She hadn't had time to assess all her wounds, but she trusted that if they were too bad for her to continue fighting her husband would have advised her to flee, so she assumed that she was fine for now at least. That might not be the case for much longer, but she couldn't afford to waiver here.

Although it did seem like the ranks were starting to thin, but that was only if the ones they had knocked down stayed down. There had already been a few they'd had to knock out twice, and if this continued they'd have no choice but to start fighting to kill or else their own lives would be ending here.

As it turned out Fujisaki could fight, and well. Not too well, though. Hiyori was confident she was winning, even if he was fixing her with a smug grin and they were both breathing heavily, covered in cuts and bruises.

"You're better than I thought you would be."

"You expected the Sorcerer to employ a spy that couldn't defend themself?"

"AHA!" Hiyori shouted, drawing curious glances from the other dueling pair. "So, you admit it! You are a spy!" Fujisaki looked baffled by her tone. Maybe he'd already forgotten he'd given Yato the runaround on whether or not he was a spy. He had probably done it just to piss Yato off.

"Yes…" he said slowly. Hiyori smiled smugly, meeting Fujisaki's confused and amused expression.

Not that it mattered that he'd confessed because once she killed him, he was going to be a corpse and not a spy.

Still, she danced into her next attack with renewed vigor, slashing at his creepy smiling face. He blocked the attack and swept her feet out from under her. She used the pole of her naginata to vault herself out of his attack range and coughed when she hit the ground hard, Several small rocks digging harshly into her back. Hiyori pried herself off the ground, glaring at Fujisaki but wondering how Yato was doing inside against his father. She and Yukine had to do was keep these two out here and off of Yato's back or he would be doomed.

She glanced over at where Yukine was locked in combat but didn't have very much time to observe him.

Yukine didn't wince this time when his staff cracked against Nora's skull. She stumbled back, sword raised in defense and one eye closed in a wince. Knowing that any mercy he offered would be taken advantage of, Yukine kept his eyes and his heart stone cold, emulating Yato's frozen demeanor during fights. He wasn't sure how well he was managing, but he thought he may at least be getting the point across that he wasn't going to be falling for her tricks again.

If he could just disable her or keep her busy until Yato killed their father he remained convinced that his sister would see reason. Nora was glaring at him from underneath the many knots he'd knocked on her head in an attempt to do just that, knock her out without killing her, but she just wouldn't go down. He was starting to worry that he was going to give her brain damage.

Nora shook her head and shot back at him, spinning in the air to give her attack more velocity. The force of her sword against his staff chipped the wood and he squeaked in alarm. It had taken so much damage recently he'd probably need a new one. Not that that was a bad thing, he was starting to outgrow it anyway, and he'd probably have changed to a larger one soon anyway. Nora followed through with her attack with her entire body, slamming into him and bringing them both to the ground. He scrambled to get out from under her as she snatched up a rock and slammed it against his head. The nasty look in her eye told him this was revenge for all the knots he'd given her.

She really will attack with anything, huh? He thought, remembering Yato's story about the wooden spoon.

"You're trying to destroy our family!" She shrieked.

"What kind of family is it, really?" Yukine shouted back.

He felt hot blood spilling down his temple where she'd struck him and snatched his staff up, using it to shove Nora away. Knocking the rock out of her hand, he forced himself back onto his feet and towards Nora, who slashed at the backs of his fingers. Yukine was ready this time and dodged the attack.

"It's all I've got!" She shouted back, surprising Yukine with the note of desperation in her voice.

Father leaped back at Yato and their melee began again. He slashed open Yato's cheek with the sharpened end of his staff while Yato focused his chi in his fist and slammed it into Father's gut. A shockwave exploded from the point of impact and flung his father back several feet. Yato allowed himself a sigh.

Ah, that was satisfying.

"I've actually gotten pretty good at this chi thing," Yato said, doing a quick survey of his mental walls and was glad to find them intact.

"Oh, I didn't realize we were fighting with chi," Father said, climbing to his feet and bracing his staff out in front of him. "You may have learned a few new tricks but never forget that I'm the master."

As Yato watched his father's chi spread from his hands to engulf his entire staff in glowing energy, he realized that he may be more out of his league than he had originally thought.

"Shit," he hissed, not realizing he'd spoken out loud until his father's face twitched in amusement.

Yato took two steps back, searching his mind frantically for an idea of how to block a weapon like that. It might shatter his swords if he didn't maintain his chi well enough around them, not that he was ever certain he could extend his chi like that. Until six seconds ago he hadn't even known it was possible. He would probably need several years of practice to mimic that effect.

He tried anyway, but couldn't extend his own chi any further than the handles of his own swords before it became too thin and shattered like glass. Frankly, he was surprised he'd managed any effect at all. The glow of Father's chi engulfed weapons lit Father's terrifying smile below like something from a ghost story. Yato gulped.

Father leaped forward, swinging his chi engulfed staff towards Yato, who shifted both his swords into his left hand at the same time he encased his right hand in chi and reached out to catch the attack. The only thing that kept him from closing his eyes in preparation for pain was the years of battle training he'd received from his current opponent.

Both of them froze when their chi collided. The actual blade of the staff remained several inches from his hand, the space between the two occupied by their auras, burning and crackling against one another, fighting for dominance in the small space. The faintest flicker of shock flickered across his father's face before it smoothed once more into his usual cold smile.

"You'll never defeat me, Yaboku. Even if you kill me, I have ways of coming back."

"Oh, I know about those, Amaterasu told me everything." This time the shock in Father's face lasted for longer than a flicker of a second, it splashed across his features and mixed with rage. "Weren't expecting that, were you? Your old friend gave me exactly what I need to send you to the spirit world and keep you there. I wonder if she'll be waiting for you? But don't worry, I'll take good care of Nora once you're gone. We're going to be free from you forever."

Father began attacking with the force of a rage Yato had never seen from him before. He almost never expressed true anger like this, he just kept smiling that cruel smile and inflicting terrible pain while he did. Yato had never seen him like this and it honestly frightened him. Not in the same way he feared what was behind the smile, but in the way of a man who has stumbled into the den of a sleeping bear fears the animal he has awoken.

Despite the fear, the change almost made things easier. Yato could stop thinking of the person in front of him as his dad. The man he'd known, if he'd ever really existed, had disappeared behind this wall of rage. He hoped the wall wouldn't come down because it would be easier to kill him like this, like putting down a rabid animal.

A flash of movement in his peripheral vision alarmed him before Father's boot swung for his side. Yato blocked the attack an inch from his abdomen, crying out when a blade slid between the bones of his palm.

"What the hell?" Yato shouted, leaping away and gaping at his bloody palm. "Are there knives in your fucking shoes you psychopath?"

"You're so weak, never willing to do what needed to be done unless I made you," his father seemed to have regained his composure, his voice smooth like glass again.

"That's insane! And it didn't even work!"

"It's hard to believe you're really my son."

"I'm not!" Yato shouted. "You stole me! Like a psycho who steals boys and has knife shoes!"

"You really need to get over the knife shoes."

"No! It's fucking weird! Where did you even get them?"

His father glanced down at his shoes and shrugged. "It was pretty popular with bandits back in my day."

"I don't care, that's crazy!" Yato shouted, gesturing wildly with his bleeding hand and splattering blood everywhere. His father wiped a few drops of it off his face as Yato ripped off the hem of his pants to wrap hastily around his bleeding hand.

Once that was done, he focused his chi in his fists again, lunging for his father, this time on the lookout for the knife shoes. He almost thought that he'd broken his father's neck with the punch to the face until Father's other fist swung up and dealt a crushing blow to Yato's chest. Yato went flying back and crashed into a wall, wheezing when all the air was forced out of him. He tried to convince his bruised lungs to take in a complete inhale to no avail. This was worse than the time the crazy diner lady had broken all of his bones.

He focused his entire will on creating a beam of chi like Tenjin had shown him and shot it at his approaching father, who barely had to move to dodge out of the way. He smirked, and Yato realized too late what his father was so smug about.

He had been so focused on creating a powerful chi beam he'd forgotten about his mental wall.

"It's all I've got and you're trying to take it away from me!" Nora shouted, punching Yukine in the face. "You've brainwashed him!"

"Us?" Yukine shouted back incredulously. "Your trash dad literally took away his free will when he was being unruly! That's literal brainwashing!"

"He never wanted to leave forever before you came along!"

"He literally always wanted to leave! That's why he kept, you know, leaving!" Yukine snapped, kicking Nora hard in the stomach.

She hit the ground on her hands and knees, grunting, before she flung herself back at him. "It's your fault he left us behind!"

"It's your psycho dad he left behind! All he ever talks about is saving you from him!"

"So, I'm just supposed to let you kill my dad?" Nora cried, thrusting her sword forward so Yukine had to leap back to avoid being stabbed.

"He's not your dad! He stole you from my real parents! He probably killed them!"

"My parents deserved to die! They tried to kill me! Father saved my life!"

"Where are we going?" She asked, looking up at her mother.

Her mother was acting strangely. Something had come over her this morning like a ghost, and she'd been stiff and distant, with eyes that stared at nothing all morning until she'd gotten to her feet and told her to come to the well with her.

"Is everything okay?"

Something the young girl couldn't read came across her mother's face, but it was gone in an instant. "Of course, it's okay, sweetie," she said in the empty tone that raised the little girl's hackles.

"Mommy, mommy, can I help get the water from the well?" She asked, hoping that if she was a good enough little girl that Mommy would start feeling better.

"Of course, sweetheart," her mother replied, still a thousand miles away.

They reached the well and her mother took the bucket from where it was hanging above the well and pulled it away, setting it on the ground next to them.

"Mommy, if we're getting water why did you put the bucket on the ground?"

"Don't worry," her mother replied, hoisting the little girl up by her armpits. "Everything is going to be okay."

The little girl protested, trying to free herself as her mother lifted her up, that empty calm in her voice setting the little girl's teeth on edge. Her protests turned to screams as her mother lifted her above the stone barrier around the well, then morphed into a terrified shriek when the hands that had been holding her vanished, and she was suddenly plummeting down, down, down, into the dark.

The little girl hit the water so hard she almost fainted, but she managed to keep her eyes open and focused on the tiny spot of light above her. She flung her short arms out in both directions, searching for purchase. She didn't know how to swim. She needed to get to the wall to hold herself up. As she tossed about frantically, still shrieking for her mother, her small fingers brushed the stone wall and she flung herself towards it, clinging onto it desperately.

"Mommy! Mommy, help!" She screamed, her tiny arms struggling to support her weight as the chill of the water sapped the warmth from her fingers. "I'll be a good girl I promise!"

But her mother's head never appeared in the opening above her, and when she quieted down to hear if maybe her mother was calling for help, if maybe this whole thing had been some terrible mistake, only the sounds of the cold water lapping at the stones met her ears.

"Mommy!" She whined again, tears choking off her voice. She opened her mouth to try to cry out again when a high-pitched female scream tore the air and the little girl screamed in fright.

"MOMMY!" Nora screamed, pressing closer to the wall of the dark well.

A head popped into view above her.

"Mommy?" She whimpered.

"Hello there, little one," the voice called out. The little girl frowned, sniffling, and pressed closer to the wall of the well. She couldn't tell anything about this man's face, he was too far away and the light behind his head was blocking him out.

"Where's my mommy?"

"Your mommy is dead, child," said the impossibly cheerful voice. "How fortunate for you, because she was going to leave you here to die. Poor pathetic child, loved by no one, not even her own mother."

The little girl opened her mouth and began to wail loudly. The man was silent for a few moments, leaning comfortably against the stone wall of the well, content to listen to her misery until she quieted down enough for him to make his proposal.

"If you're a good little girl and stay quiet I'll save you. I'll even take you home with me and you'll be safe. You're much better off with me than that nasty mommy who killed her child because she couldn't afford to feed her.

The little girl blinked in surprise. Carefully, she lifted her voice to speak to him. "You'll help me?"

"Sure will. I'll be your new father, how's that? I'll take good care of you. Or I could leave you here to die like your mommy did, what say you?"

"Please help me," she whimpered.

The man nodded once, and his head disappeared briefly before appearing next to the bucket. "I'm going to send this down and you climb in and hold tight."

She did as she was told, and seconds later the rope was engulfed in a crackling golden light and she was being hoisted up and out of the darkness, then being pulled into the arms of a man she'd never seen before.

"Let's go home now, shall we?"

When she pulled back to look at the face of her new father her eyes moved past his shaggy black hair and landed on the splatter of blood across his face. Her mother's blood. A knife of fear dug into her heart before a shiver wracked her body and she remembered how cold the water in the well had been.

It served her right.

"That's… I'm so sorry," Yukine said softly, unsure how to react to the information. "...but, Yato loves you, and he's not going to hurt you just because you don't do what he says just like our parents did. That's not love."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you know about it?" She asked, though Yukine suspected she already knew the answer.

He thought about the scars covering his own body and bit his lip. "A lot," he said thickly.

Everything was fine.

That's right. It was fine. Why had he been so angry a moment ago? Everything was fine and the voice in his head was so soothing, so calming. A warm fuzzy feeling filled him up and put him at ease.

Get up.

He climbed out of the wall and stood, ignoring the protest in his joints and injuries. They were fine. Everything was fine.

Sheathe your swords.

He did as he was told. Why wouldn't he?

A soft chuckling passed in one of his ears and out the other, briefly raising the hair on his neck, but it settled again quickly enough.

"You've always been so easy to control, Yaboku."

Control? What did he mean by that?

"Now go be a dear and kill your friends."

Friends? Like Rabo? Rabo was dead, Yato had already killed him.

A current of displeasure filled his mind, covering up the wash of grief the thought of Rabo had brought. Yato frowned. Who was he supposed to kill? Why was Father upset with him?

"Kill the intruders, Monkey and Crane."

Those names stirred something in him, but what? What was it? Oh, right, he was supposed to kill them. His friends.

Yato took a few steps towards the door, already planning how he was going to do it, images of the destruction he would create filling his mind. Bodies in a large pool of blood, golden eyes vacant and staring, a long brown ponytail soaked with red. His feet stalled, heart lurching.

He didn't want to kill them.

Yato saw more images, this time memories: pink eyes light with laughter, a face scrunched with agony beneath a mop of yellow hair, a finger pointing towards a panda, two people using him as a pillow as they watched the clouds go by.

Go, the voice hissed in his mind. Kill them. You want too.

Light-hearted laughter filled his ears, drowning out the voice in his head. His heart swelled.

He didn't want to kill them. He loved them. They were his family. Hiyori and Yukine meant everything to him, why would he want to kill them? He shook his head, trying to clear out the fuzz that had filled it. Was this…? He was being controlled by his father. His father was trying to make him kill his family.

Again.

Yato snarled, fixing furious eyes on his shocked father. He tried to spin around but found himself unable. It seemed his father still had control of his body, if not his mind.

Find him, find the intruder, he heard Kazuma say.

That's right. Another person he loved, Kazuma, who had taught him how to keep control of his own mind and body.

Yato took himself back to the bamboo thicket and peered around carefully for the thing that didn't fit. At first, he couldn't find it, and he cursed himself for picking a place with so many hiding places, but then he shook himself and focused harder. His father would be lingering in the shadows somewhere, so he focused hard and tried to find anything out of place.

There, hovering on the edge of his vision was a mass of shadows that moved unnaturally, and now that he saw it he could feel it, and he couldn't believe he hadn't felt it before, pushing up against him and trying to gain control. Yato focused himself on the mass of shadows and began to shove, feeling a current of shock when he started to succeed. Emboldened, he pushed harder, sinking to the ground with the effort of maintaining this onslaught against his father.

He began to build up his wall again, brick by brick, until he was completely sealed off from his father and he turned to throw a tiredly triumphant smile at his stunned dad.

"I told you, old man, I'm pretty good at this chi thing."

Yato climbed to his feet and curled his hands into fists, forcing his sore muscles to leap forward to strike his father like a snake. Yato imbued his fist with all the chi he could muster on such short notice and struck so hard that his father was thrown across the entire length of the room and crashed into the wall. Yato knew that this was his one and only chance.

Suddenly remembering the way that Kazuma had pinned him to the tree that day in the bamboo thicket, Yato threw his swords at father one after another. One of the swords lodged deeply in his shoulder, making the entire arm useless, while the other slipped through the bones of his wrist and sank into the wood behind it, pinning him in place.

Yato approached slowly, glowering, and hoping that his father was feeling all the fear that he'd ever felt every time he'd ever been dragged into this very room to be punished. Slowly he called forth the spell that Amaterasu had taught him. Father's eyes widened in recognition and he started yanking on his impaled wrist. The blade tore the soft flesh, but the hard bones in the joint kept it from going any further. Still, Father kept pulling and Yato had no doubt that he would tear the limb in two to escape this spell.

Yato delivered the first spell with a bone-cracking punch to his father's sternum. Yato's ears were met with the sound of his ribs cracking and his breath whooshing out of him before a sphere of golden light lit the space between them and began expanding from their point of contact.

The ball of energy grew rapidly, musing Yato's hair and quickly growing large enough to fill the entire room. The line of chi blew past the dueling pairs outside right as Hiyori finally managed to bury her naginata in Fujisaki's chest. It kept on going through the Forest of Despair to the spot where the rest of the warriors were fighting the remaining Phantoms, much the worse for wear and starting to show their exhaustion at last. When the light passed through the Phantoms they dropped like puppets with their strings cut, but it wasn't long before they started stirring again, their minds and bodies returned to them at last.

Yato half laughed and half gasped.

"I returned all the chi you stole and took away the chi you had on your own. You won't be able to break out of the Spirit Realm now. I'd ask if you have any last words, but I don't really give a shit."

Yato planted one hand on his father's forehead and the other on his bruised chest and recited the final incantation that would end his father's reign of terror for good. There were two seconds where nothing happened after he finished where he worried that he had failed, then the quiet whispering of energy dissipating told him it had worked, and he watched as his father's body disappeared. The sword that had still been implanted in his shoulder clattered to the ground.

Yato ripped his blood-stained katana from the wall and fell backward, suddenly off-balance. He landed on his ass beside his wakizashi that had fallen to the ground when his father faded away. The sound of several sets of footsteps thundering toward him barely registered as he stared up at the hole in the wall where his father had been, mere moments ago, still hardly daring to believe it.

Yukine, Nora, and Hiyori all stopped dead when they saw him there like that, on the ground and gaping at nothing. They apparently put two and two together without the need for him to explain it.

"Father?" Nora whimpered.

"You did it!" Hiyori cried.

Too much suffering had occurred here for Yato to let the building stand. He hadn't even bothered with a farewell tour. Once he'd fully processed what had happened and finished with his half-hysterical laughing, with tears streaming down his face, he had realized that Nora was behind him, and that she had collapsed to the ground, crying silently.

It hadn't taken much time to convince her to come with him, though she had screamed and cried at first, she had nowhere else to go, after all, but she wouldn't speak to him.

After that Yato only bothered with two rooms. First, he stopped by Nora's room to check on her packing progress. She didn't respond. Well, I guess that's as good as I can expect, he thought.

He decided to leave her to her packing and her grief and crossed the hall into the room he'd shared with Rabo. The bedclothes were still rumpled like he'd only just stepped out of them, but the hearth was long cold, betraying the rooms abandonment. In a daze, Yato walked out to the porch where he'd sat so often and could almost feel the ghost of Rabo's gaze on his back. The garden was still dead and untended like it had always been, nothing like the carefully groomed grounds of the Jade Palace. Still, after all the time he'd spent staring out at this exact scenery imagining a happy life with Rabo he was almost sorry to say goodbye to it. Almost.

Yato turned away from the garden and strode to their closet, sliding the door open. Nothing that Yato had left behind couldn't be replaced, he was interested only in Rabo's things. One thing in particular. Hiyori had informed him that the people who had gone back and buried Rabo had removed his weapons- his most prized possessions- and they were waiting at the Jade Palace for Yato, his next of kin, to do with as he saw fit.

The only other thing of Rabo's that he couldn't bear to be parted with was the long coat that had been big enough, even on Rabo, for Yato to snuggle up inside with him and shelter from the cold. From time to time Yato had wondered if Rabo had bought it big for that reason or if it had been for weapon concealment. It hardly mattered now, he supposed.

Yato spotted the jacket at once and slipped it from its hook, pressing it to his face and inhaling. It still held Rabo's smell. A sob ripped its way out of Yato's throat without permission and Yato collapsed around it, clutching the jacket to his face like a lifeline. This was all he had left of him, and soon the scent would fade, leaving only the jacket. It wasn't enough. Even now he longed for the warmth and comfort he'd felt being snuggled inside this jacket with Rabo. He would never feel those arms around him again. Several more sobs shook his body, and he let them, muffling his sobs with the sleeves.

Yato allowed himself to cry for several more minutes before he forced himself to regain his composure and straighten back up. He wiped his eyes on his own sleeves and shook his head. On impulse, he grabbed two of Rabo's shirts and rolled them up inside the jacket before turning to leave forever.

Nora was waiting for him outside the door. She glanced at the bundle in his arms like she already knew what she was going to see before turning away wordlessly, leading the way out of the compound for the last time.

The others were waiting for them outside beside the small fire he'd asked them to build. Hiyori and Yukine held a bow and a single thatch tipped arrow each, and when they approached Kazuma and Kofuku stepped forward to relieve them of their burdens. Yato hadn't discussed with Nora what he'd been planning to do, but it was fairly self-explanatory. She took the bow and arrow from Yukine and lit the arrow on fire, then looked to Yato expectantly. He followed suit, and at the same time, they drew then released their arrows and watched as they cut fiery arcs through the air before they landing on the wooden roof.

The Forest of Despair was green and brimming with life, and Yato wondered vaguely if, now that his father was gone, the forest would be renamed. It was the wet season, and even as they stood waiting for the fire to catch and spread, there were storm clouds brewing on the horizon, they were putting nothing in danger. Yato and Nora took their parcels back and walked into the woods, their friends close behind.