"If you don't have any money and you won't give us your name, then what do you have to offer?" asks the nora. "Why should we help you?"
When Kazuma raises his head from his supplicant's bow just enough to dart a glance at her, he sees she is smiling. She has eyes like a snake, as ugly and dangerous as the red-inked names stamped all along her arms. She is enjoying this. Despair washes over him as he realizes that not only does she not intend to help him, but she will twist him about with her games like a cat playing with its prey.
But she is only a shinki, and a nora at that. The final decision rests with the god, although he doesn't know what to expect from an infamous god of calamity. He cannot read the magatsukami at all. Yato's face is set in unyielding lines, expression swept blank and eyes hard and cold as ice. He says little while the nora baits Kazuma with her taunts, but he watches everything. Although he does not seem to take pleasure from Kazuma's discomfort like the nora, there is a quiet, casual cruelty lined into his face.
Kazuma trusts neither of them. He knew he had nothing to give them, but he had entertained wild hopes of throwing himself on their mercy. Unfortunately, there may be no mercy to be found here.
In fact, they very well might be about to kill him. He is prepared for that, though, or would at least like to think he is. He will take whatever risk necessary to save Bishamon or die trying. She has been kind to him, and he owes her everything.
He opens his mouth, searching for the words to convince this dangerous pair, but Yato beats him to it.
"Get up," says the magatsukami in a flat voice. "Lead the way."
Kazuma blinks up at him, taken aback. The nora looks his way too, brows raised. She leans in and whispers something to him.
Yato gives her a sidelong look, and his eyes hold no more warmth for her than they do for Kazuma. Kazuma shivers. The nora frightens him with her overt hostility and careless cruelty, but he fears the magatsukami more.
"We help because I say we will," Yato says. "That is all."
When he steps forward, Kazuma scrambles to his feet. He feels that he may have just sold his soul to the devil, that there is a blank price tag attached to this favor that could destroy him when the magatsukami comes to collect, but he has no other choice if he wants to save Bishamon.
He leads them to Bishamon's dwelling. The nora laughs at the sight of the monstrous ayakashi his family has become, and Kazuma fears it is too late before spotting Bishamon held limp in the beast's jaws.
The magatsukami cranes his neck and assesses the situation while the nora laughs at it. His expression never changes. Kazuma wonders if he feels anything at all.
There is something not right about the two of them, but Kazuma can't afford to be choosy about his saviors. He begs Yato to save Bishamon. After another moment of consideration, Yato nods and summons the nora and sets to work. He slices through the ayakashi ruthlessly, his swordwork neat and precise but mechanical. Like taking out the trash.
Kazuma can barely bear to watch the slaughter, but forces himself to keep his eyes fixed on every last moment. This is his doing, his betrayal, and his burden to bear. He wonders how he could have ever justified such a terrible thing to himself in the first place, but then the ayakashi is dead and Bishamon is alive, and it is worth every sin and betrayal and tragedy.
He rushes to Bishamon's side and falls to his knees. She is breathing, and he wants to cry.
Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he crabs around awkwardly to see Yato striding away at a quick, businesslike clip.
"Thank you," he tries to call after him, but his throat is clogged with emotion and tight with fear, and the words come out smaller than he intends.
He thinks it's still loud enough for the magatsukami to hear, but maybe not. Yato never looks back.
Kazuma can almost forget about the magatsukami and his nora for a while. All his attention is for Bishamon as she huddles inside and cries. It's devastating to watch, but Kazuma feels a small thrill every time she says she doesn't want any more shinki. That he is enough. It's selfish, but he has never claimed to be perfect.
Since there are no other shinki now and Bishamon is not well enough to leave her estate, it falls to Kazuma to venture out to gather supplies and information. Bishamon begs him not to go the first few times, fearful he might not return, but someone has to do it.
Back in the lower realm, he remembers Yato and the nora. He will not be able to hide from them forever. They will catch up to him eventually, and he owes them a life-debt. Although he shivers at the thought, it seems wise to make the first move.
He still has nothing to offer, but he purchases a few extra onigiri and sets off. If nothing else, he can reiterate his thanks and make a small food offering.
He finds the magatsukami and the nora lurking on the outskirts of a small town by following hushed whispers and fearful speculation.
"You again," the nora says when he approaches. Her eyes flash with disdain and impatience, like she has already lost interest in him and is annoyed to be reminded of his existence. "What do you want?"
Kazuma swallows and darts a look at the magatsukami, but Yato only stares back unblinkingly. "I thought… Well… I was just passing by and thought I might thank you for the generous favor you did me. I…brought a small offering."
He thrusts the box of onigiri towards them, stretching out his arms as far as they will go as if that extra inch of space will be enough to protect the delicate, vital parts of his body should they decide to attack instead.
The nora barks out a sharp laugh dripping with scorn. "You think a few rice balls are a worthy offering? You're lucky we didn't kill you." She looks askance at Yato. "Now, there's a thought…"
Yato ignores her and regards the meager offering. The silence stretches, and Kazuma's hands tremble. He is sure that he is about to die, that the magatsukami will cede to the nora and mete out punishment for the insultingly small offering.
Then Yato steps forward and takes the box from Kazuma. He selects one of the rice balls and offers it to the nora, who wrinkles her nose and shakes her head.
"It's rude to reject an offering," Yato says in a flat voice, holding it out until she accepts it. He offers the next one to Kazuma.
"But–!"
"Join us. It's your offering."
Kazuma swallows hard and takes it, nibbling at one corner nervously. He had been hoping to leave the offering and run. This was not part of the plan.
Yato takes a small, careful bite of his onigiri and assesses Kazuma with his unnerving gaze. "I've forgotten your name," he says. "It's rude to break bread with someone without knowing their name."
It's less of a question than a command.
"Ah… Kazuma."
Yato's gaze flicks to the back of Kazuma's hand and away again just as fast, and Kazuma wonders why he bothered to ask if he already knows where to read it.
"I suppose your master is still alive, then."
"She is doing well, thank you," Kazuma mumbles. The thought of Bishamon hiding beneath the covers and crying day and night makes his heart twist in his chest, but he senses it would be dangerous to admit to any weakness here.
One of Yato's eyebrows ticks upward. "After losing so many shinki? I doubt that very much."
Kazuma takes a large bite of rice to stall and chews slowly as he considers the best way to answer.
"We have work to do, Yato," the nora says, warning buried within her impatience. She has not taken a bite of the onigiri, only holds it gingerly between two fingers.
Yato chews through his rice ball slowly, eyes never leaving Kazuma's face. Only when he has finished does he say, "As you say. Do be a little more cautious, Kazuma."
He turns away, cradling the rest of the onigiri, and strides off without another look. The nora casts one last baleful look at Kazuma before following her master. She drops the onigiri to the ground as she goes, rice mingling with the dirt.
Kazuma only dares breathe when they have disappeared from view. He feels as if he has just brushed up against death and is lucky to have emerged unscathed.
That should be the end of it, but Kazuma cannot forget them. He feels little sense of gratitude or obligation for the nora—she had never intended to help him, at least not without exacting too high a price—but he owes the magatsukami. Yato has indulged him and done him favors. Big favors. In a less terrifying god, Kazuma might have called it kindness. He wouldn't go that far just yet—Yato's motives are a mystery.
Bishamon has not forgotten them either. All at once, her heartbreak solidifies into sharp-edged fury. She rages against Yato, spitting his name out like poison and accusing him of killing her family. This is not entirely untrue, but the Ma clan was already beyond saving by the time he got to it. And Kazuma is the one who begged him to raise his blade.
Kazuma knows he should tell her the truth, but the words stick in his throat. He has grown used to her dependence on him, her fierce devotion, and cannot bear to see the betrayal cloud her eyes. The magatsukami is as good a scapegoat as any. Remorse prickles at Kazuma, but he figures there's no harm in it. Bishamon is still hidden away from the world with only Kazuma for company, and a humble nail can only do so much.
Except that he is not just a humble nail anymore. The first time Bishamon summons him after the massacre, he transforms into a small floral earring instead, and he suddenly sees the world in angles and trajectories and calculations.
Bishamon is delighted, her awe rousing her from her grief, and Kazuma swells with pride until he sees again death staring back at him from the magatsukami's eyes and hears the nora whisper, 'You have your name, don't you?'
Not long after, Bishamon begins venturing outside again and names twin waifs she finds wandering a nearby village.
"It's time to start a new family, don't you think?" she says when she sees the question in his eyes.
Maybe, but it makes him uneasy. And not only because he has grown used to being Bishamon's sole companion. He worries about a clan growing too large and falling into corruption again one day. He worries that Bishamon's sudden change of heart is something she might regret later, something impulsive that she might not have thought through yet.
But he doesn't know how to voice those thoughts.
"Besides," Bishamon adds, offhand, "I'll need weapons to kill that murderous fiend Yato."
Kazuma opens his mouth, but nothing comes out. Guilt claws at his throat.
He escapes later that same day, while Bishamon is distracted with the new foundlings, and goes looking for Yato. He brings more onigiri with him. The nora had not been impressed, but even that small offering had seemingly softened Yato last time, at least to a cold politeness. Kazuma clings to this small token of self-preservation, hoping to appeal to the magatsukami's sense of honor once more.
He can find no trace of them, but eventually he catches wind of whispered rumors of divine destruction and follows them on a hunch. He finds the pair on the outskirts of a village. The magatsukami's robes are splattered with blood, and carrion birds wheel in the sky and descend to disappear between the collection of thatched huts behind them.
Kazuma's heart thumps louder in his chest, and he tears his gaze away. The nora looks even less pleased to see him this time, and he presents his offering to the magatsukami hurriedly to curry favor. Yato watches him closely, brows drawn together in what might have been bewilderment on a face less cold.
Kazuma waits until he has accepted the food before delivering his warning. It is only fair to warn Yato that Bishamon is rousing herself and turning her wrath towards him.
"Funny," says the nora. "If she's so bent out of shape about Yato killing her ayakashi brats, you'd think she'd also be turning on the one who ordered the execution." When Kazuma winces, she laughs. "Oh, you haven't told her? You've just blamed Yato? You really are a coward, aren't you?"
Kazuma tenses as death breathes down his neck, but the magatsukami merely shrugs.
"She won't catch me," Yato says. "I can hold my own."
"I–" Kazuma starts.
"It doesn't matter. Your bonds to her are strong. Keep them if you want."
And once again, Kazuma owes him a life-debt.
Yato can, after all, more than hold his own. As Bishamon goes on the hunt, the two gods clash from time to time and neither wins. Kazuma does his duty and directs Bishamon true—he can't be sure that Yato won't strike a killing blow back one of these days instead of staying on the defensive—but if he perhaps loses track of Yato too easily when he disengages and flees or overlooks signs of his presence when they hunt… Well, he does owe him.
The next time he stumbles across Yato is quite by accident, while on a supply run. He catches sight of the magatsukami perched atop a roof as he wanders down the village street and stops dead.
"What–? What are you doing?" he asks before thinking better of it.
Yato squints over the edge at him, and although he still carries a chill about him, his features seem somehow less severe. "Oh," he says. "You again. If you must know, I'm thatching the roof."
Kazuma does not know what possible reason a magatsukami would have for thatching a roof and opens his mouth to ask, but this time he does think better of it.
Yato sniffs, evidently reading the question on his face anyway. "Believe it or not, I do other jobs besides killing."
Kazuma has never considered such a thing, but recovers himself. "May I buy you a meal to sustain you through your exertions?"
"You don't have to keep buying me food, you know. I'm not going to eat you."
Kazuma doesn't understand the shift in his demeanor, why he seems more at ease and talkative, if still remote. Even this small change is jarring compared to his previous coldness.
"But I– I owe you a debt, and it would please me to make a small offering to my benefactor."
Yato squints at him some more, and then clambers down off the roof. "If you insist," he says. "There's a place just here."
They settle in a small shop and order stew. Kazuma would like to hurry the encounter along and be on his way, but Yato eats slowly.
"Where is the– Ah, where is your companion?" Kazuma asks finally.
Yato shrugs. "Off on her own business, I assume."
Kazuma shouldn't be as surprised as he is since noras keep many masters, but he has never seen the two apart and has begun to think they are joined at the hip.
"Oh," he says. "And you're…mending roofs?"
"Sure," Yato says to his stew, frowning down at it. "I can do all sorts of things."
Kazuma is afraid of pressing further and has exhausted the only topics of conversation he can think of, so he falls silent. Yato produces a small stick of pigment and doodles idly on the rough cloth napkin, gaze occasionally sliding past Kazuma to something behind him. Kazuma tries to seem as if he is not interested as he sneaks glances over his shoulder and at the sketch, but the effort is wasted when he realizes Yato is drawing the serving girl on the other side of the room.
"That's actually very good!" he says, surprised. "I didn't know you could draw."
Yato raises one eyebrow to acknowledge that they don't know each other well enough to make that kind of judgment in the first place. "It's just doodling."
"No, really, you could even sell it if you weren't–" Kazuma breaks off and wishes he could swallow his tongue.
"A god of calamity?" Yato suggests dryly.
"I didn't mean–"
"Peace, Kazuma. It's what I am." Yato's hand stills, and his eyes seem misty and far away.
Kazuma does not doubt his ferocity, but… There's an underlying edge to Yato, something a little more civilized that peeks through from time to time. It makes him wonder.
He gathers up the last of his nerve and asks, "Why?"
Yato's attention snaps back to him, and he tilts his head. "Why?" he repeats. "Because that's what I was created to be. A god is born of a wish and sustained by wishes. If those wishes are evil, then so is the god. That is the way it has always been."
This seems a textbook answer, but it unsettles Kazuma. Nowhere in it has he heard why Yato would make such a choice, only a cold acknowledgment that his fate has been determined for him.
"But you seem quite good at other things as well," he ventures. "The roofs and the drawings… They don't seem so evil."
Yato shrugs and looks away again. "Diversions," he says, but there is something bleak and brittle in his voice. He crumples the napkin into a ball and stands. "Well, I think it's time we part ways. Don't feel obligated to come looking for me again. Hiiro doesn't like you. You may consider your debt satisfied."
Kazuma follows him back outside, all twisted up into a knot of confusion. A few rice balls and a bowl of stew do not seem like adequate repayment, and his debt does not feel satisfied. He understands Yato even less now than when they first met.
A young shinki joins them outside, black eyes narrowed at Yato. His gaze never leaves the magatsukami, although it flickers up and down and side to side in a jittery fashion. Yato tosses him the hard rolls he swiped from inside and walks past without making eye contact.
It takes Kazuma a moment to understand. "You have another shinki?"
This should not be surprising either, especially if the nora is off on her own business, but he has always considered the two of them a package deal without any extra parts.
"Of course," Yato says without looking back. "At least for now."
The shinki shudders.
"He doesn't blight you when–?"
"His talents lie elsewhere. Hiiro is enough for the rest. Goodbye, Kazuma."
The shinki darts a curious look at Kazuma and then skitters off after Yato. Kazuma stares after them, confused by the entire encounter. But Yato isn't his god, so he shakes his head and returns to Bishamon.
From then on, Yato presents a steady procession of short-lived shinki. He never has the same shinki twice when they meet on the battlefield, aside from the nora, and none of them have the same power or cunning that she does. Yato is always a fearsome warrior, but his shinki handicap him, out of their lack of loyalty or fear of him or mistrust, Kazuma can't say. He holds his own with the nora, but retreats if he has another shinki. Or if he is alone. They begin running into him when he has no shinki at all more and more frequently. He is a regular escape artist, but sometimes Kazuma has to step in. Why he has taken to roaming without a shinki when he has powerful enemies, Kazuma can't say. It's baffling.
After one such encounter, Kazuma sneaks away afterwards to seek him out. He brings bandages and healing salves. Yato cleverly tricked Bishamon into looking the other way while he escaped with no interference from Kazuma required, but not before sustaining a few cuts, one of which looked particularly deep.
It takes a while, but Kazuma finds him. He's gotten better at tracking the god and calculating his next moves when he needs to, even if Yato still surprises him frequently and has a knack for slipping his net.
Kazuma meets them outside another destroyed village. Yato is washing his hands slowly, methodically in the well while the nora looks on with a bored expression.
"You really don't know when to quit, do you?" she asks when she sees Kazuma.
He ignores her. "You were hurt," he says. "I thought…"
He holds out the healing supplies.
The nora's eyes flash. "You think I can't care for him on my own?" she demands. There is no amusement at all in her tone, not even the mocking kind. "You are a pathetic worm. You overstep yourself. Go and–"
"Peace, Hiiro," Yato murmurs. "He means no offense."
The nora glares daggers at him, but he accepts Kazuma's offering. He holds his left arm at a slight angle, not shying away from painful positions but subtly avoiding them. Kazuma suspects his wounds are already bandaged beneath his clothing, but he can think of nothing else to assuage his guilt.
"Stay away," the nora says, turning up her nose at Kazuma. "We don't need your help or silly offerings."
Kazuma steps back. No need to antagonize her further. She is a dangerous foe.
"If you'd like, I passed through the village just there, and it looked like their roofs could use some thatching."
Yato tilts his heads, gears turning behind those ice-cold eyes. "Is that so?"
The nora explodes.
"You dare insult us with menial work?" she demands. Her eyes blaze black, and Kazuma recoils. He has seen her disdainful, annoyed, cruel, amused, but this is the first time he has seen her fury unchained. "Yato is a magatsukami, slayer of gods and men. Do not presume to distract him with your silly tasks. Begone, and do not return."
The look Yato gives her is hard with dislike. "Enough, Hiiro. He is leaving. You may sheathe your claws."
He gestures curtly for Kazuma to go, and Kazuma does, as fast as his legs can carry him. He feels two sets of eyes boring into his back, but he doesn't turn around. He has unknowingly struck on some rift between the magatsukami and the nora, and he nearly paid for it. He remembers Yato advising him to stay away because the nora does not like him, and now it sounds like a warning.
The next time Kazuma sees Yato outside of their game of cat and mouse, it is by accident and the god is playing with a sleek cream and brown cat. The sight of the magatsukami crouched in the dirt wiggling twigs for a cat is even more jarring than catching him thatching roofs. Maybe it is that Yato has never seemed like the playing type or because such gentleness towards a living creature is so at odds with the savagery of the kill.
Maybe it is just that Kazuma has never seen him smile before.
"You have a cat?" he asks, astounded.
Yato looks up, and his eyes are as clear and warm as the sky. He is like a totally different person. The cat jumps at his fingers, tail lashing as it bats at him with its paw, and he laughs.
"Isn't she precious?" he asks proudly. His eyes, as they track her movements, are filled with affection and indulgence.
Kazuma thinks he must have stumbled upon some sort of alternate reality. "A cat?" he repeats faintly.
"Well, she's…a stray now, I guess. I found her a few weeks ago and settled her into the shrine there. She's always here when I come back."
"Is that one of Tenjin's shrines?"
Yato shrugs. "The old man hasn't stopped me using them yet, and he's not quite as cranky as in the old days."
It occurs to Kazuma that he has no idea how old Yato is, really, and he'd never thought of him interacting much with the major gods besides the hunt with Bishamon.
"Does she have a name?"
"Mione."
Kazuma raises an eyebrow. "Unusual choice. Sakura would seem the more obvious choice for cherry blossoms, if that was what you were going for."
The twig stills in Yato's hand, and his smile fades. "I suppose."
"Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Kazuma hastens to add. "It's a cute name, and she's a cute cat."
Yato doesn't move until Mione wriggles her hindquarters and leaps again at the stick. Then he smiles again and scoops her up, settling her in his arms as he stands. She wiggles once and goes still, peering around with luminous green eyes. She bats idly at a strand of Yato's hair, and he rubs her between the ears. They make an oddly endearing pair.
"Yeah," Yato says. "She is. Want to say hello? She's friendly. She probably won't bite you."
Kazuma does not consider this a ringing endorsement, but complies. Mione's fur is short but soft. She is already purring, and Yato gently adjusts Kazuma's fingers until he is scratching along her ears and under her chin how she likes it. The contact startles him, but the magatsukami releases him just as fast.
The feeling of that brief touch lingers, though, and the memory of that unexpected smile stays with Kazuma even longer.
He catches a glimpse of Mione one other time a few weeks later, and the magatsukami's warm demeanor is just as surprising.
The next time Kazuma sees him, though, Mione is gone and the nora is back. Yato's eyes are flat and murky like unpolished sapphire, and his mouth is slanted in a hard line. The nora smiles, and it is all teeth.
"Back again, are you?" she asks. "I could have sworn I told you to stay away."
Yato slants a sidelong look her direction and makes a curt silencing gesture with his hand. Her smile widens.
"I was just…" Kazuma shifts from foot to foot, searching for an escape route. He did not mean to stumble across the nora again, and he liked Yato better when he played with kittens instead of looking ready to smite the next person who crossed his path. "Where's the cat?"
The nora huffs out a small noise that sounds almost like a laugh.
"Gone," Yato says flatly.
"O-oh…?"
"Yato killed it, didn't you?" the nora says, eyes glittering dark with amusement.
Yato says nothing.
Kazuma does not believe this for a second. "I don't think–"
"You haven't forgotten, have you?" the nora asks. "That he's a magatsukami? He kills things. You might want to watch your back."
Kazuma looks between her and Yato, but the magatsukami's expression doesn't change. He can't quite believe Yato would kill the cat after seeing how much he adored her, but… He's also reminded of just how scary the god can be.
"You should go," Yato says. "Don't come back. I already said your debt was forgiven."
He turns and walks away. The nora follows at his heels, but glances over her shoulder to give Kazuma a sly smile.
And Kazuma… Kazuma doesn't know what to believe, but he doesn't follow. He's certainly not going to try prying answers out of such a dangerous god, benefactor or not. His loyalty is first to Bishamon, and perhaps he has spent too much time clumsily attempting to repay his debt to Yato.
So he focuses back on Bishamon and their growing family, and next time it is the nora who finds him.
He is on a routine reconnaissance mission, gathering information about a new minor god who has appeared in the area. Bishamon does not like him to go alone, but he insists on this room to breathe from time to time. It gave him leeway to search out Yato when that was his goal, and now it gives him time to reflect on Bishamon's aggressive family-building and worry that her big heart will be her downfall again.
"If it isn't Kazuma," the nora says from behind him, and he startles out of his thoughts. "Still looking for Yato? I told you to stay away. You've been nothing but a nuisance."
"I'm not! I'm just on a mission for Bishamon."
"Oh?" Her eyes flash. "Finding Yato to feed information to your master? I did warn him that you would betray him eventually."
"What? That's not–!"
She smiles. "It doesn't matter either way. I've had about enough of your meddling."
And this next part is a blur that he can't quite make heads or tails of even centuries later, but he could almost swear she summons the wolf-like ayakashi that melt out of the shadows and descend on him with slavering jaws. A fanciful idea that a shinki could control ayakashi, but it is certainly a coincidence of timing, and the nora is like no other shinki he has ever known.
He can't draw borderlines fast enough, not against so many, and he goes down with a cry. The wolves bay and growl as they sink their teeth into his limbs and tear. Blight shoots across his skin like fire, and he writhes weakly as the pain clouds his mind and sends him careening along the razor's edge between consciousness and oblivion.
"Enough!" roars a voice from somewhere far away, and suddenly the wolves are gone and Kazuma is left panting in the dirt. "So this is where you wandered off to. I thought I told you to leave him be. If you ever…"
Kazuma pries his eyes open and squints blearily at Yato as his voice drops low. The magatsukami leans in close to deliver his threat, and the nora rears back with a look as if he has slapped her.
"Come, Yato," she says. "I hardly meant–"
"Go," he says.
She hesitates only a moment before turning and vanishing into the trees, but not before throwing Kazuma one last look dripping with venom. Yato's face is black with a fury Kazuma has never seen, but he takes a deep breath and smooths it out to something hard and cold that is a more familiar expression.
He strides across the intervening space, branches crunching underfoot, and crouches down at Kazuma's side. He hums to himself as he looks Kazuma up and down, then slips an arm around him and heaves him upward with a grunt, staggering under his weight. Kazuma is too far gone to protest.
"I thought I warned you to stay away from Hiiro," Yato says as he half drags Kazuma back into the village. "It's not a good idea to cross her."
"Didn't…" Kazuma groans and slumps against Yato without considering how risky it is to lean so heavily on a magatsukami.
Yato manhandles him to the purification pool outside a small shrine and dumps him in unceremoniously. The frigid water shocks Kazuma back awake, and he sputters and thrashes around.
"Make sure you get all the blight," Yato says. He stands with arms crossed, looking down at Kazuma with a closed-off expression.
Then he turns and walks off without another word. Kazuma shivers and submerges himself in the water, washing himself thoroughly before dragging himself out of the pool. He startles at the sound of a sharp bark, but it is only a stray dog trotting after a man leaving a shop. But he can still feel the wolves breathing down his neck and see the nora's sharp-toothed smile.
He doesn't know why Yato saved him. That doesn't seem like a very magatsukami-like thing to do, but he has never understood Yato. He will just tally it up as another life-debt he owes.
As if thinking of the devil has summoned him, Yato reappears and thrusts a coarse blanket at Kazuma's chest. "Here."
Kazuma starts in surprise, having assumed he had disappeared to parts unknown already, and wraps the blanket around himself. "Ah… Thank you."
Yato waves him off impatiently. His gaze slides back and forth, never quite landing on Kazuma, and tension lines his body. Kazuma doesn't know why he is on such high alert, but his wariness makes him nervous.
"I'm going to give you a piece of advice," Yato says, and he finally meets Kazuma's gaze squarely. "Don't mix yourself up with magatsukami. We live in a dangerous world. Go back to your master and forget us."
"But–"
"Stay away, Kazuma," Yato says more forcefully. "I already told you to consider your debt repaid. You owe me nothing. Consider our ties cut. Go home."
Kazuma thinks this is unfair when the nora is the one who approached him, but he is still too shaken up to formulate an argument even if wanted to.
Not that it matters. Yato is already turning and striding away. Kazuma clutches the blanket tighter around his shoulders and shivers, staring after him. It's only after the magatsukami disappears from view that he mouths 'thank you' after him.
It is a long time before Kazuma sees Yato again. He takes the warning to heart this time and stays away, and in the lower realm, he always searches the shadows now. The crew sees no sign of the magatsukami while hunting him or going about their own business, and the skirmishes die down.
When Yato does reappear, he turns tail at the sight of them and disappears when he sees them coming. Even Kazuma isn't sure how he always slips through their fingers, but he knows why. Yato never seems to have a shinki with him anymore. Kazuma isn't sorry not to see the nora, but he can't help but wonder what has happened and worry that Yato is going to get himself killed.
He is more surprised than ever to stumble across Yato a few months later, considering how elusive he has been. He finds Yato sitting cross-legged at the edge of a silvery pool in the woods and freezes in place, hardly daring to breathe. The nora is nowhere to be seen, but he searches the surrounding trees warily. A twig cracks underfoot as he eases backwards.
"You again," Yato sighs without looking up from the water.
Kazuma hesitates, but it doesn't seem like sneaking off is an option now. "Is, um…?"
"She's not here."
Kazuma relaxes marginally and approaches. He wavers a moment before dropping to the ground beside the magatsukami. Yato does not look at him, and Kazuma studies his face. His eyes aren't hard or cold this time. If anything, they look…empty. Tired, maybe, and old.
Again, Kazuma is thrown out of his element. If Bishamon wore an expression like that, if her entire posture radiated exhaustion that way, he would worry about her.
"Are you…alright?" he asks.
"Yes."
"Where is she? I haven't seen her around in a while."
"Off on her own business, I suppose. Or waiting for me. We've had a temporary parting of ways."
Kazuma thinks a permanent parting of ways would be even better, but he isn't sure his opinion on the matter counts for anything.
"Shouldn't you find another shinki, then?" he asks. "It's dangerous not to have one."
Yato shrugs and dips his hand into the water, wriggling his fingers to distort his reflection. "What's the point? They never stay long. I've learned to take care of myself."
"Maybe you shouldn't keep chasing them off."
Yato slants a sidelong look his way and raises an eyebrow, and Kazuma bites his tongue and regrets his boldness.
"What do you suggest, then, since you always seem to find your way back? I'm still a magatsukami, you know. Keeping shinki would be a challenge even if I wanted to."
Kazuma thinks back to Yato's smile as he held Mione in his arms. "Just be kind to them, I suppose. You've been kind to me, in your own way. Perhaps if you could…act happier, maybe, it would help them be happier with you."
"Act happier," Yato repeats flatly, and Kazuma realizes how silly and presumptuous the advice sounds.
"Well, if you could actually be happy, I guess that would be better," he says, flustered. "If you found something to… Oh, I don't know."
A frown creases Yato's face, and he pulls his hand from the water to regard his wavering reflection. "Be happy," he repeats again. "I wouldn't even know where to start."
Kazuma chews on the inside of his cheek. "You were happy with Mione, right? You loved her, and she loved you in return. Maybe if you had someone like that, it would make you happy."
This is dangerous ground even if all his assumptions are true, and he doesn't know how Yato will react to it. He can't say for sure that the magatsukami knows anything about love at all and there's some mystery surrounding the cat's disappearance, but he's betting on that smile he caught Yato wearing when he looked at her. On any normal person, he would have called that love.
Yato looks up at the sky fringed by the spreading crowns of trees and says nothing for a long time while Kazuma shifts nervously on the hard ground.
"Sounds like a circular argument," he says finally, and he sounds even more tired than before. "Be happy to attract someone who will make you happy. People are more complicated than cats. I haven't had a friend in a long time, and I'm not sure I care to start again now."
Kazuma gathers up the last of his nerve. "We're friends, aren't we? Of a sort?" Yato looks at him then, eyes wide and shiny with surprise, and he forges on. "You've saved me lots of times, anyway. It has to count for something. A-anyway, I'd best be going. Bishamon is expecting me back."
He scrambles to his feet, not quite meeting Yato's eyes, but pauses as he turns away. "You know… Bishamon kills people too, sometimes. It's part of being a war god. Sometimes you don't have a choice. Sometimes it helps other people, if you're doing it for the right reasons. She still comes down on the side of justice…not as a magatsukami."
As he rushes for the trees, he hears Yato murmur, "War, huh…?"
And Kazuma is still afraid of the nora's wrath and uncertain what to think of the magatsukami, but he wishes Yato well and hopes he finds what he's looking for.
The next time Kazuma sees Yato, the world is turned on its head. Yato has changed everything about himself seemingly at once. When they stumble across him while cleaning up after a vent, he laughs in their faces and takes off running with a shinki Kazuma has never seen before stumbling after him. His eyes are wide open and sunny, and he wears a grin that makes it look like he is always a second away from laughing.
"Come along!" he calls after his shinki. "Don't mind her, she's just a psycho bitch!"
Bishamon shrieks in outrage, and Kazuma might have choked on his tongue if he wasn't currently nestled in her ear.
"Get back here!" she yells after him as she gives chase.
Yato summons his shinki, ducking aside and parrying Bishamon's attack with ease. No matter what else, his swordwork and battle instincts have always been topnotch.
"Maybe you should give up already," he taunts.
"Ha! As if a god of calamity could stand against me!"
"Technically, I have. And I'm not a god of calamity. I'm a god of war."
Kazuma could have choked on his own tongue a hundred times over, and Yato's grin can only be described as a downright smirk. His gaze cuts to the earring lodged in Bishamon's ear and back away again quickly enough that Kazuma might have imagined it.
He blocks a few more blows and makes his escape while they're still off balance from his strange behavior.
"What in the world happened to him?" Bishamon asks as they give up the search and accept that he has vanished into thin air yet again. "Is that even the same person?"
"I…have no idea," Kazuma says, feeling lost.
Yato still has a new shinki with him every time they run across him later, but the sunny attitude doesn't falter unless Bishamon gets close enough to damaging him that he grows serious again.
Kazuma can't help but seek him out again to see what in the world is going through his head.
Yato greets him as if they're old pals, laughing and chatting boisterously. It makes Kazuma ill at ease despite the friendliness, if only because it is so out of character.
"Well, you told me to, didn't you?" Yato asks, nudging Kazuma in the side with his elbow. "Act happy. Anyway, I've been working on a lot of different projects, and it helps when people aren't afraid I'm about to kill them."
He gesticulates wildly as he outlines the myriad and varied odd projects and jobs he has picked up, everything from fortune-telling to art to household chores. Kazuma can only listen open-mouthed, at a loss for words aside from weakly offering to buy lunch.
He watches Yato closely as they eat, and the god chatters away blithely the entire time. While the change in him is off-putting, Kazuma supposes it must be a step in the right direction. A far sight better than the cold and calculating magatsukami, at any rate. Still, he never expected to see Yato so…happy.
But when he looks closer, there is something shadowed and icy and jaded lurking in Yato's eyes beneath a thin veneer of sunny blue, and he remembers the words Yato had said: 'act happy', not 'be happy'.
Kazuma gradually grows used to the changes in Yato when they stick around and become a new normal. Now when he sneaks away from Bishamon's side, he listens to Yato's latest schemes and offers words of encouragement or advice along with the occasional monetary incentive. Whatever else, he hopes Yato finds his niche, the thing that makes him happy and pulls him away from calamity for good.
Because he sees the nora around from time to time, even though he avoids her. He has no proof that Yato returns to killing when she appears, but it rouses his suspicions. He doesn't know what will make Yato happy in the end, but he is fairly certain it will have nothing to do with the nora or killing.
So they dance through the centuries, Yato flitting from scheme to scheme, cycling through shinki and outfits and roles with regular frequency while Kazuma hurries behind with his small offerings and reassurances.
Kazuma doesn't quite trust the cheerful front Yato wears like a mask, sensing that it's only half true at best, but… He finds that he likes Yato quite a lot underneath everything the god had thrown up to frighten him away. Maybe it isn't so farfetched that they might be friends after all. He slowly relaxes around Yato a little at a time. Although he never quite forgets that the god is dangerous, he gradually loses his fear.
He wants Yato to succeed.
"Look out!" Yato shouts, and Kazuma starts in surprise and turns to see the god racing down the street between the high rises scraping the sky.
"What…?" Kazuma jumps back as an enormous spider-like ayakashi careens around the corner after Yato. "Borderline!"
"Thanks, buddy!" Yato calls, but he doesn't slow down. His boots pound loudly against the pavement as he races past, grabbing Kazuma's arm as he goes and tugging him after. "But look out! There are more."
"What the–?" Another two ayakashi melt out of the alleys between the buildings and lope after them. There is no good place to trap them all behind a borderline, and Kazuma takes off running after Yato. "Why don't you have a shinki? You need to get yourself a shinki already! Stop running around on your own!"
Yato only laughs. "Keep up!"
He doesn't seem concerned at all, and Kazuma could throttle him if his legs weren't already burning with the strain of keeping up. Yato, far more athletic than Kazuma could ever dream to be, pulls ahead easily and whistles at the ayakashi to make sure they follow. Kazuma staggers to the side as they skitter past. Ayakashi will most always go after a god first, which is why it's exceedingly stupid for a god to insist on running around without a shinki for protection.
Kazuma scrambles after the retreating god and phantoms, panting for breath. He had better make sure Yato doesn't get himself eaten.
He manages to take a shortcut and get around one of the ayakashi to adjust his borderline, but he isn't able to catch the last one. Cursing to himself, he ransacks his mind for any kind of plan.
Yato runs at breakneck speed with the ayakashi breathing down his neck, occasionally dodging out of the way or throwing himself at walls and launching off of them to get around a spiky leg. And then he hits a dead end. Kazuma gasps out another curse and throws out his hand, hoping to catch the ayakashi with a borderline before it pounces, but he's too late.
Yato leaps into the air as a spindly ayakashi leg smashes into the pavement where he was just standing and throws his bodyweight at the wall of the building behind him, slamming his boots into the stone façade and launching himself even higher. The ayakashi reaches for him, chittering loudly, and he grins as he flips in midair and falls back to the earth. He slams into the ayakashi boots first, with enough force to send it crashing into the ground. It shrieks and disappears.
Kazuma slows to a stagger, still panting as he stares in disbelief. "What…?"
Yato grins and leans down over the pool to cup the water in his hands and splash it over his skin. The blight peeking out from beneath that ridiculous tracksuit retreats and vanishes.
"Purification water," he says, sounding much too pleased with himself. "I know every shrine in this city. Comes in handy when you need to avoid an ayakashi."
Kazuma groans rather than admitting that he's secretly impressed by the god's ingenuity. "It would be easier to just get a shinki, you know."
Yato waves his hand dismissively. "Haven't found the right one yet."
"Maybe if you'd just trust them…"
Yato snorts, and for an instant Kazuma catches a glimpse of that old, bitter god lurking in his eyes. "I don't trust anyone."
"But–"
"Anyway, I can take care of myself." Yato grins again, the picture of carefree joy once more. "Hey, now that you're here, want to treat me to lunch?"
Kazuma lets it go, knowing it's an argument he isn't going to win. "Sometimes I feel like the only reason we're friends is so that you can get free food."
"Not a bad reason, if you ask me. I'm starved!"
So Kazuma buys him lunch like usual and lets him go to muddle his own way through.
There are some half a dozen more short-lived shinki before Yukine, and at first Kazuma thinks no more of him than any other of Yato's shinki. In fact, he thinks significantly less of him when he realizes that he is blighting Yato. Even less when he's summoned for a hasty ablution and Yato is the closest to death he's ever seen him. He doesn't understand why this is the shinki Yato chooses to hold on to, when he discards or lets go of all the others without a fight. Then again, it seems like he is trying to save Yukine, and what can Kazuma say to that when Yato did the same for him?
So Kazuma thinks Yukine is the wrong choice, but when Yato storms Bishamon's domain in search of his missing human friend and Yukine steps in to save him in turn… Well, Kazuma had never thought Yato would get a hafuri after all his shinki troubles and Yukine might be the last one he would expect, but he can't help but smile afterwards. It's a weight off his chest to come clean with Bishamon after all these centuries, and for Yato to finally find his right shinki at the same time… The process has been painful, but they have both found some kind of peace.
Kazuma takes advantage of the truce between the gods to give Yukine lessons and teach him how to be the best shinki and hafuri he can be. After how long Yato has waited and how hard he has struggled, he deserves the best. Kazuma owes him that much. And, to be honest, Kazuma has grown rather fond of Yukine. He might be just what Yato needs.
Kazuma and Bishamon are on their way to have Kofuku perform a prediction of evil omens when they run into Yato, Yukine, and Hiyori outside. Yukine is holding a small gray kitten in his arms and pleading with Yato.
"Come on, Yato," he wheedles. "I'll take care of her and everything. I'm sure Kofuku and Daikoku wouldn't mind."
"No cats," Yato grunts, crossing his arms over his chest.
"But why? You won't have to do anything. It's not like you work anyway. Look, isn't she the cutest?"
"Yato doesn't like cats," Hiyori said with a laugh. "Remember poor Ue-sama? He liked you even though you were mean to him."
Yato rolls his eyes and turns away, raising his eyebrows as he catches sight of Kazuma and Bishamon.
"I don't know what you mean," Kazuma says. "Yato loves cats."
"Really?" Hiyori asks. "He really didn't seem to."
Yato blows out a breath. "You again. Mind your own business."
"No, really," Kazuma says. "He used to have a cat, a long time ago."
Yukine's mouth drops open. "No way, really?"
Yato's eyes cloud over abruptly. The kids can't see the shift in his expression since his back is to them, but Bishamon stiffens with curiosity.
"Why not let him keep the cat?" Kazuma asks. "Maybe it would do the lot of you some good. The other one made you happy. What did you call her? Mione?"
Yato closes his eyes. "No cats," he says.
Normally, Kazuma would let it go. Nothing much ever comes of pressing Yato. But he is feeling emboldened by some of the more recent discoveries about the sorcerer that have begun slowly unraveling Yato's past, and this is one mystery he has always wondered about.
"What did happen to her?" he asks as innocently as he can muster. "I could never quite believe the nora when she said you killed her."
Yukine and Hiyori make small sounds of surprise.
Yato barks out a harsh laugh, his hands clenching into fists at his sides. "Of course I did," he says bitterly. "What did you expect of a magatsukami? You were always too trusting, Kazuma."
"But–!" Even hearing it straight from Yato's mouth, Kazuma can't make sense of it. "You doted on that cat. It was the first time I ever saw you smile."
Yato shakes his head and begins walking away. "That was why, obviously. Father always takes notice of those things sooner or later. It's dangerous to care too much about anything, or he'll take it away."
"He was worried that you cared too much about a cat?"
"Not the cat," Yato says without looking back. "She was just a warning. A reminder."
"Warning?" Kazuma echoes.
"You, Kazuma. He didn't like you." Yato slants a look back over his shoulder, and his eyes are brittle and cold as ice, a throwback to the magatsukami who wore them a thousand years ago.
"Me?"
"I warned you to stay away, but you just kept coming back." Yato sighs through his nose and rubs a hand across his eyes. "Nora reports everything to Father, and she never liked you. You truly have no sense of self-preservation, do you? You got too close, and he warned me away. I had to pull all the strings to keep you alive."
Kazuma stares at him, mouth hanging open and mind churning. He had always sensed the danger from the nora and there was that time she had attacked him, but he has the sudden feeling that he was much closer to death than he ever realized. He wonders how many life-debts he truly owes Yato, how many times the god protected him without him ever realizing.
"What did you mean, a reminder?" Bishamon asks warily. Her hand brushes along Kazuma's.
Yato shrugs. "It wouldn't be the first time he killed something just because I loved it." He looks down at his hands. "Not even the first time he made me do it myself."
Kazuma opens his mouth, but he can't find any words. Not until another thought strikes him out of the blue.
"The shinki," he croaks. "You never kept any shinki for long."
Yato scowls. "Give me a little credit. I wasn't killing them all."
Kazuma shakes his head. That isn't what he meant at all.
"They always left so fast that I thought you must be chasing them off," he says. "Because…?"
Yato meets his gaze steadily, face blank and eyes glittering. He doesn't answer the hanging question, but the answer is coalescing in Kazuma's mind nonetheless.
"Nah, I was always just a shitty master. Drove them all crazy!" He turns away and heads back down the street, flapping a hand in an exaggerated motion. "Keep the cat if you want, Yukine," he says airily. "Who am I to say no to such a precious bundle of fluff? But make sure you ask Kofuku and Daikoku first, and you'll be in charge of her care. Maybe it will teach you some responsibility!"
Kazuma takes a step after him, but his thoughts tangle together and the words stick in his throat. Bishamon places a hand on his shoulder and squeezes firmly. When he looks back at her, she shakes her head once.
Yato disappears around the corner, and the group lets out a collective breath.
"I didn't mean…" Yukine hunches his shoulders and clutches the kitten tighter. It yawns and mews before settling back down. "I didn't know it would upset him."
"Keep the cat," Kazuma says, removing his glasses and scrubbing them aggressively with the hem of his shirt.
"But–"
"Trust me. Whatever bad memories he has… He looked at that cat like she was his whole world. Eventually, he needs to be able to love something without running away. You've already done him a great service by staying with him. You're the only shinki I've ever seen him open up to. Keep the cat. It will be good for both of you. He deserves to be able to love something."
Yukine swallows hard.
"That look he got when I asked about the reminder and you asked about the shinki…" Bishamon muses aloud. "You don't think the sorcerer made him put down a shinki too?"
Yukine's head jerks up again, eyes wide, and Kazuma's heart sinks like a stone. There was a time when such a thought wouldn't have surprised him, when Yato was just a cold and remote magatsukami, but it has been a long time since he has believed Yato would do such a thing unfeelingly. He does not want to think through the implications of everything the god has left unsaid.
A shadow crosses Hiyori's face, and she looks at the ground. "I think you should never ever ask him that," she says.
They decide to leave the prediction of evil omens for another day, and Kazuma is quiet as he and Bishamon turn for home.
"Are you alright?" Bishamon asks once Kofuku's shrine has disappeared from view.
"Yes." Kazuma pushes his glasses back up his nose and shoves his hands into his pockets. "I'm just wondering… I always knew I owed him many times over. I owed him a life-debt for saving you and another for not telling you the truth, and there was also a time the nora attacked me and he saved me. But now I wonder, how much do I really owe him? All I was really able to offer in return was occasionally buying him a meal. He never asked anything else of me."
"And you helped him escape my wrath a few times, didn't you?" Bishamon asks dryly.
Kazuma flushes. "Ah…"
"It sounds like a mutually beneficial relationship to me."
He shrugs. He isn't sure if it counts for much when he is the reason why Bishamon was hunting Yato in the first place. He is as responsible for every injury as for every escape.
"I suppose I just wish I had known how to repay him. Looking back, everything seems so much bleaker once I learned about the sorcerer."
"He's doing better now, though, right? With Yukine and Hiyori? We can't change the past, Kazuma, only the future."
Kazuma supposes that is true, but Yato's myriad mysteries needle at him for a long time after.
"Are you sure you haven't eaten enough?" Kazuma asks dryly as he sits beside Yato. Hosting another picnic beneath Suzuha's cherry tree had seemed like a good idea at the time, but they had vastly underestimated how much food they would need. Yato had demolished a fair portion all by himself.
Yato grins and leans back against the trunk of the tree. "There's no such thing as too much free food."
"That pretty much sums up this relationship."
He laughs, and they sit in companionable silence for a few minutes while they watch everyone else chatting and playing games across the lawn. It's a beautiful day for a picnic, and everyone is in high spirits.
It's been a while since Kazuma has had the chance to sit with Yato, just the two of them. Their encounters over the centuries have primarily been one-on-one except when the nora or Bishamon are involved, but lately Yato is always with Yukine and Hiyori. And honestly, Kazuma is happy for him.
"Can I ask you something?" Kazuma asks.
"Hm? Of course. Ask away!"
He watches Bishamon debating some point with Tenjin across the green. "Why did you agree to save Bishamon and keep my involvement a secret when I had nothing to offer you? I always wondered."
"Hm…" Yato doesn't say anything for so long that Kazuma thinks this is one of those questions he will brush off, but then he continues. "I can see bonds, you know. When they're ragged and frayed, I was taught to cut them. Your bonds with Bishamon were always so strong. Who was I to ruin that?" He shrugs. "You came to me knowing the danger, and I had never seen such a strong devotion between shinki and god. I respected that. Anyway, I'd seen Bishamon around since I was a kid, and I'll deny it if you repeat it, but I always admired her a little. She was the kind of god I might have aspired to be in another life. Then I learned what a psycho bitch she was, and so much for that."
Kazuma eyes him sidelong. "Strangely pure motives for a magatsukami."
Yato sniffs. "God of war, remember?"
"I remember." He sighs. "It used to drive me crazy wondering what I'd end up owing you in the end after all those favors. When you kept saying my debts were repaid when all I'd ever given you were a few rice balls, it drove me even crazier."
"I'm pretty sure you started off crazy," Yato says with a smirk, and Kazuma rolls his eyes. "Anyway, who's keeping score? Friends don't worry about debts and all that, right?"
"I suppose not, but I would have liked to do more than buy an occasional meal."
Yato doesn't say anything for a long time, but then he sighs. "The reason Nora and Father hated you was because you encouraged me to be something other than the magatsukami they wanted me to be. And I listened to you, so they considered you a threat. It's not about the rice balls, Kazuma. You were the only one who told me I could be something better. The only one who stuck by me and encouraged me no matter how stupid my latest scheme was and told me to keep going and not give up. Even when you were frightened of me and thought what I was doing was wrong… You still kept coming back. You were my only friend for a long time. The only one who believed in me.
"You don't owe me anything, Kazuma. You gave me a push when I needed it and changed my entire life. I always went back to Father and Nora because I had no one else, but I always left and tried again because you told me I could. I think it's fair to call us even. You never even realized, did you? That I owed you a life-debt too?"
Kazuma swallows hard and looks up at the cherry blossoms swaying in the breeze. No, he has never considered any of that. He has never considered that he might have made as big of an impact on Yato as Yato has on him. A few kind words here and there had never seemed like such a big thing. But maybe for someone who had never heard many kind words before, even such a small thing made an impact.
"Ah…" he murmurs. "I didn't realize."
Yato grins and nudges him in the side. "And look where we are now! Things are much better than they were then, aren't they?"
Kazuma smiles back. "Yes, they are. It's good to see you actually happy these days."
"Hm?" Yato tilts his head curiously. "Do you think so?"
Kazuma blinks back at him. "Aren't you happy?"
"How should I know? I don't know what it's supposed to feel like."
"But…"
"Why don't you tell me, Kazuma? You've known me longer than anyone else. You've seen me act happy for a long time. What do you think?"
Kazuma opens his mouth, but no words come out. Every time Yato cracks and speaks some long-hidden truth, it breaks his heart a little more.
He looks out at the gathered gods and shinki again, at Yukine playing with his cat and Hiyori laughing with Kofuku and Bishamon gathering her shinki around her. He thinks about Yato writhing about on the ground with the blight eating away at his skin, struggling to hold on for just a little longer to give Yukine the chance to save himself. He thinks about Yukine sacrificing himself in turn to save Yato from Bishamon, about the smile on Yato's face when he bragged about the shrine Hiyori had made him, about Kofuku and Daikoku opening their doors to him and Bishamon calling a truce after all these centuries.
He remembers very well the parade of expressions Yato has worn over the centuries, the coldness and unhappiness hidden behind them, and the brittle edge lurking beneath his smiles. He has seen Yato act happy for a long time and glimpsed the melancholy in the depths of his eyes.
He turns back to Yato and searches his face, that wide-open, quizzical expression. He sees that edge of sadness, that hint of mystery, that distance that holds him apart from everyone else even when he is right beside them. But he has seen Yato feign happiness for centuries, so he knows that even deeper, beneath the rest, there is a spark of something else entirely.
"Yes," he says with confidence, gesturing towards Yukine and Hiyori. "Things aren't perfect, but when you look at them, that's happiness."
"Oh…?" Yato smiles at him then, and Kazuma realizes suddenly that that spark is there when the god looks at him too. "Yes, I'm sure you're right. You were always the smart one."
Kazuma smiles back, and he feels that spark softening his own eyes too.