The sun was high in the sky when Hiyori woke the next day, safe in her own bed, with no real memory of how she'd gotten there. Her whole body ached and she had a horrible headache that made her vision blurry. She was also overwhelmingly warm, and her throat felt raw and painful.
What... happened? she groaned inwardly, but she had no strength to even answer her own question.
Something indistinct came into her hazy sphere of vision, hovering over her.
"Hiyori, you want some water?" the figure spoke, and Hiyori registered a mop of black hair. She raised a hand to the person's cheek, relieved.
"Yato... you're here," she sighed.
"What?"
"Who in the world is Yato?" another voice said worriedly, and a second familiar face hovered over the first's shoulder.
Hiyori blinked slowly.
It wasn't Yato after all, but her brother Masaomi and her mother, watching her with concern. Her brother was wearing his stethoscope around his neck and had his medical kit on the edge of her desk.
"Wh-what...? Where...?" she said thickly. He mouth was dry and it hurt to speak.
"You caught something at the exam site, looks like," Masaomi said, scratching the back of his neck. Other than his hair color, he really didn't look much like Yato at all. His stubble and glasses gave him a classic bohemian air, which was appropriate, considering he had more or less run away from medicine to be an artist. In the last few years, he'd returned home with the intention of taking over the family practice after they'd lost the hospital in a terrible incident. He now ran a small private clinic out of their deceased grandmother's home, where the family now lived.
"When you got back home, you had a fever and you fainted in the hall," her mother fretted, pressing her palm to Hiyori's forehead. "Thank goodness Masaomi was home, your father was out on a house call," she explained.
"School?" Hiyori coughed, unable to articulate further.
"We called already," Masaomi assured her, helping her sit up so she could drink some water. "Just rest up and focus on feeling better. Your body was pretty worn down from all the stress, so it's no wonder your immune system wasn't strong enough to fight off the flu."
"Thank you, brother," she managed. once her throat felt less dry. "I'm s-sorry for worrying-" she began, but ended up in another cough fit.
"Don't push yourself, Hiyori," her mother insisted. "I'll make you some gruel, just rest, okay dear?"
Hiyori nodded tiredly and leaned back against the headboard, feeling like death. Her mother went downstairs, leaving the two siblings alone in her room.
"By the way, sis," Masaomi said as he picked up a fruit knife and began peeling an apple at her bedside. "How long have you been dating this Yato guy?"
Hiyori choked on her own tongue.
"Masaomi-nii-san?!"
"Oh, so I was right!" he said, grinning at her. He sliced off a chunk of apple and popped it into his mouth. "I've seen that look before," he explained. "Just now, when you thought I was him; I might be a good-for-nothing prodigal son, but I know a girl in love when I see one."
"Oh god..." she hid her face in her hands, wishing she could melt into the ground and never speak to anyone again. "It... it was that obvious?"
"Well, let's just say that it's a good thing Mom thinks you're a saint," he laughed. "Otherwise she definitely would have noticed too. Is it the guy who brought you home? It is, right?"
"Y-you saw him?!" she asked, alarmed.
"Mm... sort of?" Masaomi said, frowning. "I feel like I definitely noticed a guy drop you off at the gate, but I can't really remember what he was like. It's weird too, cause I felt kind of like, 'oh, it's that guy again,' even though I'm pretty sure I've never met him before."
"I... uh, I see," she mumbled. Truthfully, Masaomi had noticed Yato and Yukine in the past, and even spoken with them once or twice, but he'd always been quick to forget them soon after. It wasn't openly acknowledged, but the Sight ran in the Iki family on their mother's side. It varied in strength from person to person, but Masaomi regularly saw things from the Far Shore. Unlike Hiyori, however, he wasn't a denizen of the Boundary, so he never remembered Yato for long. It was surprising that Masaomi remembered him now, a day later, even if the details were fuzzy. "Masaomi-nii-san, you won't tell Mother, will you?"
"Not as long as you dish all the details," he teased.
"Brother!"
"Hey, it's my job to make sure my little sister is alright," he insisted. "Who you date is your business, of course, but it'd be good to know that you're not in any trouble or need any help. I just want you to be happy."
Hiyori flushed and fidgeted with her sheets.
"Y-yeah... I'm happy," she said softly. "Very happy... Yato is... he's a kind person. He can be a little... strange, sometimes, and a bit tiresome, but he cares about me very much. He has always been there for me when I needed him."
"I'm glad," Masaomi said, nodding. "I always worried you'd end up with a dangerous, violent guy, considering your secret obsession with martial arts," he grinned.
Hiyori coughed hastily into her elbow.
"Ha... that's rude," she said weakly. You were right, you were totally right, Onii-san!
"You've been dating for a while?"
"S-sort of..." she admitted. "It's kind of a long story, but... spending time with him and Yukine-kun is... it's something I treasure more than anything."
"Yukine-kun?" he frowned. "Who's that?"
Too late, she realized she'd dug herself into a hole.
"Eh? Uh... Uhm... er... his son...?" she said, losing her head completely.
There was a long, awkward silence.
Why did I say son?! I SHOULD HAVE SAID LITTLE BROTHER! she wailed inwardly, mortified.
"Hiyori," Masaomi said slowly.
"Y-yes?"
He put one hand on her shoulder.
"I know you're going to be nineteen soon, but... home-wrecking is still wrong, sis," he said flatly.
"YOU'RE WRONG! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" she cried, but she merely ended up in a violent coughing fit and fell unconscious shortly after.
Yato led Yasumi up the stairs one flight at a time, talking quietly as they went.
"Don't be too hard on Yukine for being so vague," he said. "He's under a lot of pressure, and he's risking everything to see this job through. Going against Heaven is extremely dangerous, after all."
"Heaven...?" she asked, trailing behind him warily. She wasn't sure why, but though she was aware it was a supremely bad idea to follow a strange man she didn't know, especially one who called himself a god and seemed to change his personality on a dime, she couldn't help but be drawn to him. It was as though he'd cast a spell on the air around him, changing its consistency into something otherworldly and mysterious, something irresistible.
He's dangerous, she realized, but despite her apprehension, she wanted to know the truth. Besides, he'd given her the impression that he meant her no harm... at least, not at the moment.
"Well, it's not like we're rebelling or anything," Yato was saying. "It's just that there are dangerous elements to this job, things that we're forbidden to talk about. And there are things we don't want Heaven to know, either. If we're not careful, we could easily be seen as traitors to Takamagahara. Yukine knows all this, so he's trying to be as cautious as he can."
"What... what happens if Heaven decides you're traitors?" Yasumi asked, suppressing the urge to shiver with apprehension.
"We'll be killed," he said simply, as if it didn't concern him at all. She stopped dead halfway up the stairs, gaping up at his back.
"Hold on, aren't gods supposed to be immortal?! And Yukine said he was dead... was that a lie?!"
He reached the landing and glanced back over his shoulder at her, half-shadowed by the glow of the afternoon light coming through the window.
"It's not a lie," he said. "Regalia are the spirits of those who have died and been recalled from the Far Shore to serve as the servants of us gods. That being said, they can be hurt and killed, though no one really knows what happens when shinki die. The same thing is true for gods. We won't die of old age, and nothing from the Near Shore can mortally wound us, but other gods and Regalia are able to destroy us. We're obliterated."
He glanced up at the ceiling, his face hidden from view.
"Well, I say that, but most of the well-known gods can't be destroyed completely," he admitted. "As long as humans believe in us, we can be reincarnated again and again. But if you're a minor god like me..."
He fell quiet for a moment.
"Well, it doesn't matter," he said abruptly. "It's just the way it is." He turned onto the next staircase and Yasumi had to hurry to catch up.
"What does this have to do with me, though?" she asked, huffing. "Why go to all this trouble if it can get you both killed?"
"If I could tell you, I would," he said. "Let's just say it's a vested interest in helping out an old friend."
"A friend?"
"Of a sort," he shrugged, but Yasumi noticed that he seemed somewhat tense as he said it. "Another god," he added as they reached the top of the stairs.
A single door was set into the wall ahead. The words 'Emergency Exit' were written on it with peeling paint, but Yato ignored it and pushed it open. Yasumi covered her ears hastily, expecting the alarms to go off, but when nothing happened, she hurried after him onto the school roof.
"The spirit hour approaches," he said suddenly, glancing at the reddening sky as the wind picked up and whipped his hair across his face. Yasumi shielded her eyes against the gust, wishing she'd changed into her blazer and stockings. It was getting cold quickly, too cold to be out in shorts.
"Y-you said you're protecting me from something," she said, shivering slightly. "What does that have to do with gods?"
Yato paused and seemed to realize she was cold, because he unzipped his jersey and tossed it at her.
"It ain't much, but just put it over your shoulders for a bit," he said. "It's better that we talk away from anyone who might be listening."
She caught the jersey and glanced down at it, wrinkling her nose. It was rather worn and grimy and reeked of sweat.
Can't complain when there's no alternative, she grimaced, mentally reminding herself to wash her uniform later as she pulled it on. It didn't do much for her legs but at least her upper body was shielded from the wind.
"I guess it's better if I start at the beginning," he said, watching the clouds billow above. "Your mother," he said abruptly, startling her. "Kobayashi Hana, was it?"
"Y-yeah, how...?"
"Kobayashi, that's your father's name, right?"
Yasumi nodded.
"Growing up, were you ever told about your family? Your mother's family?"
"Yeah, I spent a lot of summers at our shrine," she said. "My aunt and grandfather were always telling us stuff about folklore and our ancestors. Why?"
"Have you ever heard the name Ame-no-Mikoto?"
That's...
"My mom said... she said she's our family's Guardian Deity," Yasumi said uneasily. "A rain god, I think?"
"Actually, she's a god of protection," he said. "But her name was Ame, so that's how she was remembered."
Yasumi blinked. "You mean... she's real?!"
Yato chuckled. Up until now he had been unnervingly serious, but now he seemed to relax somewhat, reverting once again to that strange, boyish demeanor that had so thrown her. "What, you thought I was the only god around here who could walk around and talk?" he asked, almost playfully.
"Well, no, but... Isn't Ame-no-Mikoto just a minor, personal god?"
"A god is a god as long as someone prays to them," Yato shrugged, and Yasumi recalled her mother saying something similar. "Ame is as real as you and me, but while I can go wherever I want, Ame is bound by her role as a god of protection. She's pretty much stuck at her shrine, forever. It's kind of a shitty gig if you ask me," he said flatly.
And there's the language again, she thought briefly.
"If she's real, how come she's never spoken to anyone in our family?"
"Who says she hasn't?" he said, leaning against the fence. "Plenty of your ancestors have spoken to her, in some form or another. They just forget, like they forget Yukine, or me."
"Then... Will I be able to see her too? When I get the Sight?" she asked, excited despite the ambivalence to her family's beliefs.
Yato gave her that empty, calculating look again and a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold ran up her arms.
"... No," he said.
"Why not?"
"Because," he said, dragging out the word. "When your Sight awakens, Kobayashi Yasumi... Ame will cease to exist."
Yukine and Yato snuck in to visit several times over the next week as Hiyori slowly recovered from her flu. It was a persistent virus, and made her so tired that she couldn't even leave her body in her phantom form. She seemed to hover in and out of consciousness, and despite what Yukine said to make Yato feel better, he was extremely worried about her.
"She should have recovered by now," he said to himself as he sat sentinel at her bedside one evening, changing the wet towel on her forehead every few minutes. He'd been careful to avoid Hiyori's older brother; he was a sharp man and had once been a customer of Yato's, and Yukine didn't want to risk being found skulking around in Hiyori's bedroom.
"She's strong, she'll be fine," said a childish voice. He spun around to find a young girl in a white kimono sitting on the edge of the windowsill, face propped up on her palms.
"Nora, don't do that!" he cried, trying to calm his heart. "You know I hate it when you pop out of nowhere."
"I told you not to call me Nora," she said sharply, but then she sighed. "Well, it's not like there's something better to call me now, I suppose." She glanced down at her forearm, where the character for 'fields'1 was marked on her pale skin. "Of all the names to give me, really," she frowned. "My master has a terrible sense of humor."
Yukine made it a point not to mention that it was Yato who had given her master the idea in the first place.
"How're things at Okuninushi's place?" he asked, mostly out of politeness.
Nora shrugged, her dark eyes giving nothing away. "The usual. I'm not trusted very much so while his other shinki go around doing inspections or whatever, I end up spending most of my time chasing after that stupid rabbit of his. I was unbelievably bored, and I heard Hiyori was sick, so I figured I'd better visit at least once. As a god of medicine, Okuninushi-sama agreed."
"Ehh, that's surprisingly decent of you," he teased. She shot him a hateful glance and hopped down from the sill.
"Don't overthink it too much," she said, tossing a small charm at him. He caught it with one hand. "From my master," she explained. "For her swift recovery." She stood over Hiyori's bed, watching the slow rise of her chest as she slept.
"Thanks," he said gratefully. She pretended she didn't hear him.
"Where's Yato?" she asked as Yukine tucked the charm under Hiyori's pillow. "I'm surprised he's not here, sniveling uselessly in the corner."
"He went to ask Bishamon if he could borrow some of their medical books. It's not like he could do anything with them of course," he snorted. "But better he's kept busy than causing a ruckus here. You know how he is."
"Not really," she said flatly. "Yato is practically a stranger to me. Yaboku is the god I knew."
"Well, I guess you're not wrong," Yukine said, secretly glad that he served Yato as he was now, instead of the magatsukami Nora had once served under the name Hiiro. "... By the way," he asked hesitantly. "Have you heard anything from Okuninushi-san or the other Seven? About..."
"About the Taboo?" she finished for him. "Not too much. The Conclave seems to have brought it up once last month, but my master said it was mostly in passing. Takamagahara is being cautious this time; they're probably afraid to provoke Yato outright."
"That's good," he said, relieved.
"Is it?" Nora said bluntly. "If you ask me, having it brought up at all is troubling enough. Keep your eyes open, Yukine."
"... Yeah. There's enough to worry about when it comes to Heaven as it is."
She clicked her tongue with distaste. "Well, it's none of my business," she said. "I'm going home now." She made to turn but paused, her eyes on Hiyori. "How lucky," she said flatly. "She's waking up."
Just as she said it, Hiyori stirred, groaning slightly.
"Hiyori! Are you okay?!" Yukine asked, worried. Nora made a tsk sound in the background.
"Yuki...ne-ku..n?"
"Thank god," he said, overcome with relief. "It's been days since you were lucid. Thanks, Nora, I-"
But when he turned to thank her, she was gone.
Every time, he sighed to himself. I'll have to thank Okuninushi-san later.
"Do you need anything, Hiyori?" he asked. "Water? Medicine?"
She shook her head tiredly. "I'm okay. Where's...?"
"Way ahead of you," he said, flipping open his phone to call his own master.
Yasumi stared at Yato, bewildered.
"What? Why? Why would a god die just because I'd have the Sight?!" she asked.
Yato closed his eyes and gave a deep, tired sigh.
"The world of the gods is linked to the world of the living," he explained. "Disarray in one realm leads to chaos in the other. But in your case, it's more than that. Well, maybe it's more accurate to say 'in Ame's case'," he amended. "Do you know the story of how Ame-no-Mikoto came to protect your family?"
Yasumi shook her head. "Only that she protected my ancestors from catastrophe... or something. And my mom said she was hidden away by a servant."
He stared at her with a look of disbelief and contempt.
"Hah?! Are you really the daughter of a shrine family?" he asked bluntly, striking a nerve. "You're seriously telling me you don't even know the most basic fucking details of your own damned history?!"
She bristled, furious that a stranger with such a questionable aura would even think about judging her. What the hell did he know about her standing in the family?! What could he possibly understand about what it was like to be the only normal member in generations of Sighted monks and priestesses?!
"It's not like it matters!" she said defensively. "I'm not even in the direct line, and it's just a bunch of stupid old stories anyway! Who cares?!"
"You do, clearly, or you wouldn't be asking all these stupid questions. And you should," he said in an exasperated tone. "Ame-no-Mikoto's story is your family's story. Your story. Man, kids these days really have no respect," he complained. "Such a freaking disappointment. And here I thought you might actually be worth all the trouble we're going to!"
Yasumi shook with anger. Like all her cousins, she had been taught to defend herself with spells and seals, but they'd also been taught to protect themselves physically. It was the one thing Yasumi had always been good at, and she'd gone into aikido as a natural extension of her training, though her lack of drive kept her from earning higher ranks. Because aikido was primarily a martial art based on defense and avoiding violence or injury, she very rarely considered using it as a means of aggression.
At the moment, however, all that mental training went right out the window, and Yasumi wanted so badly to punch Yato right in his stupid, smug face. It was only the feeling that she'd lose the opportunity to hear the truth that let her keep herself in check.
"Yeah, that's right, I'm a heathen," she spat irritably. "A godless, arrogant kid who doesn't know shit! So just tell me the freaking story already!"
"Hmph," he said, turning away from her churlishly and crossing his arms. "I don't wanna. I feel sorry for Ame, having a brat like you in her household."
Yasumi dug her fingernails into her palm, fighting the rush of fury in her veins.
"I apologize for my stupidity and ignorance," she said through clenched teeth. "I would like to hear the story, if you don't mind, Yato-san."
He perked up at the sound of his own name and the honorific. He cast her an appraising look.
"If you bow and say 'please, god,'" he said pompously, "I might think about it."
She snapped.
"Why you-" she snarled, rolling up her sleeve, but she was cut off mid-sentence.
"You shitty, half-assed, pathetic excuse for a god!" shouted a familiar voice, and something came flying at Yato from above, striking him hard across the face and sending him sprawling across the roof.
"OW!" Yato cried, "WHAT THE HELL?!"
A young boy with blonde hair strode forward, a look of utter disgust in his eyes as he stepped on Yato's head. "Don't you act all innocent, you damned scumbag. You know exactly what you've done."
"Yukine?! Where did you come from?!" Yasumi gasped, still holding up the sleeve of Yato's jersey. Yukine held up a hand of greeting casually, grinding his foot down and ignoring Yato's cries of pain.
"Yo, Yasumi. Been a couple days. Sorry to interrupt, but I've got some urgent business with this piece of trash," he said calmly.
"YUKINE, YOU LITTLE BASTARD, GET OFF ME!" Yato screeched angrily, trying to get out from under his foot. "How dare you treat your master like this?!"
Yukine turned his full fury toward him and effortlessly slammed Yato into the ground.
"You wanna go, asshole?" he snarled dangerously. "I'm not in a fucking mood to play around right now." He lifted his foot but merely proceeded to kick him mercilessly. "What the fuck happened to keeping a low profile?! Wasn't the whole freaking point of sending me alone to avoid contact with Ame?!" he shouted angrily. "And where the hell is Kiri?! You're supposed to be keeping on eye on her! What the fuck do you think is gonna happen if she goes somewhere she shouldn't?!"
"OW, STOP! OW! YUKINE, QUIT IT!"
"And just what the actual fuck are you doing, contacting Kobayashi directly?! You think this is a fucking game?! HUH?! DO YOU?!"
"It wasn't on purpose!" Yato said, blood running down his nose. He somehow managed to grab Yukine's ankle, halting the furious assault. "She saw me!"
"SO?! I'd already told her to stay away from you! And let go! I ain't done lecturing you yet, you shitty master! Get your fucking nasty sweaty hands off me!"
"Uhm..." Yasumi said loudly. She fidgeted nervously as they both turned to look at her with their angry expressions. She raised an unsteady hand as though she were in a classroom. "Sorry to interrupt whatever this is but... It's freezing out here, and I have to go home soon. Can someone please just tell me what's going on so I can go?"
Notes: The word for "stray" and the word for "fields" are pronounced the same, Nora, but they are written with different characters.
I've actually been editing a lot of the previous chapters to better fit my original vision of this story, and I decided that based on those edits and on some of the topics that are going to be brought up in the future, a Teen rating was too low. It's just a precaution, and nothing to do with chapter 7.
... Really.
