The train from Kofuku's house to Ame's shrine was only a little over an hour's trip, but it seemed far longer to Yasumi, as though time had slowed down deliberately somewhere along the way. The minutes ticked by sluggishly as she and Kirine sat across from each other at the very back of the train, watching countless evening commuters come and go in a mildly awkward silence, both lost in their own thoughts.
Truthfully, Yasumi had several things on her mind, not least of which was the fact that she wasn't at all sure of what was waiting for her at Ame's shrine. Kirine had told her that there were very few reasons for a guardian deity's barriers to fall, and most of them meant that the god was injured or in some other mortal danger. So far, Kirine's prediction hadn't yet come true, but she seemed certain it was only a matter of time, and that was more than enough to frighten Yasumi. Yato and Yukine were still not replying to any messages or calls either, which made it almost certain that whatever fight was taking place, it still wasn't over. They could only hope that they reached the shrine before whatever was meant to befall Ame tore down the rest of the barriers.
Apart from the prospect of arriving at a battleground between gods, Yasumi was also dreading arriving at the shrine for entirely mundane reasons. She had been hoping that Kirine's spell of invisibility would hold indefinitely, but that hope had been quickly burst.
"Most invocations won't work under a God of Protection's barrier," Kirine had explained. "Regalia generally can't affect gods directly with our abilities, and barriers are extensions of a god's essence. When I went to your house, I didn't cast the spell there either, right? None of the ones I know would have worked; the only thing I managed to do was use an improvised song to make myself harder to track, and it kept failing when I was in the actual radius of the barrier."
Yasumi nodded, remembering the difficulty she'd had concentrating on Kirine when they'd first met. She wasn't really sure what the young Regalia meant by songs or invocations, but there was more than enough for her to worry about without poking around semantics.
"Ame-no-Mikoto's powers will be far stronger at her own shrine, and she's bound to have extra defenses up that keep strange gods and shinki out too; my spells and songs will be useless there," Kirine had continued. "I might not even be able to cross over without Yato's help, and I definitely won't be able to keep you hidden when we get there."
That meant that Yasumi had to pay her respects to her family at the main house before she did anything else; if her Aunt Kuriko ever found out that Yasumi had been to the shrine grounds without even saying hello, Yasumi was sure she was as good as dead. A lot of people lived at the shrine complex, and someone somewhere was bound to see her even if she took no detours and went straight to the haiden. She wasn't even sure if she'd find Ame in the actual shrine or not, but her aunt would probably know something, even if she couldn't see Ame directly.
The trouble was that Yasumi was on relatively bad terms with her mother's elder sister. Kuriko had always been old-fashioned to a fault, and cared more about tradition than any of her recent predecessors as head priestess and leader of the family. She wasn't a bad person, or even outright condescending like Noriaki was, but she held everyone to the same impossible standards as she held herself. Part of that probably had to do with the way she'd grown up; Yasumi's grandmother had passed away when Kuriko, Mitsuo, and Hana were very young, so as the eldest, Kuriko had taken on much of the responsibility of looking after her brother and sister. Both of them had plenty of horror stories regarding their sister's spartan punishments and strict upbringing, but in the end all three siblings were very close in their own way, and looked after one another when one of them needed help.
Unfortunately for Yasumi, that also meant that her aunt was constantly trying to "help" her, as Hana's only surviving child and Kuriko's sole niece. Where the previous Head Priest, Yasumi's grandfather, had been easygoing and suggested that Yasumi was fine the way she was, Kuriko had insisted that Yasumi's lack of Sight was a problem that required a solution. She was only too happy to grant her little sister's request that Yasumi receive basic spiritual self-defense lessons with the other Sighted kids, and used the sessions as an opportunity to try and coax what she saw as Yasumi's stubborn hidden talents to the surface. Her high expectations and experiments ended up ostracizing her niece from the other children, and only made her seem pitiable and pathetic when Yasumi couldn't keep up. Yasumi couldn't help holding a grudge years later, even if she was now old enough to know her aunt had just been trying to help. She'd spent years avoiding speaking with her aunt without someone else there to act as a buffer, and the thought of showing up unannounced at the main house made Yasumi's stomach ache with anxiety.
She knew it would be worse if she didn't, though. Aunt Kuriko was not a woman to cross, period.
Well, this sucks, she thought to herself as she closed her eyes and leaned back in the train seat tiredly. Her head was still pounding painfully, and she knew, though she couldn't really explain how, that it was only going to get worse before the night wore out. Yasumi was certain that this was it, her last evening as a relatively normal person before her Sight came in; the pain behind her eyes told her as much, as did the weird, flickering images that came and went in the blind spots at the corners of her eyes. She had no doubt that whatever she and Kirine found at the Shrine, this was the night that she would either complete the ritual with Ame, or fail and be killed along with every person that shared her bloodline. Everything that had happened to her over the last couple of months came down to this moment, and whether she made it out alive or not depended partly on a suspicious combat god she didn't fully trust, a half-ayakashi girl with a dangerous aura, and a grumpy teenage boy who wasn't even answering his phone.
None of that was particularly reassuring.
As usual, Yukine was the first to wake up when the crying started. He turned over in his futon grumpily, pulling the covers over his head, trying to pretend he was still asleep in the vain hope that Yato would wake up and take care of it before Amane really got going.
He waited a couple of minutes before giving up. He sat up irritably, throwing the covers back, and squinted in the direction of Hiyori and Yato's bedding. He could just make out Hiyori's exhausted face in the moonlight coming through the open loft window, completely dead to the world, but the space next to her was empty and didn't look as though it had been slept in much at all.
Yukine sighed; Yato had a bad habit of disappearing off by himself when he wanted to think something through, and though Yukine was fairly sure he'd just gone out for a walk or something of that sort, he was still annoyed that he'd left without informing his own guidepost. Worse, Yato was the one who was supposed to be on baby monitoring duty for the night. He wasn't supposed to leave when it was his turn.
Freaking ass, Yukine thought angrily. Who does he think had the last damned shift, huh?!
Amane wailed louder, clearly upset that no one was paying attention to her.
"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Yukine grumbled, getting to his knees and crawling over to her futon. He put his hands under her chubby arms and lifted her up against his shoulder, patting her back soothingly. "Shhh, it's okay. Nii-chan's here, go back to sleep..."
It took only a minute or two for the wailing to stop, replaced by a suspicious snuffling sound as she suckled on his clothes.
"Aaaaaand... You're hungry. Of course you are," he groaned, gently tugging the now-wet fabric out of her mouth. Her enormous blue eyes blinked up at him with devastated betrayal and Yukine made a small tch sound at her. "As if that look ever worked on me," he told her. "Your dad invented that stupid look, and I never fall for it when he uses it either, kid."
She whined, smacking her fat little hand against his jaw. She was only three months old, but she already knew exactly how to get what she wanted, and she knew how to adjust her methods for all the different people who looked after her as well.
"Ow, quit that!" he scolded, getting to his feet. "I'm getting your mom, already, yeesh, just gimme a second!"
He grabbed Hiyori's feeding blanket from the table and knelt down to shake her awake.
"Hiyori, oi... Hiyori, Amane's hungry," he said loudly, balancing the baby against his chest. "Hiyori!"
It took a while before she stirred, groaning.
"Yato... go away," she muttered, turning away from the noise. "I'm too tired, and you're never satisfied with just once..."
Yukine flushed and coughed loudly, prompting Amane to start crying again.
"Amane...?" Hiyori said, hastily looking over her shoulder with confusion. "Yukine-kun? What... where did Yato go?" She noticed his expression and realized what she'd said.
Her whole face burned red.
"O-Oh, um, sorry, I was half-asleep-"
"Forget it," he said gruffly, holding the baby out to her like a shield so he didn't have to look her in the eyes. "She's hungry. Again." Hiyori abashedly took the child and cradled her in one arm as Yukine unfolded the blanket for her.
"Oh no, I'm sorry, mommy is sorry she didn't recognize you," Hiyori murmured tenderly, kissing Amane's tiny fingers. "I thought you were daddy being annoying again... Shh, it's okay, Amane, don't cry. Kaa-chan has you now, see? It's me, look!" She covered her eyes with her hand and peeked out behind it playfully, repeating the motion until Amane was fully engrossed in her mother's game, her teary eyes wide with surprise and delight each time Hiyori reappeared.
"I can never figure out if she's smart or not," Yukine snorted as the baby shrieked with laughter. "Are you a god or aren't you, kid?" He threw the blanket over Hiyori's shoulders and stifled a yawn as she sleepily adjusted her clothes beneath it.
"Well, whether she's a god or not, she's still an infant first," Hiyori admitted, tucking the blanket over Amane so she could nurse. She leaned back against the wall and sighed. "If all gods have childhoods, then I guess Amane is just starting even younger than most- Ow!" she flinched and rubbed her chest gingerly. "Slow down, Amane, you're hurting me... Jeez, you eat way too much," she complained, softly patting the baby-shaped lump under the blanket.
"You're telling me," Yukine commented, throwing himself face first into Yato's pillow. "We just fed her like... an hour ago. Or at least, it feels like an hour ago," he mumbled into the pillowcase. "She ate like six different times when I was on shift last night too."
"I remember," Hiyori said flatly. Yukine immediately felt bad for complaining; no one was more tired or worn out from looking after Amane than Hiyori. From the moment she'd been born, Amane absolutely refused to drink from the bottle, even if it was Hiyori's own milk, so her mother had no choice but to nurse every time Amane got hungry. Which was often, and never in small amounts. It was a miracle that Hiyori always seemed to have enough milk no matter how much Amane ate... and Yukine suspected that Yato had been right when he'd said calling it a miracle was probably more than just a figure of speech.
"I hate waking you up every time," Yukine admitted. "You look exhausted, Hiyori."
"I am exhausted, Yukine-kun," Hiyori groaned, letting her head rest against the wall. "I dream about breast pumps and formula, believe me, I'd do anything to get her to drink from the bottle even for just one night..."
"We'll have to wean her eventually," Yukine said apologetically.
"She's way too young for that yet," Hiyori said longingly.
"Yeah, I know," Yukine said, letting his eyes droop closed. "But at least she doesn't need any diapers."
"Thank Heaven for that," Hiyori muttered. There was a long moment of silence in which the only sound was Amane's greedy suckling. "Where is Yato?" she asked suddenly, concerned.
"Hell if I know," Yukine grunted. "Wasn't there when I woke up."
"Did you try calling him?"
"Nope. And I ain't gonna."
"Yukine-kun..." Hiyori sighed. "What if he gets into trouble out there without a Regalia?"
"Not my problem. He didn't wanna tell me where he went in the first place, so I'm not gonna bother worrying about his stupid ass," Yukine snapped.
Hiyori suddenly whipped her head toward the window just as a shadow blotted out the moonlight.
"And whose stupid ass would that be, huh?"
Yato sat perched on the open window sill, holding a plastic bag and narrowing his eyes at Yukine with suspicion.
"Speak of the idiot," Yukine scoffed, glaring at his master. "Where the fuck were you, stupid?"
Yato swung his legs over the sill and tugged his boots off before hopping inside. He leaned down to give Hiyori a quick, casual kiss instead of a greeting before straightening up and tossing the bag at Yukine. "I went to the convenience store, obviously," he said drily, putting his shoes in the corner. "Couldn't sleep, so I thought a walk might help."
Yukine rummaged through the bag to find several snacks and a couple of canned coffees.
"Where's the beer?" he asked accusingly. Yato flinched slightly.
"Er... I uh... What beer?" he asked, avoiding Yukine's eyes nervously.
"The one you drank before you came back," Yukine bristled. "Assuming it was just one. And don't bother lying to me, you reek of alcohol."
"Oh, that beer," Yato coughed, unzipping his jersey. "It was just a good night for sitting outside and having a drink, so-" He made a cutesy, apologetic gesture. "My bad."
"Here we go," Hiyori said under her breath.
"I fucking told you already, don't go drinking on your own!" Yukine shouted, throwing one of the coffees at Yato's head. "It's dangerous to be out there in the open without a Regalia! What were you gonna do if Heaven decided to take you out while you were drunk and alone?!"
"It was fine!" Yato argued, covering his ears with his hands. "Nobody suspects anything yet! Not even Bishamon and Ebisu know about Amane, so it's not like Amaterasu would know-"
"That's not the fucking point," Yukine snarled, yanking Yato down by the front of his shirt. "Amane isn't the only reason Heaven would love to take you out and you know it. You haven't exactly been subtle about being Hiyori's lover, have you?!"
"Please don't bring me into this right now," Hiyori interrupted tonelessly. "I'm tired enough feeding a living, breathing child from my own body, thank you." Neither of them seemed to have heard her.
"They won't cut me down without even trying to settle things peacefully first," Yato pouted, turning away from Yukine's accusatory glare. "I haven't received a single official warning from Heaven yet-"
"Yeah, cause they don't want to start a damned war!" Yukine seethed, shaking his master. "But more importantly, how dare you fucking leave and get drunk when you're supposed to be watching a three-month-old infant, HUH?! YOU THINK HIYORI AND I ARE MADE OF STAMINA, HUH?! I haven't fucking slept properly in two fucking days, you shitty excuse for a father! And just look at Hiyori, suffering all by herself while you're off getting wasted! WHY DON'T YOU JUST FUCK OFF AND DIE, HUH?!"
He grabbed a shoe and mercilessly began beating Yato over the head with it, cursing loudly over Yato's shrieks of pain.
"You wanted to be a dad?!" he growled, striking Yato in the face. "Well fucking act like one, you piece of shit! Parenting ain't just being around to play with your kid!"
"I know!" Yato insisted, trying and failing to cover his head with his arms. "I wouldn't have left Amane if it were safe for me to bring her along! And I wasn't drinking alone, anyway! Tenjin invited me-"
"Oh so you were socializing, huh?! You think that's an excuse to abandon your responsibilities?!"
"OW, OW! I didn't go with the intention to socialize!" Yato said, cowering against the table. "I was coming right back, and Tenjin happened to be passing by, and I couldn't exactly say I had to hurry up and go home because I had a three-month old waiting for me-!"
Yukine kicked his master in the thigh angrily. "And what, you suddenly forgot how to lie?! Don't gimme that half-assed excuse!"
There was a crash downstairs, and the sudden thudding of heavy feet running down the hall and up the stairs. All three of them froze, sweating with pure fear, as Daikoku appeared at the top of the stairs with murder in his eyes.
"Oi," he said, his voice deathly calm as he cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Amane-chan is one thing, but how many times do I have to tell you fucking bastards to keep it the FUCK down?! My Lady is trying to sleep, you want her to curse you all?!"
Amane, possibly sensing her family's distress, chose that moment to unlatch and start screaming at the top of her deceptively small lungs.
"Ahhh! Daikoku, you made her cry!" Yato accused, taking advantage of the chaos and Daikoku's weakness for children to shift the blame. He snatched the baby from her mother without warning and held her up against his own shoulder, glaring at Daikoku. "Look what you did!" he insisted, cradling the baby tenderly as he glared at the much larger man accusingly.
Daikoku hesitated, horrified, and Yukine privately thought that in the future, Yato was definitely going to give every pushy, manipulative helicopter mom at Amane's school a run for their money.
"Shh, it's okay Amane," Yato cooed, nuzzling the baby's soft hair for added effect. "Uncle Daikoku is sorry for scaring you, ain't that right, Daikoku?" he hissed.
It probably would have worked, had Hiyori not appeared out of thin air, executing a powerful roundhouse kick to Yato's gut without so much as a warning. Yukine instinctively panicked, thinking of Amane, but the baby was safely in Hiyori's arms again, though no one had seen her change hands before Yato crumpled to the ground with a groan.
"Never take my child from me like that ever again," she warned Yato, her eyes glinting dangerously as he whimpered at her feet, her voice cold as ice.
"Y-yes, I'm sorry, I won't do it again!" Yato swore immediately, blanching at her expression. Hiyori turned away from him with a derisive click of her tongue.
"Sorry, Daikoku-san, this is my fault for not stopping them," she said, bowing, her tail twitching nervously. Yukine noted that even Daikoku seemed to have backed away from her. He decided then and there that he was never getting on Hiyori's bad side ever again.
"A-As long as you guys stop yelling in the middle of the night, it's fine," he muttered. "Er, is Amane-chan...?" he asked over the baby's wailing.
Hiyori gave him a beatific smile. "She's okay. She was just startled in the middle of nursing, I'll do my best to calm her quickly. I'm sorry for waking you and Kofuku-san."
Daikoku avoided her eyes and scratched the back of his neck nervously.
"Well, as long as she's okay. Sorry for scarin' her. Night, Hiyori-chan, Amane-chan."
"Good night, Daikoku-san," Hiyori said as he plodded back down the stairs. She waited a moment before rounding on Yato and Yukine with a look of pure disdain. "You two are unbelievable," she said through her teeth. "You," she said, glaring at Yato. "How can you use your own daughter to scheme your way out of trouble?! And leaving in the middle of your shift without even telling us where you were going?! Yukine-kun is right, you shouldn't have been out there drinking on your own! What were you going to do if you got attacked?! You promised you were going to be careful so we could all stay together; we can't do that if you get yourself killed!" She turned to Yukine, quick as a snake. "And you, Yukine-kun, I know you're tired and you have every right to discipline Yato for being irresponsible, but you know better than to shout like that at this hour!"
Yukine flinched, feeling all of five years old. "Y-yeah, sorry Hiyori, I lost my temper..." he said softly, and a small corner of Haruki's heart braced itself for a reprimanding blow.
Of course, it never came.
"Still, thank you for looking out for us," Hiyori said gently. She placed a doting hand on the top of his head, ruffling his hair fondly. "You're such a responsible big brother, Yukine-kun, I'm so glad you're here to help."
His cheeks grew warm, and he unconsciously leaned into her hand, feeling strangely weightless.
"No fair, Hiyori, me too!" Yato whined, clinging to her pajama bottoms pitifully. Hiyori made a tch sound and shook him off.
"You get nothing from me today," she snapped. "And you're taking both Yukine-kun's and my shifts for the next week. We haven't slept well in days."
"Eh?! But I have to work this week!" Yato complained.
"Your point being?" she said coldly. Yato gulped.
"N-nothing," he stuttered. Hiyori sighed and knelt in front of him, handing him the baby. "I know you wouldn't put us or Amane in danger on purpose, Yato, but you have to be more careful. We need you," she admitted, pressing one palm to his cheek and the other to the top of Amane's black hair. "You're better than this, Tou-san."
Yukine huffed as Yato nodded, flushing with shame.
"Apologize properly, you shitty master," he said grumpily.
"R-right, sorry, Yukine... sorry, Hiyori. Sorry to you too, Amane," Yato said, snuggling the baby with an over-enthusiastic hug.
"Wait- don't squeeze her like that, she just ate-!" Hiyori warned, but it was too late, and Amane threw up all over her father's clothes.
"GAH! Amane! This was my last clean shirt for the week!"
"SHH!" Yukine and Hiyori hissed together.
"What did Daddy ever do to deserve this?" Yato sobbed drunkenly in a hushed tone, clutching the child for comfort even as Hiyori tried to get him to let go.
"What is wrong with you?!" she scolded, cuffing him over the head. "You're getting vomit all over her, I just bathed her a few hours ago!"
Yukine scoffed as he kicked the covers of his futon aside and settled back in, determined to leave Yato to his well-deserved misery.
"What haven't you done?" he muttered, and promptly turned away so he could finally get some damned sleep.
Like Yasumi, Kirine seemed to have a lot on her mind. She hadn't spoken for some time, her eyes fixed on the dark window but not really looking at anything. It gave Yasumi an opportunity to really observe the lovely shinki up close and try to figure out why she looked so strangely familiar.
Just as she'd thought before, Kirine seemed to be quite young, though certainly older than Yasumi. If she had to guess, she seemed to be at most twenty years old, though there was a soft gentleness in her features that might have placed her a year or two younger than that. Her eyes were a clear shade of brown, wide and earnest, and her manners were impeccable. Even now, on a dingy public transport seat, she sat straight-backed and elegantly, her ankles crossed to one side and her plait arranged neatly over her shoulder as she turned her head. Despite her old-fashioned grace and her traditional clothes, however, she didn't seem out of place on the train. She had the distinct, self-assured confidence of a Tokyo-born commuter, and had more than once prevented Yasumi from being sat on by turning up the innocent schoolgirl charm when someone tried to sit across from her.
"I'm so sorry, I'm saving a seat for a friend at the next stop," she would lie, looking just the right amount of distressed and hopeful at the same time. Yasumi could see the exact moment when the other passengers suddenly noticed her and fell over themselves to back away with awkward apologies and flustered expressions.
"Aren't you afraid that some creep will think you're flirting with them or something?" Yasumi asked her quietly when that happened for the third time. Kirine shrugged.
"Not really," she said. "Most humans can't acknowledge the reality that someone might suddenly appear out of nowhere, so if you bring attention to yourself with a particularly strong impression, it startles them and instinctively makes them want to get away. Besides, even if someone tried to do something, I'd just suplex them into next week. It works on Yato, so it should work on any other pervert," she said confidently, holding up her fists.
"Er... is it normal for shinki to call their masters idiots and perverts?" Yasumi asked, thinking of Yukine's equally disrespectful tone.
"If they are idiots and perverts," Kirine said.
I'm not sure if I feel bad for Yato or for his Regalia, Yasumi thought, coughing nervously.
A slightly awkward silence settled over them, and Kirine returned her attention out the window, her fingers fidgeting anxiously in her lap. Yasumi was mildly surprised that she'd put her phone away; if it had been her, she would have been obsessively checking her texts every few seconds, waiting for a reply.
Where do I know you from, Kirine-san? Yasumi mused, returning to her covert observations as the seconds ticked by silently. She felt like the answer was on the tip of her tongue, literally staring her in the face, but it just wouldn't come to her no matter how hard she tried to recall it.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of her phone ringing and she automatically answered it without bothering to look at the caller.
"Hello?"
"Yasumi! Where on earth are you?!"
Yasumi winced at the sound of her mother's voice, shrill and frightened in her ear, and Kirine gave a small start of surprise which immediately became a furtive glance around the train car.
"Oh, Mom, sorry, I didn't have time to leave a note and I forgot to text you-"
"You know it's not safe to leave the house right now!" Hana interrupted, clearly angry. "I know you're used to a certain level of freedom, but you know how important this is!"
"I know, trust me," Yasumi said, giving Kirine a grim smile when the other girl turned toward her with concern. "I'd love to explain everything, Mom, but right now the most important thing is that you need to leave the house. Like, now."
"What? Why?!" Hana asked, confused.
"The spiritual protection on the house is gone," Yasumi told her, lowering her voice to a whisper. "I don't have time to tell you the whole story, but you'd probably be safer at Uncle Mitsuo's or another relative's house right now. Something bad came for me; I'm not completely sure what it was, but I'm on my way to the shrine. Maybe Aunt Kuriko can help."
Hana took a sharp breath and paused for a moment.
"You remember how to protect yourself, at least? Spiritually?"
"Yeah, I'm being careful."
"Good. I'll drive down to Nee-san's myself. Explain the rest to me there."
Yasumi couldn't help but grin at her mother's quick uptake. "Yeah, I will. Stay safe, Mom. Oh, and if you see a dark-haired man in a black tracksuit on the way there, could you please tell him to check his phone?"
"What?"
Kirine waved her hand urgently to catch Kirine's attention. "He's not wearing the tracksuit today, he's in semi-formal attire-" she whispered.
"Oh, uh, apparently he's not in a tracksuit, but he's probably wearing shrine clothes?" Yasumi told her mother, checking with Kirine.
"A green kariginu with red, patterned hakama," Kirine clarified.
"Apparently a green outer robe and red hakama. And he might be with a short blonde kid."
"Who in the world are you talking about, Yasumi?"
"Just, trust me, Mom. He needs to call someone back, urgently. Anyway, you probably can't see him, but just in case-"
"I have no idea what you're on about," Hana sighed. "But sure, whatever, if I see a man in green shrine attire I'll just drive up to him and tell him he has to check his phone. Because that isn't at all suspicious."
"Thanks Mom, you're a lifesaver. 'Kay, love you, bye," Yasumi said quickly, hanging up before her mother could ask anything more.
"The spell broke," Kirine said hurriedly as soon as the call cut off. "Your name was called; I have to reapply it before something notices you-" She made her hand into the same shape as she had earlier and pointed at Yasumi's forehead with her pointer and middle fingers. "Umbra," she said firmly, and though Yasumi felt no different, she thought she sensed the air around her change somehow.
Once she was satisfied that the incantation had worked, Kirine sighed with relief and leaned back into her seat.
"Is your mother Sighted?" she asked, interested.
"Yeah," Yasumi admitted. "But she's not really that sensitive. She can see ayakashi, but she never noticed Yukine even when he was standing right in front of her. She probably won't be able to see Yato either, sorry."
Kirine nodded. "It's worth a try anyway," she said. She cast a curious eye over Yasumi, almost as though she hadn't really noticed her before. "Do you mind if I ask a personal question?"
Yasumi shrugged. "I've asked you a ton, so yeah, it's only fair."
"Why is your name... well, that?" Kirine asked, remembering not to say it out loud at the last second. "It's not a common name, and while I'm sure you use different characters to write it, in our world, the word yasumu means 'to blight.'"
"Blight?"
"Yes, defilement, corruption... it's a malady that ayakashi spread. When someone from the Boundary touches it, they get contaminated too. Even without coming into contact with ayakashi, however, shinki can manifest their own blight if they do or say something that goes against their moral code. We often refer to it as 'stinging' or 'stabbing' our masters, because our sins cause gods physical pain too. If it gets bad enough-"
"Your master can die," Yasumi finished for her, remembering an old conversation she'd had a long time ago. "So that's what Yukine meant when he said he had to be careful about his thoughts and actions..."
Kirine seemed mildly surprised that Yasumi had heard about blight before, but didn't ask for the details. "Well, it was before my time, but it seems Yukine-kun has blighted Yato seriously in the past. I heard about it from an acquaintance who was there; because he's scared to hurt Yato like that again, Yukine-kun works extra hard to make sure he won't stray. Poor Nora-chan has been waiting for him to open up for years, though she'd never admit it," Kirine said with a small chuckle. "He probably thinks that showing affection for someone else like that would make him vulnerable to thoughts and feelings that might hurt our master."
Yasumi stared at her incredulously.
"Yukine?!" she spluttered. "He has a girlfriend?!"
Kirine looked stricken and waved her hands in a gesture of denial. "Ah, no, I didn't mean to gossip about my senpai like that, I'm sorry! I shouldn't be talking about Yukine-kun's private life like this to a total stranger-"
"... I'm not a total stranger," Yasumi said, a little annoyed at the distinction.
"Oh, I didn't mean it like that," Kirine said, blushing. "I... uh, didn't realize you felt that way about Yukine-kun-"
Yasumi choked violently on her own spit.
"WHAT?!" she screeched, indignant. "OF COURSE I DON'T! I just meant that we keep in touch cause of the job and all that! Ew, no! I'm not that interested in guys anyway, I'm just annoyed he got a girlfriend before I did!"
Kirine blinked and burst into laughter.
"Such a strong refusal!" she giggled. "Well, Nora-chan will be glad to know she doesn't have a new rival to worry about, at least," she said with an amused smile. "And if it makes you feel better, Yukine-kun and Nora-chan aren't quite dating. They're both incredibly stubborn Regalia, and very young, so even without Yukine-kun overthinking things, they aren't the type to be able to date in a traditional form. But they're very close in their own way; Nora-chan always refused to get a cell phone until Yukine-kun got her one and put it on his own plan, and I know for a fact that they have a very old, very long ongoing text chain," she said, and though she was smiling warmly, Yasumi thought she detected a faint trace of loneliness in her expression.
Is she lonely because of Yukine? Or... is she thinking about Yato...?
A sharp pain cut through Yasumi's vision, and she automatically raised her hand to her temple, surprised.
The hell was that? she wondered, confused.
"I won't say anything else about Yukine-kun, out of respect for his privacy," Kirine was saying sheepishly. "But you never did answer my question."
Yasumi blinked. "Huh?"
"About your name," Kirine explained, and Yasumi shook herself back to attention.
"Oh, right. Yeah I doubt my parents had blight in mind when they named me..." she began, but that was as far as she got.
She was suddenly hit with a terrible, nauseating, skin-crawling sensation that seemed to run over and through her body all at the same time. It was almost like someone had thrown a bucket of sludgy, disgusting, but also somehow electrified water over her, like there was some bizarre deluge of unpleasantness literally scurrying up and down her arms and legs. She gasped in pain and fear as she fell back against her seat, her vision whiting out into a single point of blinding light.
"Yasumi-chan?! Are you alright?!"
Despite not having felt it earlier, this time Yasumi was keenly aware of the cloaking spell breaking at the sound of her name. It was almost like she could hear it breaking, as corporeal as Kirine's concerned hands as they gently squeezed her shoulders.
She could feel herself hyperventilating as her vision went totally dark, leaving her utterly blind. "So-something's ha-happening," she managed, covering her mouth with her hand as she fought an incredible wave of nausea. Kirine immediately pressed a palm to Yasumi's forehead, checking her temperature, and Yasumi thought of Hana. Her stomach ached with the childish instinct for the safety of her mother's arms.
"You're burning up, Yasumi-chan! We should get you to a doctor- oh, but we don't have that kind of time!" Kirine fretted, and though her voice was completely different from Hana's, Yasumi was driven to frightened tears as she blindly reached out to her.
"M-Mom, help me, I can't see!" she cried, half-sobbing. "Mom, where are you?! Mom! Kaa-chan!"
Kirine wasted no time in gathering the younger girl into a tight hug.
"You're going to be okay, Yasumi-chan. I swear, everything is going to be okay, breathe, little princess," she reassured her firmly.
At once, Yasumi felt the same sense of calm and relief that she only ever felt when Hana was embracing her. It was warm and unconditional, and though she still felt sick, she could think through the pain and discomfort now, and she realized that this was it; her Sight was fully coming in, and Yukine had been right.
It was going to be rough.
Yato was well into a blessed nap when his phone rang and he groggily began groping around blindly for it. Amane fussed against his arm, squirming irritably, but calmed down as soon as he found it and answered it with a sleepy voice.
"Delivery God Yato, at your service," he muttered automatically, fighting not to fall asleep again.
"Yato-kun? I'm sorry, did I wake you?"
"Endou-shachou?" Yato recognized, surprised. He sat up immediately, panicking slightly. "Crap, I didn't mix up the days did I?! I thought today was Thursday-"
"No, no, you're fine, Yato-kun," his boss assured him. "You're right, it's Thursday, you're not on the clock."
Yato sighed wth relief and lifted Amane into his lap. She settled against his stomach, clutching his shirt in her tiny fists as she slept, and Yato was overcome with the urge to take a hundred pictures of her sweet, innocent little face.
Damn it, so fucking adorable, he teared up, melting at the precious sight. Please don't move before this phone call is over, he prayed silently, rubbing her back.
"Did something happen then?" he asked, adjusting the phone against his ear.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you a favor, Yato-kun," Ryuutaro said. "Risa is finally getting out of the hospital today so I need to go pick her up, but there's an event nearby and the shop is super busy. Do you think you could come in for a few hours and make sure the new boy won't burn the kitchen down without me there?"
"Oh... well, the thing is, I'm holding down the fort at home right now," Yato admitted, glancing out the window. It was still pretty early. "My girlfriend's maternity leave is over, so she's resumed her studies, and everyone else is out for the day. I'm supposed to watch the baby until lunch time, and then I have to take her to the university so my girl can nurse her-"
"It's just a couple of hours, you won't be needed until lunch time," his boss said, clearly desperate. "Since it's so short notice, I'll pay you double the overtime, and you can bring Amane-chan too, I don't mind-"
Double?! Yato thought immediately, perking up at the thought of money. Amane made a soft gurgling noise and he winced. No, it was too dangerous to go out with her in tow; no one in their right mind would look at that cute little nose or see that mop of thick black hair and not realize she was Yato's child. He might be able to mask her aura with his own, but he couldn't exactly hide her eyes. Finding someone to look after her was out of the question too. Yukine had gone to school with Hiyori, and Kofuku and Daikoku were at a meeting in Heaven. Yato could afford to get away with skipping official functions from time to time, considering he was such a minor god, but Kofuku had to show her face for at least a little while.
"Er... I'm sorry, shachou, it's just that I don't think my girlfriend would be happy to know I took the baby to work with me, and my in-laws are all busy so I can't just show up and leave her with them-"
"Please, Yato-kun, I'm begging ya, I don't have anyone else to rely on and I can't afford to shut the place down for the day when Risa's hospital bills are so high-"
Yato felt an incredible stab of guilt; Ryuutaro's wife had been in a coma for months after her miscarriage, and had only just woken up in the last two weeks. While his boss had been praying at his wife's bedside every evening, his child long dead, Yato had been living in relative familial bliss. Hiyori was healthy, Amane was perfect, and Yukine had been incredibly good at openly admitting when he felt left out or jealous of his baby sister. He knew, rationally, that his boss' misfortune wasn't his fault, but... he still felt responsible somehow. There was a tiny voice in the back of his mind, the one that spoke in his Father's tone, that reminded him he would always be a magatsukami... It wasn't impossible to think that maybe, just maybe, Yato had accidentally let some of his calamitous aura touch Ryuutaro without meaning to...
"Well..." he said uneasily, glancing down at his daughter. She was always calm when she was alone with her father; she didn't need to cry to let him know she needed or wanted things, and she often slept right through until feeding time, comforted by his aura. It was only when Yukine or Hiyori were close enough for Amane to sense them that she became spoiled, and since they couldn't understand her the way Yato instinctively did, she got frustrated easily. If he told her she needed to be quiet and stay asleep, he was pretty sure she would recognize and understand the importance of his request. "If it's only a couple of hours..."
Ryuutaro sighed with relief. "Thank god, I wasn't sure what I was gonna do if you said no. You're a lifesaver, Yato-kun. Can you come in right away?"
"Y-Yeah, sure. I just gotta get dressed," he said, feeling just as guilty, though for entirely different reasons. "But I absolutely have to be gone by noon, or my girlfriend will literally kill me," he insisted.
"That should be fine. I'll see you soon then, thanks again!"
His boss hung up and Yato groaned to himself. "Shit, I shouldn't have said yes," he muttered. "Fucking Dad, getting in my head even when he's already kicked the damned bucket..." He paused to take a few pictures with his phone, then lifted Amane up and she stirred, sensing his unease. It wasn't like most gods could communicate with each other this way, but Yato supposed that since she was his own flesh and blood, there was a good chance that whatever natural laws governed the abilities of the divine considered her an extension of his own essence. Besides, she didn't quite have words to express herself; Yato just sort of knew what she was feeling, and she was able to understand him too.
"Hey, kid," he said, kissing her soft cheek and letting her intoxicating baby scent fill his lungs for a moment. "Sorry for waking you, but we gotta get going." He felt her question what was happening, affected by his own worry.
"Tou-san is a soft-hearted dumbass, is what happened," he said as he got to his feet and began gathering his things. "Mom and Yuki-nii-chan are gonna murder me if they find out I did this... and after they gave me that lecture about being more responsible last week, too..." He shivered as he took an adorable hooded kitten-themed onesie that Hiyori had bought from the closet and set Amane down so he could change her into it. "This is really important, Amane," he told her directly. "Do you think you could keep quiet and close your eyes until I say it's okay? You can sleep if you want, but I need you to be extra careful not to make people notice you all the way until we go see Mommy. Can you do that?"
Amane kicked her foot slightly as he tugged the onesie on, but he felt her assurance nonetheless. He sighed with relief and pulled the cat-eared hood over her head, tucking her hair under it for good measure. She made a small noise of displeasure but he knew she wouldn't take it off or make a fuss.
"That's my girl," he said, pressing a kiss to her brow. "Wait right there a second."
He got dressed quickly and prepared a bag with a few things any human parent would carry around, just in case someone got nosy. He was glad that Hiyori's parents kept ignorantly buying their granddaughter diapers; people got very suspicious when they noticed an adult carrying a baby without any diapers on hand, and he couldn't exactly stay in their blind spots while working. He knew she wouldn't eat it, but he put in a couple of bottles of formula too, and a pacifier. Hiyori had a kangaroo pouch lying around somewhere, and he briefly considered using it, but in the end he settled on doing things the old-fashioned way. Wrapping Amane securely in a large bedsheet, he pulled her onto his back and deftly tugged it around and over his shoulders and tied it off with an expert knot.
"There, much easier to move around with this than those modern pouches," he said as Amane giggled playfully behind him. He double-checked that she was comfortable and secure before checking his appearance in the mirror. He looked a little odd, wearing jeans with a baby wrap, but it didn't look any more conspicuous than the kangaroo pouch would have. At least the uniform was just a plain black t-shirt, and once he tied his hair back with a handkerchief, it wouldn't be too bad. "Okay, let's go," he told her, pulling the bag over his shoulder. "Remember, you have to be super quiet, Amane."
Amane immediately went still, and not five minutes after he'd leapt from the window, her breath evened out and she fell fast asleep against her father's shoulder.
Please, Yato, please, pick up the damned phone!
Kirine groaned anxiously as the voicemail message played, waiting for the train door to open so she could carry Yasumi away from any ayakashi or prying gods. The poor girl had fainted about ten minutes ago, and wouldn't wake no matter what Kirine tried. In the end she'd had to hoist her limp body onto her back, spell reapplied for the third time that evening, and was preparing to make a desperate and almighty run for the shrine as soon as the train came to their stop.
"Yato!" she shouted furiously into the receiver as soon as the tone went off. "You stupid, useless master! The one time I need you to answer right away, and you're completely off the grid! You had better not be dead, I'll never forgive you and Yukine-kun if you die on me, you hear me?!"
She choked up, fighting back frightened tears. "I'm on my way, so please... You have to stay alive until I get there. You have to! Don't you dare leave me behind!" she added, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. She hung up, tucking the phone clumsily back into her pocket and adjusting her hold on Yasumi's legs.
Hang in there, Yasumi-chan, I've got you. I won't let anyone hurt you ever again.
She was so panicked and desperate to get to Ame's shrine that Kirine never stopped to wonder why she'd worded her thoughts the way she did.
Notes:
I'm pretty gay myself but fuck if I'm not a weak ho for Yato looking after children wtf why is this stupid trash gremlin so cute and sweet with kids?
I'm dying squirtle
