She was dreaming.

At least, she rather hoped she was. She felt empty, weightless, and she seemed to be floating aimlessly through the dark emptiness of an endless void. There was no sound, no light, nothing but a pitch black abyss that stretched out blankly for an eternity in all directions. She existed alone, untethered, and strangely, unafraid.

She knew there was a good chance she was dead, but even that didn't quite frighten her. It was comfortable here in the darkness, warm and gentle. The silence was relaxing, pressing against her eardrums like cotton, and a soft current tugged her along with no particular destination in mind.

She belonged there. She was welcome, free. She needn't think or worry about anything ever again, and the thought was so pleasant that she sighed with relief, content.

Time stretched out, bending and twisting in her faint perception of its movements. A second took a year, a year thirty minutes, a minute looping back into itself, and then the silence gave way to something new, something unexpected.

She blinked slowly, listening.

Nothing.

She pulled herself free of the current, curious. She was certain she'd sensed something, some faint disturbance in the space around her...

"It's you."

The words were voiceless, but she felt them caress her cheek like an old friend, and still she was unafraid.

"I suppose it is," she offered, her voice echoing into nothingness.

There was a pause.

"You... do you remember?" the presence asked, hesitant.

"Remember what?" she asked in return.

"Everything. Anything. Nothing at all."

Something about the vague reply made her smile.

"How am I supposed to answer that?"

"I don't know."

"Yeah, me neither."

The presence fell silent for a long while, but she could sense it there, floating along with her, existing.

"Where are we going?" she asked after some time.

"Nowhere."

"Why?"

"Not all questions have answers."

She considered that for a while.

"Maybe not, but most situations have causes."

"Do they?" the presence mused, but it was a rhetorical question.

"Who are you, anyway?" she asked instead.

"No one. Not really."

"You're not one for conversation, are you?"

"I'm just telling the truth. I'm not anyone, or anything."

"But you're still an 'I', so you have to be something," she insisted.

"Then..." the non-voice hesitated. "What do you think I am?"

She frowned.

"I dunno, that's why I'm asking," she said, but she couldn't sense any sarcasm or malice in the question. It was a real inquiry, as though the presence needed her to define it before it could exist as any one thing.

She had no idea how she knew that, though.

"Sorry, I really don't understand what you're talking about. But... if you really want a label," she said slowly, "I suppose you can start by being my friend."

"... Friend?" it asked, and this time there was something under the words. Amusement, perhaps. Not quite derision, at least.

"Why not?"

"No, it's just a strange thing to say to something or someone you don't even know."

"I'll get to know you then. I'm pretty good at making friends."

"Hmm," the non-voice said, vague as ever. "I don't believe I've ever had a friend before," it finally added.

"How come?"

"You tell me."

"Me? I don't know," she said, confused.

"Life is full of unknowns."

She gave a small, amused snort.

"You must be real fun at parties."

"So they tell me," the presence replied. She had no idea why, but she had the impression there was a smile under the words. Almost a laugh. Warm, bright, familiar even. It made her feel at ease.

"Somehow, I feel like I know you from somewhere," she noted.

"I feel the same about you . The moment you got here, I knew you. But I'm certain we've never met."

"How is that possible?" she said, frowning.

"Some things are not bound by time or reason. Father would say it's instinct, or perhaps some strange twist of fate."

"Father?"

"Yes. He has always been particularly attuned to the twining and severing of fate, my father."

"If you have a father, shouldn't you already know what you are?" she asked pointedly.

"Perhaps. But I don't believe even he really knows what I am. He is my Father, yet I am not quite his child."

"Hm," she said drily. "You're just full of fun riddles, aren't you?"

"Apparently so."

She sighed. Would it kill them to just answer a question outright?

"Why do you talk like that?" she asked.

"Pardon?"

"Exactly; you're extremely polite, it's almost archaic."

"I am?"

"Your sentence structure is exhausting and goes around in circles," she complained. "And my dad would hate such old-fashioned and formal honorifics."

"...Well... Perhaps you're right. I don't believe Father likes it very much either, but it's the most polite form of address he doesn't outright despise."

"Why not just call him 'Otou-san?'"

"I was taught that was too impolite."

"By whom?"

"... Who knows."

She scoffed loudly.

"Well, he would be proud of you," she said flatly. "Father doesn't like answering questions either."


"You're late."

Yukine tapped his foot irritably as his master hopped down from the fence onto the rooftop of the literary sciences building, where he and Hiyori had been waiting for fifteen minutes past the agreed meeting time.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," Yato winced, handing Yukine the bag of baby supplies. "I got held up a bit." He surrendered the baby to Hiyori gently, kissing Amane's hair. "She was good all morning, no tantrums or anything," he reported.

"How nice for you," Yukine said coldly, unpacking Hiyori's feeding blanket for her. No matter how much Hiyori covered for him, Yukine still thought Yato needed to get knocked down a few pegs to make their parenting duties fair.

"Hi, Amane," Hiyori said softly, nuzzling the baby's cheek as Yukine handed Yato the blanket. "Mommy missed you so much today." Amane squealed happily at her mother's affections for a short moment, but as soon as Yato unfolded and tucked the blanket over Hiyori's shoulders, the baby started whining as though she couldn't understand why she wasn't being fed yet. Hiyori sighed, recognizing the behavior. "Yeah, yeah, I know, you're hungry, just a second..." Yukine took Amane off her hands so she could adjust her clothes.

"Hey, sis," he said, making a face to distract Amane. "Did'ya get enough sleep?" Amane jerked her head away from him, trying to reach for her mother with increasingly desperate cries. "Wow. Rude," Yukine pouted at her. "At least pretend to be happy to see Nii-chan, would ya?"

"She only woke up about half an hour ago," Yato told him, unpacking three lunchboxes from the bag. "And she's grumpy."

"Duh, I don't need god telepathy or whatever to know that," Yukine scowled. "And I was asking Her Highness, not you."

Yato blinked, nonplussed.

"Who?"

"Oh, that. That's Masaomi-nii-chan's fault," Hiyori admitted as she took the baby back and tucked her under the blanket to nurse. She winced uncomfortably as Amane latched, and Yukine gave her a small pat on the shoulder. "He's been calling Amane 'Hime-chan' because she's so bossy."

"And you've got that whole dumb 'king emblem' thing goin', so I figure it fits- you okay Yato?" Yukine asked, concerned at Yato's stricken, horrified expression.

"D-Don't ever say that again," Yato said hoarsely.

"Say what?" Hiyori asked, frightened by his intensity.

"That Amane's a princess, or royalty of any kind," Yato said, lowering his voice.

"It's just a joke, lighten up," Yukine said, raising an eyebrow. He'd never seen his master react so seriously to a dumb quip before.

Yato sat beside Hiyori, resting his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped so tightly the knuckles were stark white. "Just don't, alright? It's dangerous. Tell the big brother to quit it too. We're in enough hot water without Heaven thinking we're trying to overthrow Amaterasu or somethin'."

"Yato?" Hiyori asked, worried. "Did something happen?"

He hesitated, glancing at Yukine, who immediately understood that his master was keeping secrets again.

"Oh no, what the fuck have you done now?!" he demanded, snatching his lunchbox. If he had to kick Yato's ass, he didn't want to do it on an empty stomach.

Yato had the decency to look ashamed.

"Uhm... well..."

"Speak up, asshole," Yukine snarled, pointing at his master with his chopsticks. "You're already on my shit-list right now, do not make it worse for yourself."

"Yukine-kun," Hiyori tried to intervene, but Yukine wasn't having it.

"No, Hiyori, he's gotta grow the fuck up already," he said furiously. "Well?" he said, glaring at Yato as he ate.

Yato fidgeted with his hands for a second, looking small and childish in his guilt.

"Well... it's not that I did anything... technically..." he muttered.

"Not even you believe that," Hiyori said flatly.

"I... well, okay, I kinda, sorta did something dangerous, but-" Yato paused, glancing around nervously as though someone might be listening at the top of a deserted school building. "That part wasn't the problem-"

"Yato, I'm fucking warning you-"

"Ebisu and the others know about Amane!" the god exclaimed with the air of someone wanting to get it over with quickly.

Hiyori and Yukine both stared at him, uncomprehending.

"W-What?" Yukine asked, baffled. "How? You... Even you're not stupid enough to have told them, right?!" he gasped, his blood pressure rising sharply.

Yato took one look at the devastated betrayal on Hiyori's face and fell all over himself to reassure them.

"Of course I didn't tell them!" he cried. "You really think I'm that untrustworthy?! Ebisu says they've known for months. Since before you went into labor, Hiyori. You met with Bishamon at the market once, remember?"

"Since way back then?!" Hiyori gasped, holding the baby close in her panic. Amane made a disgruntled whine, reminding her mother she was still nursing, but her complaint went ignored.

"That's what he said, anyway... Bishamon probably told the Seven Lucky Gods, and I'd be surprised if Tenjin and Take didn't know too. Fucking assholes never said anything," he scowled. "Could've given us a heads up or something."

"That's way too many people!" Yukine paled.

"Yeah, I know," Yato grimaced. "I don't like it either."

A heavy silence fell over them, their expressions stony.

"What do we do, Yato?" Hiyori finally asked after a few minutes. The god shook his head.

"I dunno, Hiyori. Ebisu says they've been helping keep Heaven's attention off of us, so... maybe it's a good thing."

"What if it isn't? It's not that I don't trust them..." Hiyori said, rubbing the baby's back anxiously. "But..."

Yato moved closer to her and gently put an arm around her shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's gonna be okay," he said, kissing Hiyori's temple as he tugged her into a comforting sort of hold and tucked her head under his chin. Hiyori put up only the smallest of token protests before she sighed and relaxed against his shoulder. Yukine, on the other hand, was not convinced, and he scowled at his master's carefree and irresponsible assurances.

"It is not okay," he growled. "Hiyori, I know you're drowning in maternal hormones right now, but don't let him cuddle his way out of this!"

"I-I'm not!" she protested, her cheeks tinged pink as she pulled away from Yato, not enough to leave his embrace but enough to look at least a little contrite.

"Hey, if she wants to be cuddled that's her choice! Besides, I'm just trying not to worry you guys about stuff we can't control!" Yato complained, pouting childishly. "There's nothing we can do about it now, it's not like getting mad about it will change things!"

"I'll get mad if I fucking want to get mad," Yukine snapped irritably. He tugged his phone out of his pocket and navigated to his messages. "Why the hell didn't Nora say anything if her master knew about this?!" he fumed.

"Maybe she didn't know, Yukine-kun," Hiyori offered kindly. Amane made her usual whine that meant she wanted to be switched to the other breast and Hiyori paused to rearrange her clothes for a moment until the baby was comfortable. "Ookuninushi-san doesn't really trust Nora-chan very much, right?" she said, rubbing her sore chest absently.

"Yeah I doubt he told her," Yato added. "Maybe he thought she was too dangerous to tell; none of them understand why we still keep her around to begin with."

"We can trust her," Yukine insisted.

"We know that, Yukine-kun," Hiyori said with a soft, angelic smile. Tired and worn out though she might be, even Yukine couldn't resist the power of that smile these days; it was such a warm, affectionate gesture, the kind that made people feel like they were in the presence of someone who would accept and protect them no matter what they did or said. Yukine often felt strangely fuzzy and emotional inside when she used it.

How's anyone supposed to stay mad at her when she looks at you like that? Yukine thought, feeling a bit guilty for snapping at her. I'm not even the one in love with her, how Yato can even think when she gives him that look... No wonder he always looks like such a sap around her.

"We'd never have let her in on the secret if we didn't trust her," Hiyori continued, oblivious to Yukine's train of thought. "Nora-chan adores Amane."

That was all it took to sour Yukine's mood all over again. Hiyori was right: Nora was smitten with the baby, and she often came to Kofuku's house to play with her. It had been nice at first, but it didn't take long for Yukine to realize that he was no longer Nora's favorite person. He couldn't help but feel hurt and jealous whenever she elbowed right past him, sometimes without a single word of greeting, so she could see her self-proclaimed "niece." Sometimes she spent entire days at Kofuku's, singing slightly unnerving nursery rhymes and pointing out how Amane was going to be just like Yato when he was a child, and how she couldn't wait to be an older sister figure again.

No one else seemed to notice that Nora rarely came by for Yukine anymore. Yato was a little wary about leaving her unsupervised with the baby, but seemed to be okay with it as long as one of them was chaperoning, while Hiyori was always glad to have Nora around, partly because she'd always had a soft spot for the poor girl, and partly because Hiyori loved hearing stories about Yato's childhood. It never hurt that someone else fussing over Amane meant Hiyori got a little bit of a break.

Yukine was the only one who felt the distance steadily growing between himself and Nora, and as much as he didn't want to blame Amane or anyone else, he still felt a little angry about it.

He paused halfway through his text and closed the phone, disgruntled.

She'd have said something if she knew Amane was in danger, I guess, he thought bitterly.

Yato winced slightly, clapping a hand to the side of his neck.

"Oi, Yukine," he scolded. "What're you getting upset for?"

"No reason," he lied. Sometimes Yukine really hated the fact that he wasn't allowed the privacy of his own emotions.


"My master's blessing?!"

Kirine's barrier flickered ominously as her concentration flickered, taken aback by the other shinki's provocation. She managed to catch herself just before she let it fall apart, tugging Yasumi protectively over her shoulder.

I need to focus, this isn't the time to be startled, Kirine! she scolded inwardly.

The girl made a face of great dislike. "Your master is a meddling fool, always crossing lines he shouldn't. None of us would be in this mess if it wasn't for him."

"What are you talking about?!" Kirine demanded. She had no idea who these children belonged to, or what they intended to do with Yasumi, but they seemed to know something about Yato, and Kirine needed to know what it was.

The girl gave her a look full of hatred and resentment, but the boy sighed with something almost akin to pity.

"Gods are selfish," he said. "They make promises of family and loyalty, they swear they treasure us more than anything, but when it really comes down to it, all Regalia are to them are convenient tools. They don't really trust us."

"T-That's not true!" Kirine insisted angrily. "I don't know what your master is like, but Yato's not like that!"

"Really?" the boy asked. "So he's never hidden anything from you? Never looked at you with pity or guilt in his eyes? Has he told you everything about what's happening tonight, and why he doesn't want you anywhere near it?"

"H-He... Yato is..." she began, but the doubt she'd always buried in a corner of her heart couldn't help sprouting at the boy's words. The secrecy, the way Yato and Yukine fussed about keeping her home and out of danger, the sadness in Yato's expression when they were alone, how he always stroked her cheek like he meant to kiss her and never did... Why wouldn't he meet her eyes when she asked if it was wrong for a god and a Regalia to have feelings for each other? Why did he always change the subject when she asked why he hated using her weapon form?

"I'm sure he's told you it's for your own good," the boy noted when she didn't continue. "They're always like that. The more they say they care about you, the less they want you to know. It's how they control us. Don't take it personally, Kirine. You're not that special."

Kirine grit her teeth, ignoring the sharp ache forming in her chest. "Shut up! You don't know me! You don't know anything about my god or how he treats his shinki! He's different from other gods, he keeps only two of us, and he genuinely loves us like we're his own family! If Yato's keeping secrets, I'm sure he has his reasons!"

The girl laughed, a high, cold sound, full of bitter anger. "Love! You say it like it's a good thing! If only you knew just how dangerous your god's 'love' really was!"

"What? What's that supposed to mean?! Stop talking in riddles!" Kirine demanded, her tail bristling with anxious fear. All her senses were on high-alert despite the dampening effect of Ame's barrier, and she knew, though she couldn't say how, that something dangerous was coming. "Who are you?! What do you want with us?! With Yasumi-chan?!"

The girl's eyes narrowed. "I told you. This is a family matter. Our family. That girl you're shielding? She's our younger sister."

"Your what?!"

"No need to shout," the boy complained, rubbing his ear. "It's not that big a deal."

"Shinki don't have siblings!" Kirine insisted, her hand trembling as it kept the borderline in place. "We're all dead!"

"Exactly," he shrugged. "We're dead, which means we were alive once. Some of us more than others," he added dully.

We were alive once. The words echoed in Kirine's head like a drum. It was such a simple thing, such an obvious truth; death implied the loss of life. But until the boy had mentioned it, Kirine had never so much as wondered about her own past. She could remember her time wandering as a dead spirit, but whatever she'd been searching for had quickly faded from memory, leaving her aimless and alone for months before Yato found her. Anything before that was completely blank, and she should have been curious to know more about it, but until that moment, she never had.

Why? Surely Kirine had had people who loved her once; she must have had parents, maybe a sibling or two, aunts, uncles, grandparents... What had become of her friends? She might have even had a boyfriend once; she was young, but not so young that it was out of the question. But not once in almost two centuries as Yato's Regalia had Kirine thought about the people she'd left behind, never considered searching for them or looking for information about what had become of them. Now it was too late; they'd all be dead.

But Kirine wanted to know, she needed to know. It was like a fog had lifted from her mind, finally clear for the first time since she'd died.

I... I was alive once. I was someone's daughter, someone's friend. Before I was Kirine... who in the world was I?

Barely visible in the glow of her wavering borderline, a tiny, insidious crack formed on the Name that Kirine had treasured from the moment Yato first inscribed it on her skin.


The sun had only just set beyond the horizon when the man patrolling the shrine realized something was amiss. He paused on his usual trek along the edge of the shrine grounds, frowning.

Has the barrier weakened already? he wondered, gazing up at the star-strewn sky. Ame-no-Mikoto's barriers were usually so powerful that they quite literally cut off the rest of the world; normal humans couldn't really tell beyond feeling safer and more at ease while inside one, but Regalia and gods always felt a sharp disconnect when they crossed into her realm. Even Toshiya, Ame's own guidepost, struggled to sense things happening beyond the barrier without his goddess around to point him in the right direction.

Now, however, Toshiya could make out something happening in the skyline to the east, though it was difficult to judge in the darkness. A storm seemed to be rolling in, but the old Regalia could just make out the telltale flashes of shinki being summoned and the shapes of what must be gods in divine garments darting around in battle.

This can't be good, he thought, worrying his greying beard. Once in a while, a battle broke out during Ame's transition, but never so close that Toshiya could physically sense it. Yatogami usually led their pursuers on a false trail away from the shrine, always taking the utmost care to make sure Heaven never so much as looked in the right direction. How the god managed to survive each encounter without being executed or punished by Amaterasu was a mystery to Toshiya, but he suspected it had a lot to do with Yato's powerful group of allies and the fact that he was much too dangerous to take down without immense sacrifices on Heaven's part. Toshiya doubted even Amaterasu could challenge Amagiri-no-Mikoto and come out of it unscathed.

Has our luck finally run out? he wondered, running through worst-case scenarios in his head. If it came down to it, he could always grab the young mistress and escape on foot, but if Ame left the barrier, it would immediately fail and expose the entire bloodline she was sworn to protect. That absolutely couldn't be allowed to happen, and even if Toshiya broke the old oaths and prioritized his mistress' safety, they would be sitting ducks without a new host and the spiritual power Ame relied on to keep herself safe and hidden.

"It's begun, hasn't it?"

Toshiya jumped at the unexpected voice and was startled to find a well-dressed older woman less than three feet away from him.

"Reiko-chan! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" he accused as she came to stand next to him. Her eyes quickly found the battle taking place in the skies to the east, and he knew she could see it much more clearly than he could. "Don't sneak up on an old man like that!"

The woman smiled at him, the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth crinkling fondly. "I believe I'm older than you now, Toshiya-san." She unpinned her silvery hair and let it fall over her shoulders as if to prove a point.

"I wouldn't say that," he said, offering her a grin. The truth was that no matter how old Reiko got, all Toshiya could ever see was the bright-eyed, eleven year old child he'd known fifty years ago. Time for mortals passed by so quickly that Toshiya sometimes felt like all he'd done was blink between one host and the next.

"Always so well-mannered," she chuckled. "Tell me, how is it going?"

"Not sure, you'd know better than me, truthfully," he said, nodding up at the sky. "They've never gotten this close to us before, I'm worried."

"Amagiri-no-Mikoto has never let them find us," Reiko said, firm in her belief. "I'm certain he will do everything he can to distract them."

"He's only one god," Toshiya said, crossing his arms. "A formidable, dangerous god, but one god nonetheless. Every time he has to do this, it only paints a bigger target on his back. Amaterasu-sama has turned a blind eye for a long time now, but she can't do it forever. Whatever respect and favor she's afforded him all these years will run out. We just have to pray it won't be today."

"But why?" Reiko asked sadly. "Why does she hate us so much?"

"She doesn't hate us," he said, surprised by her query. "Does the young mistress think that?"

"I don't know what Ame-san believes, she's always firmly denied knowing anything about the subject. But what other conclusion can I come to?" Reiko asked bitterly. "What could possibly motivate Amaterasu-sama to execute an entire bloodline if not hate?"

"Necessity. Fear," Toshiya said grimly.

"Fear of what? Ame-san is a very minor god, so minor that no one outside of this family has ever heard of her! She's not even a combat deity, or a god that causes trouble for anyone else. There are far worse threats than a god that sits quietly in her shrine for centuries and repels ayakashi!"

Toshiya shook his head. "I can't talk about it, Reiko-chan, you know that."

"So you always say," she said, hurt. "I'm certain Ame-san knows more about this than she says she does too."

"I can't pretend to know what knowledge passes between gods when their shinki aren't there," Toshiya said carefully, blowing warm air into his hands. "If Amagiri-no-Mikoto has told my mistress anything, he's never done it in front of me. What I can say with certainty is that Amaterasu-sama wouldn't attack us for no reason; I doubt she really wants to attack us at all."

"Then why would she?"

He grimaced. "She doesn't have a choice. She may be the ruler of Heaven, but Amaterasu is as bound as the rest of us. There are laws even she can't bend or break, and my mistress and her circumstances... even you must understand that they're unusual, Reiko-chan."

Ame's host sighed. "That's what the stories say, at least. That Ame-san is a special entity among the gods, that the wish that made her was unique and complicated. What that means is a mystery to us all, but it must be dire indeed to draw the ire of the Sun Goddess."

"That's where you're mistaken," Toshiya said, crossing his arms as he watched the battle above. "Amaterasu cannot be crossed. That we've survived all this time is proof that she's holding back; I'd even say she's probably fond of us, since she has never come to settle the matter with her own two hands. Not even Amagiri-no-Mikoto would be able to fend her off if she were serious; it wouldn't be an easy win, but it would still end in her victory. Eventually, this can't end any other way."

"Even though we've never done anything to threaten her?" she asked bitterly.

"Don't kid yourself, Reiko-chan; just the fact that we exist is dangerous enough."

"So we've been told all our lives... But you needn't count yourself among us, Toshiya-san," she said suddenly, giving him a meaningful look. "You don't have to stay and die with the rest of us."

He scoffed, insulted. "And leave the young mistress defenseless? Never."

"She's not your only master," Reiko said leadingly.

"Aye, and Milady would skin me alive if I even considered abandoning Ojou-chan," he said firmly. "I wouldn't do it anyway, I've practically raised that child time and time again. I'm not about to leave her now."

"Not even if your old mistress calls for you, 'Kuraha-san?'"

Toshiya shrugged, pretending he didn't feel the fierce longing in his soul at the sound of his first name.

"Milady has more than enough strength and allies to protect herself with, even if I'm not there to help," he said gruffly. "She wouldn't break her promise to an ally either, not when she and I both swore we'd do whatever it took to keep Ojou-chan safe. Besides," he added grudgingly, "whatever effort it takes Amaterasu to destroy Amagiri-no-Mikoto, it will cost her dearly. Far too much to go after the other deities on our side. Lady Bishamon will survive, and she knows where to find me if she ever needs Kinki again."

Reiko stood quietly for a few minutes, lost in thought as they watched the distant battle in mutual silence.

"Toshiya-san?"

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Why don't we call him 'Yatogami' here? I'd never even heard the name until Yasumi-chan mentioned it."

He stroked his whiskery beard thoughtfully. "Well, I'm not really sure. He asked it of us, back when Ame-chan and I came to live at this shrine. Ojou-chan probably knew why, once. I never did. It's not my place to question a god, not when he's put so much on the line to keep the little mistress safe."

"I see," she said simply. She closed her eyes and folded her hands together in prayer.

"Praying to her again?" he asked with a reluctant smile. Ame had been asleep for weeks now, and she wouldn't wake until the new host arrived.

"Yes, but I can't reach her anymore," Reiko admitted sadly. "Sometimes I feel her watching through me, but it only lasts a moment before she's gone again."

He sighed, tucking his hands into his suit pockets. "That poor child... I hate doing this to her. She might be a god, but she's also an innocent who's never done a single thing wrong in her life. She doesn't deserve being trapped here, stuck in an endless loop. I know I volunteered for the job, but it does weigh heavily on my mind every time she undergoes this ritual."

"Even so, Ame-san is grateful for you, Toshiya-san," Reiko said, patting his sleeve comfortingly. "She loves you like a father, and I know she'll feel the same when the night is through."

"I know she does," Toshiya admitted with a heavy stab of guilt. I'm all she has, after all, but it might have been better to leave it to Yukine-kun when we came up with this plan. I'm only here because Milady didn't think it would be good for him to stay here, what with his youth and his unstable history... and Yukine-kun is the strongest deterrent we have against Heaven to begin with. Still, sometimes I wonder if we haven't robbed Ame-chan of something important by leaving her with me. "And I adore the little mistress as though she were my own child, so as much as I hate having to put her through this, I won't abandon her."

"We don't blame you, Toshiya." Reiko said simply.

Toshiya gave a small start at the lack of honorific and the old-fashioned, polite intonation he associated with his master. It took him a moment to realize Ame wasn't actually there, and he snorted, glancing over his shoulder at Reiko. "I hate it when you two do that."

"Do what?" Reiko asked innocently, but he could see the gleam in her eye that meant she was merely passing the words on.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, precocious brat," he scolded, lightly ruffling her hair as though he were disciplining a child.

"Sorry, we couldn't help it," Reiko giggled into her sleeve. The youthful gleam faded from her expression almost as quickly as it had come, and she sighed wistfully as she clasped her hands in front of her. "But I'm afraid it's just me now."

"She's drifting," he explained, adjusting his eyepatch as he spoke. "Poor thing probably doesn't even realize she's asleep. What little she sees when she floats to the surface must feel like a strange, disjointed dream."

Reiko stood so still she could have been a statue.

"I'm truly going to miss her," she said sadly. "Fifty years, she's been part of me, and now I just... have to learn how to be alone again. These past few weeks have been so strange and quiet... I don't know how to live without Ame-san."

"You'll be alright, Reiko-san," Toshiya assured her gently. "Neither of you will remember, but that doesn't mean the bond between you will be severed forever. You'll always carry a little bit of my mistress with you, and she a bit of you."

"Yes, I take comfort in that... but don't think too poorly of me for hoping Yasumi-chan takes her time in getting here-"

A sudden thundering crash in the sky above startled them both, and they whirled around to look for the source.

"What in the-?!"

"What is that?!" Reiko gasped as a huge, serpent-like flash of lightning illuminated the sky.

"It can't be," Toshiya said hoarsely.

"Can't be what?" Reiko asked, frightened by his tone. "What is it?!"

Toshiya shook his head, his face drained of color.

"It's... it's a signal. From Takemikazuchi-sama."

"A signal? For what?!"

"It... It's a warning," he said, staring at the lightning with his one good eye, transfixed with horror. "It... It means that Amagiri-no-Mikoto has fallen, and we're no longer safe here."


It wasn't until classes were over and Yato returned to pick them up from the university that Hiyori remembered something important.

"Yato," she said, coming to a sudden stop outside the campus fence. Amane peeked over her mother's shoulder, apparently concerned that the rocking motion of Hiyori's footsteps had stopped.

"Yeah?" he asked, surprised as he adjusted her bag over his shoulder. "What's up, Hiyori?"

"Earlier, during lunch," she said, rubbing the baby's back as she frowned. "You said you did something dangerous before you came here."

The god flinched, and Yukine immediately pounced on the sign of weakness.

"You did!" he snarled. "Did you think we'd be too distracted to remember, you shitty bastard?!"

"N-No," Yato muttered, shrinking visibly into his jacket. "I was gonna tell you..."

"What did you do?!" Yukine insisted furiously.

Yato looked like he was seriously considering making a run for it. Hiyori instinctively grabbed him by the wrist, and the wide-eyed panic in his eyes confirmed her suspicion. "I-I wasn't gonna, I swear!" he stuttered. "I-It's just the restaurant was really busy and my boss had to go pick up his wife from the hospital-"

"You went to work?!" Hiyori gasped. "You left Amane alone?!"

"What?! No!" Yato paled, looking stricken. "What kind of careless idiot do you take me for?! I couldn't leave my three-month-old kid alone at home without anyone to look after her! Obviously, I took her with me-!"

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Yukine shouted, dropping his bag in his horrified anger.

"Yato, what have you done?!" Hiyori cried. Amane sensed the tense atmosphere and began to wail, but Hiyori was too upset to focus on soothing her.

"I know! I know it was stupid and careless!" Yato groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I absolutely didn't want to, I told my boss I wouldn't do it, but... he begged me, Hiyori," he pleaded, turning to her with desperation. "His wife has been hospitalized this whole time, and his baby died... How could I say no when I have everything he lost? I just couldn't turn him down when he needed someone to help..."

Hiyori bit her lip. When he put it that way, Hiyori really couldn't fault him for deciding to help. She probably would have done the same in his shoes, and it was just like Yato to feel personally responsible for something that wasn't really his fault.

Yukine, however, seemed to have had enough.

"No, you're not getting a free pass on this one, fucker," he snarled, grabbing Yato by the front of his jacket. "I don't care about your stupid reasons; when it came down to it, you put your own family in danger just to make yourself feel better about something that wasn't even your goddamned business! You're seriously that desperate for approval?! You're really that fucking selfish?!"

"No! I didn't do it for me, I just wanted-!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Yukine shouted, startling everyone with the sheer force of his fury. "I'm fucking sick of playing the adult all the damned time! YOU'RE the parent, YOU'RE the god! I'm just a goddamned kid! Hiyori is just a kid! You're putting all the burden of this family on us cause you're too irresponsible to even THINK about the danger you're exposing us all to when you do stupid, careless shit like this! What the FUCK is wrong with you, Yato?!"

"Wait, Y-Yukine-kun!" Hiyori said, trying to wedge herself between the god and his guidepost. Several people on the street had noticed the commotion and slowed down for a few steps as they passed by. Hiyori's face burned with shame as Amane wailed into her shoulder in her confused terror and Hiyori fought to tug Yukine off Yato with her one available arm. "Please, calm down, it's not safe-" she begged.

Yukine gaped at her, clearly so angry he could barely keep himself together.

"You're going to defend him again, Hiyori?!"

She shook her head frantically, so alarmed she could barely think straight. "It's not about defending him or not..."

"You always take his fucking side!"

"No, I don't!" she insisted. "It's just, this isn't the place-!"

"Don't you get it?!" Yukine scowled, slapping her hand away. "Yato doesn't care about anyone but himself! He always says the right thing to get us to believe him, but then he turns around and does something stupid that puts us all at risk! I'm fucking tired of all his excuses, and you should be too! He doesn't care about us!" he lashed out. "He doesn't even care about you!"

The words hit Hiyori like a physical blow. She didn't think that, of course she didn't, but... did Yato really understand what his choices said about his priorities? It was kind of him to feel others' pain and want to help them, and Hiyori had always loved that about him, but what if Yukine was right? What if Yato's pathological need to help everyone just proved he didn't value them, didn't value Hiyori, enough to make the sacrifices his family needed of him?

"H-Hiyori, Yukine-" Yato tried to interrupt, but Yukine cast him a look of such hate that he seemed to lose his words.

"T-That isn't true, Yukine-kun," Hiyori said, her voice trembling as she held onto Amane like a drowning man to a rope. "You know it's not-"

"That's just denial, Hiyori! I know what you're thinking, but Yato literally put our whole family up and weighed it on a scale against someone else's misfortune and we lost. We LOST, Hiyori! What the hell do you think that means for us?!" Yukine picked up his bag and threw it so hard against the fence that it made a heavy, echoing sound. "I'll tell you what it fucking means! It means that we're fucking idiots for ever trusting his stupid, empty promises!"

"That's not true!" Yato insisted, though Hiyori noticed the pained wince as he clapped his hand to the side of his neck; Yukine was almost certainly blighting him now, she realized with a surge of panic. "You're my whole world, all three of you, I would never-"

"It is true!" Yukine accused bitterly. "You knew that it was especially dangerous for you to go out with Amane when she looks just like you! You knew someone from Heaven could see you and realize what it meant, and you didn't fucking care!"

He paused to catch his breath, his chest heaving. Yato tried to argue but Yukine wasn't finished.

"I should've known better; the only one of us who never had any real stakes in this family was you from the start," he spat viciously. "Hiyori and Amane are both potential dangers to Heaven, and I'm the idiot hafuri who let his master sweet-talk his way into getting what he wanted. All three of us are as good as dead, but you, Yato, as long as you can talk your way out of anything and comply with Heaven's wishes, you're gonna be just fine, aren't you?!"

Yato cried and fell back against the fence, dark tendrils threatening to spread over the pale skin of his cheek.

"Yato!" Hiyori panicked.

"Don't!" he commanded, a frightened look in his eyes as she knelt down to support him. "Don't touch me, you've got Amane, you can't let her get blighted-"

"Oh shut up!" Yukine growled. "Don't pretend like you care about her now! She could have been killed, and you didn't even have me with you to defend her! It's like you didn't think it was a big deal if Amaterasu tried to kill you both; hell you probably DON'T think it is! It's not like getting killed is a REAL death sentence for you anymore! Even without Hiyori, you've got Masaomi-san now, and he's gonna make sure you stay alive and reincarnate for Hiyori and Amane's sake!"

"What are you talking about?!" Yato asked desperately. "And since when- ow!" he yelped, hissing through the pain. "Since when is me reincarnating not a big deal to you?!"

"Whether it's important to me or not doesn't mean shit to you, does it?! And don't act like you don't fucking know!" Yukine snarled. "Hiyori's always been working hard for your sake, bending over backwards to keep this family together! I told you, she's ALWAYS given up more for you than you'll ever give up for her; even when she was scared she might die in labor, she never once looked to you for comfort about it, she just quietly handled it herself and made sure you'd be protected if she didn't make it-"

"No, Yukine-kun, he never knew, I never told him!" Hiyori cut in, caught between the desire to reach for Yukine's hand and the fear that touching him might blight her and the baby.

"Told me what?!" Yato insisted, gritting his teeth as Yukine glared at him. Hiyori briefly noted that his golden eyes looked a little off, almost red, but she dearly hoped she was wrong.

"I..." Hiyori said, but she hesitated, worried about Yato's reaction to what she'd done.

In the weeks leading up to Amane's birth, Hiyori had grown anxious about what might happen to her little spiritual family if she didn't survive the labor. She was Yato's sole believer, his tether to the Near Shore, and without her, he would almost certainly cease to exist. She was far more frightened of Yato disappearing than of her own mortality, and she was determined that he and Yukine make it through her death intact no matter what happened. With that in mind, she'd written her brother a letter and tucked it into the box where she kept her most precious keepsakes and documents, hoping that Masaomi would find it if things went wrong. Once she made it through the delivery safely, however, the reality of having a living, breathing child depend on her for survival hardened her resolve, and she made her brother swear that if anything ever happened to her, he would immediately collect the box and follow the instructions to ensure both Yato and Amane always had a believer to keep them alive.

She kept meaning to tell Yato about it, but truthfully, Hiyori wasn't sure she wanted him to know how much she'd been thinking about her own death, especially considering how much anxiety the god had been carrying before the birth. There never seemed to be a right time to bring it up afterwards either, so Hiyori had done what she always did: she confided in Yukine and trusted her best friend to know what to do when the time came.

"I... I really never told him, Yato didn't know-!" she said, desperate to calm Yukine's fury before he did something he couldn't take back.

But Yukine didn't seem to be listening to reason anymore. He shot her a betrayed, disgusted look.

"I'm fucking sick of this," he said angrily. "If you want to keep pretending like everything's fine, do it without me. I'm out of here."

"Yukine!"

He didn't turn or act like he'd heard his master's cry at all; he simply leapt onto the nearest rooftop with his unnatural agility and was gone before either Hiyori or Yato could act.

"Yukine-kun!" Hiyori screamed after him. "Yukine-kun, come back!"

But if he even heard her, Hiyori never knew.


Nora had always been what one of her co-shinki, a simpering idiot by the name of Ishiki, liked to call 'chaotic neutral'. She didn't actually know or care where the description came from, nor did she feel particularly insulted when they whispered it behind her back, but in a way, Nora thought Ishiki was probably right. Chaos had been a part of her so-called 'life' for so long that she couldn't help being drawn to it like a moth to a flame. For a long time, her sense for trouble had been the most accurate tool in her arsenal for tracking Yato down when he went AWOL, though these days she mostly ignored the little voice in the back of her mind that called her out to play and join in his dangerous aura; Yato was about as grown up and independent as he was ever going to get, and Nora's days of looking out for her naive little brother ended when he'd released her (and she was still plenty mad about that).

Besides, she didn't need to check on him physically anymore. Yukine told her more or less everything she ever needed to know, and plenty she didn't. Visiting Yato's household hadn't been about checking up on him for a long while now.

Still, she always knew when he was causing havoc down in the human world, and whenever Ame's ceremony lurked in the near future, she couldn't help worrying and keeping an ear out for danger. Not that she ever learned much while in her master's residence; Ookuninushi was a rather distrustful old lout and never told Nora anything worth knowing, but years in his service, even as a glorified rabbit-sitter, had taught the clever young Regalia to keep her wits about her, and she easily noticed the unnatural activity in the household that tipped her off something was happening.

She was therefore not surprised when she suddenly received a call from Kirine, asking desperately if Nora knew where her master had gone.

"Slow down, Kirine!" she complained as the other girl's voice rattled off at a hundred words per second. "I can't understand what you're saying!"

There was a loud, pointed intake of air as Kirine took a deep breath and managed to calm down enough to explain herself.

"Yato disappeared! We were supposed to be helping out at Tenjin-sama's shrine, what with exam season coming up, but then he and Yukine got all serious and anxious, and then they were just gone! Tenjin-sama came to tell me they said I should go home and stay there no matter what happened or what I heard, but he wouldn't tell me what was happening or where they went! And then, just as I got home, I had a horrible premonition, Nora-chan!"

"What kind of premonition?" Nora asked sharply. Kirine's visions were very rare, but they were unfailingly accurate and almost always of utmost importance. The girl had a knack for sensing danger that threatened Yato's household, and Nora was not about to take anything she had to say for granted.

"Yato was fighting, I didn't get to see the face of his opponent very well, but I think Yato and Yukine-kun were losing! And then, there was a strange light in the background, and Yato turned to look, and this enormous army of gods rushed down to the human world, shouting about executing traitors-"

"Did you see where they were heading?!" Nora demanded, her blood running cold.

"I don't think it was just one location, but they seemed to be waiting for that flashing light-"

"The barriers," Nora hissed aloud to herself. The barriers are going to fail!

"Barr- you mean Ame-no-Mikoto's barriers?!" Kirine asked, her tone rising another octave. "Is that what this is about?!"

"Obviously!" Nora snapped, but then she remembered who she was speaking with and gasped inwardly. Shit. Shit. Shit. SHIT.

"Do you know where they are?!" Kirine begged, sounding terribly close to a breakdown. "Please, Nora-chan, I can't sit back and let my master get hurt-"

"No," Nora said firmly, determined to correct her mistake. "You can't get involved in this. Stay where you're told, don't even think about-"

"Nora-chan, I'm begging you!"

"I said no!" she hung up abruptly and immediately tried to contact Yukine, but neither he nor Yato were answering the phone.

"What is the POINT of these stupid things if no one ever answers them?!" she snarled as she threw her phone against the floor. She wasn't particularly worried about damaging it; it was such an old model that it could probably survive a nuclear disaster. She paced back and forth across the garden, trying to decide what to do.

The Kobayashi girl, she eventually decided. Yato and Yukine would be busy defending Ame's shrine, thinking that the barriers would keep the new host safe until she was needed. No one would be looking after her, and if the barriers fell before she got to the shrine, the girl would be easy prey for their enemies. She needed to be placed under immediate protection and escorted to the shrine before Ame grew too weak to keep the barriers up.

The only problem was, Nora couldn't actually go and extract Yasumi from the house on her own. She couldn't even approach the place; Nora's aura was foreign to the young god, and she'd never received permission to cross any of her barriers. It wasn't personal; it'd been decided long ago that only Yato and his hafuri should have access to Ame, apart from Ame's own household, of course.

The closest Nora could get to the house was past the ayakashi repellant and no further, which still left her several blocks out from the actual address Yukine had shared with her in case of emergency. She sometimes stood patrol in the area as a favor to the overworked hafuri, but unless Yasumi left the barrier's protection, there really wasn't much Nora could do.

Still, she couldn't sit back and do nothing, so Nora hurried to find the excuses she needed to extract herself from her master's residence in Takamagahara (and stuffed that damned celestial rabbit in a crate so it couldn't run off, she'd deal with the reprecussions later) and made an unauthorized visit to the Near Shore.

It took only a second after she landed to realize they were all, as Yato would say, deeply fucked. The unusual activity of the last few days in Ookuninushi's residence suddenly made sense as she stared, horrified, at the dark clouds gathering to the east. Milennia spent in servitude to a master that despised Heaven and took heed of their every movement meant that Nora recognized the all-too familiar signs of Heaven's army preparing for a strike at a glance. And if the sky was any indication, it was a truly massive force, just as Kirine had warned.

"Damn that stupid old master of mine!" she swore angrily as she tried once again to reach Yato or Yukine. She left several choice voicemails when they didn't answer, and then promised herself she would barbecue that bloody rabbit the next chance she got, before she dialed for Kofuku and Daikoku's help.

Of course, the one who answered was Kirine.

"How could you hang up on me like that, Nora-chan?!" she cried, obviously hurt. "I've been trying to call you back-"

Son of a bitch! Nora thought, feeling overwhelmed by everything happening all at once. "Kirine, I don't have time, this is really important, can you get Binbougami-"

"No!" Kirine insisted, angry now. "I'm sick of being treated like a child! This is a problem with my master, my household, and it was my premonition that said Yato was in trouble! I'm not going to shut up and be protected, not by Kofuku-san, not by Yukine-kun or Yato, and certainly not by you, Nora-chan! If you won't help me, I'll find them myself!"

Nora grit her teeth. She didn't have time for Kirine's stubborn streak! The girl always had been insufferably selfless; Nora knew all too well how easily she would trade her own life in exchange for saving the people she cared about. The only reason Nora was even still around and safe from Heaven's wrath was thanks to Kirine and her bull-headed determination to care. Nora, Yukine, and Yato owed her everything, and that was exactly why they needed to keep her in the dark.

But it was just as dangerous not to act on Kirine's premonition. If the Kobayashi girl died before she made it to Ame, they were all as good as dead. Nora desperately needed someone who could go through the barrier, and Kirine... well, she had no idea if Kirine could actually cross, but it was her best shot.

"Fine! Whatever, I'll tell you what I know!" she said, already teleporting back to Takamagahara. She was useless in the Near Shore without a master who could wield her, so she was better placed in Heaven, where she could at least keep an eye on developments in case Kirine needed to know about them. "But if you tell anyone I was the one who told you, I swear to hell I'll deny it!"


Hiyori's first instinct was to chase after Yukine. She would have done just that if Amane's hiccuping wails weren't currently ringing in her ears; she couldn't leave the baby behind when Yato was in no shape to look after her, and she couldn't bring herself to willingly take the child into a dangerous situation. She felt torn between the concern for Yukine's well-being and the panic of Yato's rapidly deteriorating condition. In the end, she couldn't ignore Yato's hiss of pain, or leave him alone on a street where a bunch of humans were about to forget all about him now that the commotion was over.

"Hey, you okay?" a passing student asked her as he noticed her frantic expression and the baby screaming in her arms. "Did something happen?"

Hiyori shook her head desperately. "N-No, I'm fine, thanks," she lied, uncomfortable with how exposed they all were. She waited for the student to leave and the street to clear out before she knelt at Yato's side and dug into her bag for an emergency bottle of purification water.

"Yato!" she cried, unscrewing the cap with shaky fingers as she tried to keep Amane secure at the same time. "Hold on, just... I know it won't do much, but maybe if you drink it-"

Yato groaned, his eyes shut tight as he pressed his nails into the blight on his shoulder. "Won't help," he managed, gritting his teeth. "Damned brat... I've told him a million times not to bottle shit up!"

"It's not his fault!" Hiyori insisted defensively. "Everything's been so stressful lately-"

Yato suddenly turned on her, his gaze hurt and accusing. "And you too, Hiyori, you never told me about this whole thing with Masaomi. What did you do?!"

Hiyori bristled, angry that he would question her now of all times.

"It doesn't matter right now!" she snapped, carefully pouring water over a spare towel in Amane's supply bag and applying it to his cheek. It wouldn't cleanse the blight, but maybe it would soothe some of the pain a little. Yato winced and tried to wave her away.

"Don't, you might touch me by accident-"

"Shut up and let me help!" she said, and perhaps he heard the slightly hysterical tone in her voice because he stiffened and fell quiet as she dabbed at his blight. Angry tears gathered in the corner of Hiyori's eyes and she couldn't help sniffling as she worked.

"S-Sorry," he finally managed after a few minutes of awkward near-silence. "I really am... about all of it, Hiyori..."

"Apologize to Yukine-kun and Amane," she said stubbornly. "I... I can't blame you for not truly understanding what's expected of you as a father or a family member, Yato. You told me yourself, a god can't love the way a human can; it would be wrong of me to assume you would act or think like one. I made the choice to stay by your side anyway. But Yukine-kun and Amane didn't get to make that choice; we made it for them. You don't have to love them the way I do, but please, understand, we need you to choose us first, always. As selfish and cold as it might sound, you can't put someone else above them. Not ever, Yato. You're their father, they depend on you to keep them safe. We depend on you to keep us all safe... and we can't afford to lose you either."

Yato bit his lip, thinking hard.

"I know. I fucked up, I know I did," he said, avoiding her eye. "It's not that I don't love you, all of you, I'm just..."

"Stupid?" she offered. "Immature? In desperate need of a therapist?"

"Gods don't have therapists," he half-chuckled.

"Well they should," Hiyori huffed, handing him the towel so she could soothe Amane. "If you didn't have all those pent-up self-doubts, you probably wouldn't have done something this stupid in the first place. And you know how troubled Yukine-kun is, you shouldn't have let it get this bad to begin with! Shh, I'm sorry, it's okay Amane," she said as the baby cried louder at Hiyori's raised voice.

Yato slowly pushed himself to his feet and shook his head when she tried to help.

"I'll be okay, I won't die from this much blight," he said with a grimace. "It just caught me off guard, it's been ages since the last time he went off."

"But-"

"It's fine," he insisted. "Gotta deal with my own fuckups sometime. I'm going after him before he does something drastic."

"I'll come too-" Hiyori began, already packing her bag, but Yato stopped her.

"Not this time, Hiyori. You guys are right, I gotta learn to think about my family first, and it's too dangerous to bring Amane near a rampaging shinki. Yukine would never hurt her on purpose, but I don't wanna take any chances."

"Y-You're just going to leave us here?" Hiyori asked, hurt.

Yato gave her a sad smile and raised a hand as though he wanted to touch her cheek. "I'd kiss you and tell you I'd never leave you behind if I could help it, but..." he said, rolling up his sleeve to show the blight crawling down his arm. "You should get Amane to safety, I promise I'll come home as soon as I've got Yukine, and we can deal with his ablution there."

"Yato..."

"Go, before night falls. And if anything happens, call Kofuku," he said sternly. "Amane, keep your aura down, y'hear? You're in charge of protecting Mommy til I get back," he called, giving the sniffling child a two-fingered salute. Amane turned to watch him, still teary-eyed and threatening to start wailing at any moment, but she made a noise that even Hiyori could understand as affirmation and proceeded to ball her chubby fists into Hiyori's shirt as though she could keep her mother safe through the sheer willpower of latching onto her.

"Silly," Hiyori scoffed, though she wasn't really sure which god she was addressing as Yato gave her a bright grin that promised all sorts of mischief and saluted her too.

"I probably don't deserve it, but you know you love me," he teased as she rolled her eyes, and then he was off.

"Idiot! If you're not back before nightfall, I'm coming after you, Yato!" Hiyori called as he vanished into the shadows.


"I'm bored, Nii-chan. Can we just kill her already?" the girl complained, snapping Kirine out of her confused thoughts.

"Don't underestimate her, Aki," the boy warned, watching Kirine's borderline sharpen as she regained focus. "She's not an opponent we could handle by ourselves under normal circumstances."

Kirine grit her teeth, trying to think her way out of this mess. The boy's confidence suggested that he was willing to wait until Kirine ran out of energy, which probably wouldn't take very long considering her proximity to Ame's anti-ayakashi barrier. His casual use of his companion's name also seemed much too convenient to be anything but a trap. If Kirine shifted focus and tried to use a spell on the girl, chances were she'd be opening herself up to attack before she could manage anything useful.

If only I was a normal shinki like Yukine-kun! she despaired, feeling more trapped by the second. Her only real course of action was to keep the enemy talking as long as possible while she inched closer to the barrier one step at a time. It was going to hurt, and it would take everything Kirine had to focus through the pain while keeping a borderline steady, but she couldn't see any other way to get Yasumi to safety. She took a deep breath, thinking only of the task ahead, and reminded herself that no matter what the boy and girl said, she couldn't afford to be shaken by any of it.

"You're lying," she said, shifting her stance to better support Yasumi's weight. "If you were really Yasumi's siblings, you wouldn't want to hurt her."

The girl, Aki, scoffed so hard it looked like it hurt her throat. "Spare me the goody-two-shoes act. Even normal siblings hate each other most of the time; we just have a better reason than most."

"Do you?" Kirine said, channeling as much of Yato's snark as she could. It seemed to work, and Aki visibly bristled with anger at the taunt.

"Yes, we do! There were five of us, you know! Our mother and father couldn't have kids, so one by one, we all died before we were even born. Yasumi was s'posed to die too, just like the rest of us. She would've, if your stupid, shitty master hadn't stepped in and cut her free from her fate!" she spat furiously.

They're mizuko! Kirine realized. The souls of children who died before they could really live... all children were difficult Regalia, but mizuko were particularly dangerous; they had no sense of morality at all, just pure, uninhibited emotion. They might look older, but at their core they were raw and vulnerable, capable of great cruelty.

It also meant they were easily wounded emotionally... if Kirine could just manage to toe the line and distract them.

"So what, you're jealous your mother prayed to my god for Yasumi and not for you?" she asked, all holier-than-thou contempt; Kirine could almost imagine the conflicted look on Yato's face if he knew how well she was imitating him. "'Cause sounds to me like that's your mom's fault, kid."

God, that feels wrong coming out of my mouth.

"We're no fans of Hana's either, believe me," the boy noted. "But you're wrong; our mother did pray to Amagiri-no-Mikoto for all of us. But it wasn't until she had the bright idea to use the god's real name and name Yasumi after him that your master cared enough to do something. He let four of us die and only saved the one that touched his ego most. So no offense, Kirine, but fuck you and your master."

Kirine froze, the blood draining from her face. She couldn't imagine Yato deliberately being cruel like that, but... it was possible that he hadn't really paid any attention to the request until it became personal. He was usually neurotic about taking on any wish asked of him, but Yukine-kun had always urged him not to take on jobs that he wasn't particularly well-suited for. Helping a woman give birth safely definitely didn't seem like something Yato would consider one of his strengths... not unless the woman in question made it impossible for him to ignore. Using his real name for her child... that would definitely draw his attention.

Yato, what have you done, you overly self-conscious idiot?! she despaired.

"T-That's... even if that's true, that's no reason to hate Yasumi-chan!" she said, shaking the doubt off. The skin on the back of her neck was practically crackling as her ayakashi essence came into direct contact with Ame's aura, but she refused to let the pain distract her. "She's just a child, she never asked for any of this-"

"You think we care?" Aki laughed, cold as ice. "She's getting to live the life all of us wanted, the life she wasn't supposed to have! We all tried to haunt her, make her life miserable, but not only did she get your master's protection, she got our father's unique abilities too! We couldn't get anywhere near her!"

"Two of us were lost trying," the boy admitted, looking no more upset by the conversation than ever. "Got corrupted and taken out by a god. Aki and I were lucky, we got Named. And our master... well, he's no fan of Ame-no-Mikoto's or Yatogami. So when he realized he'd caught two direct descendants of Ame's bloodline..." he paused meaningfully. "Fate works in such strange ways, doesn't it, Kirine-san?"

A shiver traveled down Kirine's spine. She glanced up, trying to make out the delegation in Heaven, but it was too risky to take her eyes off the enemy to get a proper look.

Just a bit further, don't be taken in by their words... she took a full step back and had to bite back a scream as a horrible pain tore through her ankle. It took every ounce of her self-control not to pull it away.

"You're really stupid," Aki noted flatly, watching Kirine's struggle with interest. "You're half-phantom, you can't seriously think you'll make it through that barrier alive?"

"Shut up, you don't know anything about me!" Kirine snapped.

"Actually, we know quite a lot about you," the boy noted with a small shrug. "More than I think even you understand."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Never wondered why you're the way you are? Why you're forbidden from setting foot in Takamagahara?"

Kirine hesitated, uncertain. Of course she wondered that. She thought about it every time Yato hugged her, every time Yukine leaned over a table to teach her something. Some inner part of her always flinched with fear, wondering if a day would come when she would no longer be safe for them to be around. Did these children really know how she ended up such an aberration?

They're just trying to stall for time. The longer they keep me talking, the more energy I spend to keep up the borderline, she reminded herself. She had no time for doubt. The minute she tried to run, she would lose focus on keeping the enemy at bay and they'd be free to attack her. As long as Yasumi was with her, Kirine had to ensure that she made it into the barrier alive, or everything Yato and Yukine had worked for would be for nothing.

"You're lying, no one knows why I'm like this," she said, determined not to fall for their tricks. She was so close...

"Your master has been lying to you, if that's what he's told you," the boy said with a small yawn. "Every god in Heaven knows about you, and how you ended up the way you did. You're quite famous; or maybe 'infamous' is the better term." He shook out his sleeves, clearly bored. "They've been worrying and fretting about your existence from the moment they realized what you were; the only reason you haven't been executed is that you're under Amagiri-no-Mikoto's protection, and his wrath is far too dangerous to provoke. They barely managed to fend him off last time."

"L-Last time?"

The boy looked up at the sky thoughtfully for a moment before replying. "Well, I suppose we have time for one story. It's no fun fighting someone so ignorant they don't even know why they're here."

Kirine scoffed even as her mind raced, trying to decide if it was better to run now or wait for a better opening. "I'm not interested in any story you have to tell."

"No? It's a good one," he said lazily. "See, it starts with a human girl, an ignorant child like the one you've got slumped over your shoulders; a normal, unremarkable girl who thought herself special, an existence above the laws of Heaven, because, by pure chance, her fate became tied to a god's-"

"A LINE!"

Whatever the boy was going to say was cut off as a sharp whip of purifying light came flying at him and his companion from behind. He managed to roll out of the way, but the girl gasped with pain as she was slashed across the face, blood dripping from her cheek.

"Kirine!" came a familiar voice, and Kirine was so relieved she didn't even notice her borderline fade until Nora screamed at her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU FOOL! RUN!"

Instinctively, she spun on her heel, holding tightly to Yasumi's arms as she forced herself forward with a scream. But it was easier than before, probably because she didn't have the borderline to drain her strength anymore.

Kirine expected to meet firm resistance at any moment, to get exorcised out of existence with every step forward, but to her astonishment it was only a little distance before the pain faded altogether and Kirine found herself gasping at the foot of a long staircase, adorned with a red torii gate.

"We... We did it!" she laughed out of pure relief. "We're here, Yasumi-chan, I can get you to Ame-"

Her eyes found the nameplate on the gate and the whole world came to a sudden, violent stop.

"I... ki..." she read aloud, and dropped Yasumi unceremoniously on the stairs.

In her dreams, Yasumi thought she heard someone say her mother's maiden name, but then again, she didn't see any reason for it to be relevant.


Notes:

FINALLY, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I REWRITTEN THIS CHAPTER NOW? SIX, EIGHT?

Writer's block ::knife::

In other news, I wrote a couple of side stories for this fic, in case you missed them. They're both fluffy family bits about Yato and Hiyori adjusting to the new baby. You can find them on my list of works, under the names "Friends, Relatives, and Live-in Gods" and "Growing Pains."

As always, please rate and comment, I really hope you guys enjoy the update!