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Part 1
"You're impossible!" Yukine raged, snatching up cheap plastic charms from the table and tossing them at the wall in a fit of pique. They rained down with a clatter, rolling in lazy circles on the floorboards. "How stupid could you be?"
"Hey!" Yato protested, diving to the floor to collect his ill-gotten gains. "Don't throw them around so carelessly. I paid good money for those!"
"Whose money, exactly?"
Yato suddenly went very still, hunched awkwardly against the wall. "Well…"
"Did you or did you not steal it from my hard-earned money I made from my job?"
"Okay, just a–"
"I know, it's hard for you to understand since you're utterly useless and couldn't hold down a job to save your life."
"I have lots of jobs," Yato muttered.
"No, you don't. And they're shitty ones."
"Look, I just borrowed a little bit, okay? I'll pay it back once I use these to hit the big times."
Yukine crossed his arms tightly over his chest in an attempt to stop himself from losing his cool entirely and exploding. He could feel his blood pressure soaring, readying itself to shoot through the roof.
"You really think wasting all my money on cheap plastic crap is going to make you into a god of fortune?"
"No, but it will help me get believers! And it's not all your money. I raided my cash bottle and gave Kofuku puppy-dog eyes until she gave me some cash."
"Fabulous, so you're stealing from everyone. You might as well be the god of thieves and cheap plastic crap!"
"Hey… It wasn't that cheap."
"Then you paid too much! How does that make it better? What are you even going to do with all this stuff! There's like fifty keychains! You don't even have keys!"
"They aren't for me," Yato explained patiently. "I'm going to write my name and number on them and give them out to the people I do jobs for. Even if they forget me, they'll run across my info again later. Or they'll give it to a friend, and then they'll have my info."
"Or they'll throw it in the trash because it's cheap plastic crap no one actually wants."
"But they're so cute! And they're good luck!"
"They are not. And where would you even fit your phone number? Across its face?"
"No, the bottom is flat!" Yato crabbed around awkwardly and flipped the plastic cat upside down to display the flat bottom.
He seemed inordinately pleased about it, and his obvious delight only spurred Yukine's towering rage to new heights.
"Why are you so stupid?" he roared, kicking a stray charm across the floor. "You're never going to be a proper god if you waste all your time and our money on dumb stunts."
"Hey," Yato said with a scowl. "I am so a proper–"
Yukine threw his hands into the air. "You have no believers. You charge five yen for every job, so you don't have enough money to take care of us and have to mooch off everyone else. You spend your days lazing around and annoying everyone and occasionally cleaning someone's bathroom. None of that exactly screams proper god. You are utterly useless. What a pathetic excuse for a god."
Yato blinked at him, mouth half open like he was searching for a defense but coming up empty, and Yukine felt one tiny pinprick of remorse that perhaps he had been too harsh. Not enough to make him take back the words, though. Yato needed a wake-up call, and Yukine was mad enough to give it to him.
"Yukine, I–"
Yato broke off as his phone rang. He hesitated, and Yukine rolled his eyes as it chimed insistently.
"Go on, answer it. It's not like you can afford to pass up jobs."
Yato shot him a look but answered the phone in a cheery chirp. "Hello! Delivery god Yato at your service! How can I help you?…Mhm…I see…Shouldn't be a problem. Just a second."
He held out a hand to Yukine, who eyed it in distaste and shook his head. Yato frowned and wiggled his fingers more insistently.
"Is it an actual job, or are you cleaning a bathroom?" Yukine asked. "Because if so, you're on your own. You can do some actual work for once since you don't do anything here."
Yato covered the phone's speaker with his hand. "Nah, he wants some help painting his walls. You can learn some home improvement skills!"
"Why?" Yukine griped. "It's not like we're ever going to have a home of our own, and you certainly don't help out around here."
"A job is a job. Come on, kid."
"No thanks. You don't need me for this one."
Yato puffed out his cheeks in exasperation and uncovered the speaker. "Hey, can I call you back in just a minute? What's your address?"
He listened a moment more, nodded once, and flipped the phone shut. "Listen, Yukine–"
"I don't want to listen to you right now."
"It's a chance to try out our new marketing strategy and see how it works," Yato wheedled.
"Your new marketing strategy," Yukine corrected. "Go do your stupid job and give out your stupid charms. I have more important things to do, like earning back the money you stole from me."
Yato opened his mouth and then closed it again. Snatching up a sheet of Yukine's math homework from the table, he ripped off a corner and scribbled on it with a pen.
"And now you're ripping up my homework?" Yukine demanded.
Yato handed him the scrap. "Here's the address if you change your mind. You might think my way of life is stupid, but it's the only one I've got right now. You're my guidepost. We're supposed to be figuring things out together. We're a team, even for the stupid things. Or we can talk later. Whatever."
He opened his phone back up, redialed the number, and disappeared before Yukine could change his mind even if he wanted to, leaving him clutching the scrap of paper and staring after him.
"Ugh, bakagami," Yukine muttered, shoving the scrap into his pocket.
It was a pretty enough little speech, but certainly not enough to change his mind.
He surveyed the mess of plastic figurines scattered about the floor and table, and it did nothing to lower his blood pressure. He wouldn't even be able to recover his life savings by reselling them. No one but Yato would spend good money on such useless junk.
He took a few deep breaths and then gathered up all the keychains. No point leaving them on the floor until he tripped over one and broke his neck. Depositing them in a messy pile on the table, he stomped back down the stairs.
Kofuku was in the kitchen, covered head to toe with mud and humming to herself as she filled her watering can in the sink.
"You could just fill that up outside with the hose, you know," Yukine said, eyeing the muddy footprints spattered across the floor.
Kofuku smiled. "The plants prefer tap water," she confided.
Yukine was skeptical that the plants particularly cared one way or the other, but he supposed it was harmless enough aside from the mud smeared all over the kitchen. It wasn't like she was stealing money and wasting everyone's hard-earned savings.
A small white cat made of shiny plastic bounced at her waist, clipped to the loop of her skirt. Yukine stared at it very hard.
"Kofuku… What is that?"
"Huh?" Kofuku turned and blinked at him, wide-eyed and innocent. "It's a watering can, Yukki. It's the easiest way to water plants."
"Not that. That." Yukine pointed an accusing finger at the charm. "Is that one of Yato's stupid charms he wasted all our money on?"
Kofuku's face lit up. "Oh! Yes, isn't it fabulous? I said I'd lend him some money to buy them for his advertising campaign if he got one for me too. You know, Daikoku is a big meanie who doesn't like when I go shopping, so Yato-chan brings me things instead."
Yukine was aghast. "You're encouraging him?"
"Well, why not? It makes him happy, and I wanted a charm. Yato-chan is very creative, if only he could follow through on his ideas. Did he tell you that he's going to put his contact information on the bottom and hand them out to clients so they're more likely to run across him again? Genius. Plus, you know you're hitting the big times when you have your own merchandise! If he makes enough money from this scheme, he's going to hire someone to make custom keychains of him. How cute! Maybe I'll lend him some money if he gets one made of me too. I'd like that. Maybe we can make one of everyone!"
Yukine closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. "You two were made for each other." He wasn't in the mood to listen to more of Yato's schemes. "Is Daikoku in the shop?"
"Yup! He's always working. I'll have to ask Yato-chan to sneak me out before I die of boredom."
"Yato is on some dumb job right now. He just left."
"Aw." Kofuku pouted and swung her watering can out of the sink. She staggered a little under the weight, and water splashed out of the overflowing can and crept across the floor in puddles. "Too bad. Why aren't you with him? You normally help him with his jobs, don't you?"
Yukine scowled. "He doesn't need me to help him paint rooms. When he gets a real job, maybe I'll help. Until then, I might as well help Daikoku."
"If you'd like." Kofuku wrinkled her nose and confided in a low voice, "But he's doing inventory."
Admittedly, inventory was not Yukine's all-time favorite task, but he needed something to take his mind off Yato's screw-up.
Kofuku wished him luck and traipsed back out into the garden, humming merrily again as she swung the watering can at her side and splashed droplets everywhere she went. Yukine's eye twitched as he surveyed the muddy wreck of the kitchen, but he decided to leave it alone until she was done in the garden. No point cleaning everything up if it would just be covered in mud again in a few minutes.
Leaving Kofuku to it, Yukine marched off to the shop and found Daikoku waist-deep in ledgers and boxes of product.
"You look like you could use a hand," he said, grabbing his apron off its hook and tying it around his waist.
"You aren't wrong." Daikoku scowled at his books and scribbled something out in pen. "It's inventory day."
"Everyone's favorite."
"I'd get Kofuku to help if she wasn't as likely to bring the roof down on our heads. And Yato is useless."
"He's not here, anyway."
"Oh? Did he run off to sulk after you finished with him?"
Yukine sniffed and skirted around the stacks of boxes to get a better look at what they were doing. "He got a call for a job. I'll finish teaching him a lesson later."
"You didn't go with him?"
"No. He didn't need me."
"I appreciate the help, but you know his jobs take precedence over mine, right? Working in here shouldn't interfere with your other responsibilities."
Yukine scowled. "It's just some dumb home improvement job. He can do it himself, and I didn't want to go."
Daikoku eyed him a moment longer before shrugging. "As long as he doesn't run into any ayakashi, I guess it's fine. Here, can you double-check some of these ledgers for me? Something isn't adding up."
Yukine happily threw himself into the work, which he considered far more important than whatever Yato was doing right now. Yato needed every job he could get, of course, but he could stand to get some jobs befitting a proper god. These ridiculous odd jobs wouldn't cut it forever.
But the whole point was that he didn't want to think about Yato and his stupid jobs and even stupider schemes, so Yukine pushed him firmly out of mind and focused on his work. They balanced ledgers, submitted orders for new product, and shuffled inventory around the shelves and back room. By the time Daikoku called a halt, Yukine's head hurt and he was sore all over from all the lifting.
He followed Daikoku back to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Kofuku was humming to herself as she dissected an orange at the table. She was clean, curls still damp and plastered to her forehead, but the kitchen was not. Mud clung to every surface, tracked across the floor and staining the sink. Daikoku took one look and closed his eyes.
"Is Yato back?" Yukine asked. Setting his glass down on the table, he fetched a damp rag and mop and got to work.
"Nope!" Kofuku said. "Maybe his keychain worked so well that he got a bunch of other jobs!"
"I doubt it," Yukine muttered as he scrubbed dried mud off the cabinets.
"Do you think he'll be joining us for dinner?" Daikoku asked, starting at the other end of the mud trail at the back door.
"No idea."
"Well, call and ask. Kofuku, don't snack too much. I'm about to make dinner. Call Yato while we clean up your mess, will you?"
Kofuku fished her phone out of her pocket obediently. "He's not picking up," she said after a moment. "I guess he's busy after all."
"I guess if he shows up, he shows up. Otherwise, he can eat leftovers. He's lucky to get anything at all with how little he contributes around here."
Yukine volunteered to finish cleaning up the mud while Daikoku got started on dinner. Yato did not return by dinner, nor by the time they had finished washing up dishes.
"I hope Yato-chan is alright," Kofuku said. "It's late, and all the ayakashi will be coming out."
"He's probably off sulking," Yukine said, rolling his eyes. "Or maybe there were a lot of rooms to paint. He comes and goes however he likes."
"I know, but I was hoping to talk to him more about the custom keychains."
"Don't encourage him."
"I hope he's not getting himself into trouble," Daikoku said. He stood by the window, squinting out at the night. "It's stormy tonight."
Yukine dried his hands on the dish towel and hung it back up before joining Daikoku at the window. The moon was barely a sliver high in the sky, and the night was very black. Above the rooftops in the distance, gloom twisted in storm clouds. A vent must have opened up in the east. The ayakashi would be hunting full force tonight. Around the vents, they tended to swarm in disorganized packs.
The east did not look like a fun place to be tonight. But as long as Yato wasn't hanging out in the middle of the storm, he should be fine. He might be kind of stupid, but he had survived for a long time with only Nora as a sometime companion.
Yukine pulled the crumpled scrap of paper from his pocket and smoothed it out to read the address. He chewed on the inside of his cheek and ran over a mental map of the city, trying to remember where he'd heard that street name before and where it was located.
"Oh," he said, grimacing. "The idiot is over there somewhere."
"In the storm?" Daikoku asked, looking alarmed despite himself.
"Well, somewhere just outside the edge of it. It's probably fine as long as he doesn't wander off into it. I guess I'd better go get him, though."
"You shouldn't be going into that by yourself. We can–"
"Don't worry about it. I'm not planning to go traipsing through any storms. I'll just pick him up from outside it. We should have several blocks of wiggle room."
"But you don't like the dark!" Kofuku protested.
Yukine hesitated. In truth, he had no desire to go out in the dark with ayakashi roaming about. It sounded like an absolutely awful way to spend the night.
But he had refused to go with Yato on his job. He wasn't worried, exactly, but it wouldn't sit well with him if Yato got chewed on by an ayakashi because he hadn't been there.
"Do you want to try calling him again?" he suggested.
"Yes!" Kofuku whipped out her phone again and dialed. She held it to her ear and shook her head as she listened to it ring. "Nope, nothing."
"Great. I have the address of his job, so I'll just swing by and tell him to get back here already."
Kofuku and Daikoku exchanged a look.
"If you'd like," Daikoku said. "Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?"
"Nah, it's okay. I'm just going to yell at him some more. It's not far."
"Be careful, Yukki!" Kofuku said.
"I will."
Yukine pulled on his coat, and Daikoku met him at the door with a flashlight. Yukine thanked him, took a deep breath, and plunged into the night. The streetlamps cast yellow circles of light along the sidewalk, but he flicked on the flashlight as well and scanned the shadows. Every time he set foot in the darkness, he had a gnawing sense of panic, like something was watching him and waiting to pounce.
Checking the address one more time, he hurried down the street as fast as he could go without jogging. Yato was going to get another earful for making Yukine go chasing him through the night, and he hadn't even finished with the keychain lecture yet.
"You're going to be sorry, bakagami," Yukine muttered under his breath.
He kept an eye on the clouds of gloom as he approached, but the address Yato had given him sat well outside the storm. He knocked on the door and waited, his foot tapping impatiently as he swiveled back and forth and searched for any sign of approaching ayakashi.
A light turned on in the window, and an elderly man wearing thick-rimmed glasses opened the door. "Hello?" he said in a reedy voice. "Can I help you?"
"Yeah, I'm looking for Yato. You know, black hair, blue eyes, never shuts up?"
He squinted at Yukine. "I'm afraid I don't know any Yato. You must have the wrong house."
"He was supposed to be helping you paint some rooms or something?"
"Paint?" The man hesitated, tapping a finger against the doorframe. "I did paint a few rooms today. Now that you mention it, there was a nice young man who helped me, but… I don't remember him very well. I think he was… Well… I don't remember. Oh, that's terrible. Maybe I'm going senile."
"I doubt it," Yukine reassured him. "He's not…" He meant to say 'memorable', but it didn't feel right when Yato was plenty memorable. Humans were just bad at remembering. "Do you know when he left? When you finished painting?"
"I don't… It couldn't have been that long. Maybe twenty minutes? Thirty? Or maybe it was longer…" The man suddenly looked very worried. "I hope I remembered to pay him."
"I doubt you would have gotten rid of him otherwise," Yukine said with a sigh. "Thanks for your help."
There was no use grilling the guy. It was lucky he'd remembered even that much. Yato had left the job, which was what he needed to know. He'd left long enough ago that the customer had already forgotten him, but that wasn't saying much. Had he already gone home? Yukine might have just missed him.
Yukine wished the old man goodnight and headed back down the walk. He wasn't sure where else he could look for Yato out here, but it seemed like he should have been home by now and he clearly wasn't, unless he had shown up in the past ten minutes.
Yukine shone his flashlight up and down the street but turned up nothing. He eyed the storm warily, but not even Yato would be stupid enough to walk into that. Except…
He frowned and stepped down a side street perpendicular to the way he'd come. The storm, which he had initially judged to be far enough away, several blocks at least, was closer than it appeared. The gloom billowed every which way, reaching out tendrils and then retracting them so that the boundary of the storm was constantly shifting, ebbing closer in some areas and farther away in others. He caught a hint of gloom filtering between the buildings on the next street over, and a flash of glowing green darted down the street amid a low chorus of chittering.
Yukine swallowed hard, his heart sinking. This area was not as safe as he had assumed, and although Yato was more or less able to take care of himself, there was only so much he could do against a horde of ayakashi if he didn't have a shinki at his side. Since Yukine had refused to go on his job with him…
"Stupid," Yukine breathed.
He had left his god alone and defenseless. To be fair, there shouldn't be ayakashi involved in home improvement and Yato ought to know better than to wander around at night without a shinki, but still. He had left them both in a dangerous position.
He should have brought Daikoku and Kofuku with him. It would be stupid to go into a storm alone. But if Yato had gotten himself caught up in it, he would need a weapon to defend himself. He would need Yukine.
Yukine clicked his flashlight off, his heart rattling urgently at his ribcage, and crept between the buildings beside him to peer into the next street. The ayakashi he'd glimpsed had vanished, but it could be anywhere.
Taking a deep breath, he darted across the street and into the bushes beside a house with dark windows. He snuck around back and looked around, only to whip his head back into the shadows as he spotted a pair of phantoms prowling between the streetlights. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his frantic breathing while his heart pounded loudly enough to drown out the chittering of ayakashi. He stood frozen in terror, waiting to find out if he'd been seen. After a long minute, he pried his eyes back open and snuck a glance around the side of the house.
The ayakashi had gathered around a man walking down the street, shoulders hunched against the wind. Yukine didn't wait to see what mischief they were goading him to.
He retreated back to the previous street and let out a breath. This was foolish. Being out here was a bad idea. He could make a borderline to hold an ayakashi off, but he couldn't kill it on his own and there was only so much he could do if they surrounded him. If a vent had opened in the area, there would be packs as well as lone ayakashi. It would be all too easy to get himself into a situation he couldn't get himself out of.
"Where are you, Yato?" he muttered under his breath. The thought of leaving Yato to his fate here, whatever that might be, twisted his stomach into knots.
He cut across the yard and then the street, back to the old man's house where Yato had last been. Although he couldn't bring himself to keep up the search any closer to the storm, he turned at the corner and cut perpendicular to the route back instead of heading straight home. He glanced down the mouths of the streets he passed, squinting into the gloom and misty yellow light of streetlamps.
At first he ran across nothing much at all, but the gloom seemed to thicken this way and he spotted more and more ayakashi flitting about. Twice, he hurriedly threw up borderlines when phantoms spotted him before he could retreat back into the shadows. The farther he went, the more alive the air seemed with faint hissing and chittering.
His steps slowed to a stop. His circuitous route was getting too dangerous. It was time to give up, head straight home, and hope Yato had beaten him there.
He turned on to a street heading towards Kofuku's and hurried away from the storm. He could swear he felt eyes on his back and unearthly whispering all around, and his skin prickled in warning. Flicking the flashlight back on, he picked up the pace until he was nearly jogging. Either the storm had spread much farther than anticipated, or the night was making him paranoid. His mouth felt dry as cotton, and his heart thundered loudly enough that he feared it might attract ayakashi like a homing beacon.
Just a little farther…
He nearly jumped straight out of his skin as something banged loudly nearby and echoed through the darkness.
"Smells nice," hissed a voice from the shadows.
Yukine froze, but he wasn't the creature's intended meal. No ayakashi appeared—it must be in the next street over. He wavered in an agony of indecision. He ought to hurry on home and leave well enough alone, but it seemed clear to him that this ayakashi had found a victim. There was a chance he could rescue them with a borderline.
And when ayakashi started whispering about nice smells and tasty meals, they often had a god in their sights. It was probably nothing, but could it hurt to look?
Yukine darted back up the street and turned at the corner to peer down the next one.
Nearly a dozen ayakashi circled some hapless victim in the middle of the street between the yellow pools of light. They hissed and growled and lunged to take swipes and bites.
"Smells nice," they whispered in a rattling chorus.
Yukine edged a little farther out of the shadows to get a better look between the hulking forms of two ayakashi, but it was too dark to make out much. He crept closer.
An ayakashi in the shape of a large cat lunged forward and was knocked back with a hiss. The figure lying prone on the ground swung an arm wildly to repel it, harsh breaths staining the night air beneath the phantoms' ruckus. The ayakashi circled, hanging back, but then pounced, going in for the kill. The figure flailed, but weakly. The ayakashi had already done damage, and he had undoubtedly fought back as long as he could, even without a proper weapon.
Yukine dashed forward at the sight of the familiar tracksuit, conjuring a borderline as he went. It sliced across the ground on Yato's far side, knocking back three or four ayakashi. They scrabbled ineffectually at the barrier, but half a dozen others continued tearing at Yato. Two tore themselves away and turned on Yukine with a growl.
Yukine could have cried with frustration as he struggled to maneuver his borderline for maximum impact. There was no way to cut off all the phantoms, not when they were scattered about in every direction. He couldn't stop them all, and he couldn't even keep holding off the ones chewing on Yato if others attacked him.
"Yato!" he shouted. "Call me!"
"Yu…kine?"
Yukine didn't get a good look at what Yato was doing, as he had to dodge around the ayakashi honing in on him. "Yeah, I'm here. Call me so we can kill them!"
"Can't…" Yato's words cut off with a wheeze of pain. "Yukine, go. You shouldn't be here."
Yukine thought this was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard, as he obviously should have been here from the beginning to avoid this mess in the first place and was the only thing standing between Yato and certain death now. Swerving around an ayakashi as it leaped at him, he raced towards Yato and readjusted his borderline to block the ayakashi that turned on him.
"Hurry up, Yato! We need to get out of here."
Yukine yelped as an ayakashi sank its teeth into his arm, but he managed to shove his way through the swarm and collapse to his knees by Yato's side, redrawing his borderline as he went.
Yato did not look good. He lay curled in on himself, breaths coming in heavy, wheezing pants. Nearly every inch of exposed skin was covered in purple-black blooms of blight, he held his arm to his chest at an unnatural angle, and he was lying in a puddle of blood that gleamed darkly under the streetlights.
His pupils were blown wide, dilated so far that only a sliver of electric blue showed around the black. "Behind…"
Yukine ducked and hurriedly redrew his borderline to hold back the ayakashi sneaking up behind him. Another lunged at Yato from the other side. Yukine grabbed Yato's arm and tried to pull him away, but the god hissed in pain and the phantom dug its claws into his leg and bit down.
"Hey, get off!" Yukine shouted, but there wasn't much he could do besides flap his hands uselessly. He couldn't maintain two borderlines at once. If he let go of the one behind him to stave off the ayakashi chewing on Yato, the half-dozen phantoms he was holding off now would be on them in a moment. "Yato, you need to call me right now so we can fight them off."
"Can't," Yato gasped. His eyes had slid nearly shut again, and his expression was glazed and distant. "You need…go. Now. Too blighted…will blight you. And in no shape to fight."
"But–"
"Yukine, go. Can't…"
Yukine shook his head, refusing to believe it. It wasn't like Yato to give up, not like this. Yato never shied away from a fight and never accepted death without fighting it tooth and nail. Was he really so hurt that he'd lost all hope?
Yukine jumped at the ayakashi gnawing on Yato's leg and pounded his fists against its side. His skin stung with blight, but the phantom released Yato and snapped at him instead. He scrambled out of the way, but the ayakashi was more interested in the prone god. Two more melted out of the shadows to join in.
There was no way they'd make it back to Kofuku's shrine like this. It was too far, and the ayakashi were coming from every direction. And Yato was clearly in no state to make it very far at all, even he didn't have ayakashi slavering over him. Panic built in Yukine's chest. There had to be somewhere they could run to safety.
Any shrine would do, but Tenjin's was too far and Yukine hadn't seen the need to memorize the city's entire network of shrines until now. Yato would probably know the closest one, given all the time he'd spent shrine-hopping while homeless.
"Yato! Where is the closest shrine?"
Yato didn't respond at all until Yukine shook him, and then the only sound that escaped him was unintelligible mumbling and a groan. His eyes had slid shut, and they did not open again.
An ayakashi hissed in delight as it clamped jaws around his arm and began tugging him down the street.
"Hey!" Yukine wailed. "Stop that!"
Panic and guilt swamped him, and Yato's hopelessness was contagious. But Yukine was Yato's last chance. He couldn't turn tail and run now, or Yato was done for.
He grabbed a rock from the ground and threw it at the ayakashi as hard as he could. It shrieked indignantly and released Yato to glare at Yukine.
"Come get me, you stupid–"
He backed up hurriedly as the phantom hopped over Yato' body to lunge at him. Ducking around its claws, he scrabbled along the ground and tossed fistfuls of pebbles at the other ayakashi circling Yato.
He backed up until he was pressed against his borderline as they closed in on him, then rolled out of the way of their snapping jaws and scrambled past them. Throwing himself back at Yato, he twisted around and redrew his borderline between them and the phantoms.
The ayakashi shrieked in rage and scrabbled at the barrier. Yukine lay panting on the ground, but he knew he couldn't rest for long. Yato was in bad shape, and more ayakashi could show up at any second. If only Bishamon and her crew had done a better job of cleaning up the storm's aftermath–
"That's it!" Yukine cried, shaking Yato with fevered excitement. "Get up, Yato! Bishamon has a shrine the next block over. I can't carry you myself—you need to help. Get up!"
Yato offered no intelligible response, but his eyes cracked open just a sliver. Yukine managed to heave him more or less upright with quite a bit of maneuvering and frustration, where he slumped over against the shinki.
"Come on, come on," Yukine muttered under his breath.
Yato's eyes were glassy and he showed no sign of comprehension, but Yukine prodded him into taking a few unsteady steps. Yato nearly collapsed after each one and leaned so heavily against Yukine that he sent them both staggering, but it was just enough to get him moving.
They barely made it one street over before the ayakashi began crawling out of the woodwork again. Yukine fended off the first few with a borderline, but the others closed in, latching on to both him and Yato and dragging them to the ground.
Yukine yelped as they clawed at him and flailed wildly with borderlines until he broke free.
"Get off him!" he wailed, but they pounced on Yato from all sides.
He grabbed Yato's leg and tried to pull him down the street, but it was no use. Yato was too heavy and the ayakashi too strong, and Yukine would hardly be able to drag him all the way to Bishamon's shrine.
He couldn't just leave Yato here with all the ayakashi—what kind of hafuri would he be to abandon his god now?—but the best chance they had was for Yukine to get help. Slashing one last borderline between Yato and the majority of his attackers, Yukine dodged around the ayakashi and fled. Yato's admonitions to go, run away, rang in his head with every slap of his feet against the pavement and echoed there like an accusation.
Thankfully, Bishamon's shrine was exactly where he remembered it. He banged on the door wildly.
"Bishamon! Kazuma! Hurry, we need your help!"
"Goodness, what's all the fuss about?" Bishamon asked, materializing with Kazuma beside her after several more seconds of banging.
Yukine could have cried with relief if alarm bells weren't still jangling in his head. "It's Yato. There are ayakashi and– Please, you have to come kill them."
Bishamon sniffed, but the disdain melted from her face as she took in Yukine's panic. "Why aren't you killing them?"
"He can't– He's in no shape to fight right now. Please, you have to come."
Bishamon cut a sharp look at Kazuma. "Fetch Kinuha and Aiha. And maybe Kuraha."
"But–"
"I'll be no good to you without a weapon. Kazuma will be quick."
Kazuma vanished before the words were out of her mouth, and Yukine silently begged him to hurry.
"What happened?" Bishamon asked, as if this were any time for small talk while they waited.
Yukine hopped from foot to foot, half a second from bolting and trusting Bishamon to find her way after him when her shinki arrived. "I don't know… I wasn't here. He was already a mess when I found him."
She frowned. "Why weren't you with him?"
"Does it matter?" he cried. "He's dying."
Bishamon snapped her mouth shut and glanced back at her shrine. She stayed blessedly quiet until Kazuma materialized a long minute later with Kuraha, Kinuha, and Aiha.
"Lead on, then," Bishamon said, and Yukine was already racing back down the street before she'd summoned her shinki.
Kuraha's massive paws pounded the pavement beside him, and he swerved to the next street over. The air vibrated with a low hum of ayakashi whispers.
Yukine did not know if Yato was still alive or had succumbed after he'd abandoned him. Surely he would feel it, though, if Yato died? Yukine was his shinki—his hafuri—and surely their bond would carry something as strong as death the same as it carried Yukine's emotions across to Yato. But Yukine didn't know that for sure, and the uncertainty stoked his panic.
When he skidded around the corner, some two dozen ayakashi were snapping at each other and playing a gruesome game of tug-of-war over Yato as they fought each other for their prize. Yukine made a strangled sound in the back of his throat—they were going to tear Yato apart, rend him limb from limb, if they didn't stop right now—but the infighting amongst each other might be the only thing saving Yato.
Several ayakashi still scratched at the borderline Yukine had left behind, although he had no way of knowing if some had found their way around it in his absence. Ignoring Bishamon's sharp warning, he sprinted toward the melee, redrawing his borderline for maximum effect as he went.
Kuraha bounded along beside him, and Bishamon muttered something very crass under her breath as she cracked Kinuha's whip in the air and set about killing ayakashi. Yukine left her to it and dove between a pair of bickering ayakashi to whack at a phantom tugging on Yato's leg. The ayakashi snapped its jaws at him, and he ducked around it. Blight stung at his hand.
"Yukine, get out of there!" Bishamon called. "You're only going to get hurt."
Yukine did not care. He had already abandoned Yato once—twice if you counted when he'd refused to accompany him earlier, which had landed them in this mess to begin with—and he would not do so again.
He beat frantically at all the ayakashi chewing on Yato, trying to force them off or at least loosen their grip, but they didn't budge. Only one let go, and Yukine yelped in pain as it seized him by the arm and sank in its teeth. It let go a moment later, screeching as it vanished. Bishamon's whip lashed out again and again, destroying ayakashi by ones and twos. The onslaught finally shook the ayakashi loose, and they began charging at Bishamon instead to face the threat.
Yukine pressed his palm to Yato's chest, but his hand was trembling too much to be able to tell if the god's heart was still beating. He didn't feel anything. He leaned close, searching for any sign of breathing or life, but for a long moment he found nothing and felt himself spiraling back into terror. No, Yato couldn't be dead. His body was still here, wasn't it? It hadn't vanished or exploded like Ebisu. He had to still be alive.
There. Yukine caught the faintest trace of a shallow, sighing breath passing between Yato's lips. Relief crashed over him in a blinding wave. They weren't too late. Yato was alive.
"Do you want to take down your borderline so we can kill the others?" Bishamon asked. Yukine looked up to see that she had made short work of the ayakashi. She slid off Kuraha's back and frowned down at Yato. "On second thought, leave it. He is wrecked. Let's get him back."
"He's alive," Yukine said in a small voice.
Bishamon gave him a curious look and then softened just a hair. "Of course he is," she said. "He'd never be able to give up annoying the living daylights out of us long enough to die. But he is riddled with blight. Getting him back is going to be such a pain…"
She trailed off into a muttered conversation with her shinki, and Yukine looked around nervously.
"Be careful," he said. "There are ayakashi out everywhere tonight from the storm. They keep popping out from the shadows."
Bishamon nodded once. "It's not far. Shouldn't be a problem. Alright, we're going to get him up onto Kuraha… There's really no other way about it."
Yukine thought she was probably right. He certainly wasn't going to be hauling Yato's deadweight, and dragging him along the ground wouldn't help his injuries any. He slid his arms beneath Yato's shoulders and pulled him upwards, grunting at the effort. He managed to lever Yato up a few inches, but there was no way he'd be able to lift him high enough to get him on Kuraha's back.
"Geez," he wheezed, lowering Yato back to the ground carefully and scrubbing at his forehead. The guy was heavy.
"I'll get him," Bishamon said, stepping over. "Just…" She frowned, tilting her head to the side and then shaking it. "Honestly, it's fine… A little blight isn't going to kill me. We're about to cleanse it anyway… Oh, fine. Kazuma."
Kazuma materialized beside her. "…bad enough that Kuraha will be blighted," he was saying disapprovingly.
Bishamon rolled her eyes, but her movements had a jittery edge. "Just hurry up. The idiot needs medical attention right away."
Kuraha crouched down alongside Yato, belly pressed to the ground. Kazuma pressed his lips into a tight line as he studied Yato's motionless body.
"Yukine, give me a hand," he said.
Yukine, having no qualms about blight even if he wasn't already covered in it, moved where Kazuma gestured and grabbed Yato by the legs. Kazuma slid his arms beneath Yato's shoulders, and they heaved him up on the count of three. Kuraha huffed as they plopped Yato onto his back, either from the weight or blight.
"Let's go," Bishamon said. "Hurry."
She rushed ahead at a quick pace, and Kuraha stood up and followed. Yukine and Kazuma hurried alongside him, steadying Yato if it looked like he was slipping. Despite all the jostling, Yato remained unresponsive. Yukine couldn't keep checking his breathing when he had to scan their surroundings for ayakashi, and it put him on edge to not know for sure.
Bishamon quickly dispatched the ayakashi that emerged from the shadows, and Kazuma alerted the group whenever he sensed any approaching. Yukine could hardly bring himself to care, even though he tried to pay attention. Yato could die at any second. They didn't have time for delays, and the alarm bells wouldn't stop blaring in Yukine's head until Yato was stable again.
"Hurry," Bishamon said again as they loped up to the shrine. "Let's get everyone to the purification pool first. Once everyone's blight is cleansed, we'll take a look at him."
Shinki peered out of doorways curiously as the rescue party hurried through the mansion's halls. Yukine hunched his shoulders against the stares and reached out again to reassure himself that Yato wasn't slipping off Kuraha's back. He didn't know how anyone survived in such a crowded house, where it was so difficult to keep secrets.
Kazuma shooed the onlookers away, but Yukine still caught glimpses of curious eyes peering out from behind half-closed doors.
"He'll be okay," Kazuma murmured.
Yukine couldn't tell if his confidence was genuine or if he was trying to convince himself. He didn't deign to respond.
Bishamon barked out Aiha's and Kinuha's names as they entered the bathing chamber with its purification pool, and they materialized beside her. "Cleanse yourselves if you're blighted, and then prepare the main guest room."
Kuraha padded across the floor and slipped into the pool, and Bishamon called his name as well so that he could transform and keep Yato afloat. Yato bobbed lifelessly in the water, the blackness beginning to melt off his pale, pale skin. A crimson cloud billowed out in the water around him, slowly spreading across the pool.
Bishamon pursed her lips. "Fetch a first aid kit as well," she instructed Aiha and Kinuha as they left the room. "Yukine, cleanse your blight."
Yukine might normally protest that it seemed rather unhygienic to wash himself in a pool of someone else's blood, but he couldn't quite bring himself to care at the moment. He slipped into the pool, clothes and all, scrubbing haphazardly at his skin and then splashing over to where Kazuma and Kuraha were keeping Yato afloat. Yato looked marginally better with his blight cleansed, but he was still deathly pale. Yukine reached out hesitantly, still half afraid they hadn't made it in time.
"Don't worry," Kazuma said. "He's alive. Now that he's safe, he'll be alright."
"Gods' bodies don't last long past death," Bishamon added from where she crouched by the edge of the pool to splash water on a few splotches of blight. "You saw what happened with Ebisu. Gods disappear after death and reincarnate in a new body, if they can. If he's here, he's fine."
While Yukine was sure this was meant to make him relax a little, it only brought to mind images of Ebisu's grisly demise and subsequent reincarnation. Yukine cared for neither. He needed Yato to be okay and wake up as himself.
Bishamon straightened back up. "Let's get him out of there if he's cleansed. We need to take a look at him and dress his injuries."
Kazuma and Kuraha floated Yato's body to the edge of the pool and levered him out of the water. Bishamon handed out fluffy towels for everyone to quickly dry off and wrapped others tightly around any visible wounds, and then Kuraha heaved Yato up into his arms with a grunt.
The little procession traipsed back through the halls, dripping water as they went. Bishamon led the way with quick, clipped strides, and Yukine brought up the rear and scowled at nosy shinki peering out from doorways until a few had the decency to at least pretend to look away.
The room she led them to was the same one they'd used last time, when Yato was recovering from his stay in Yomi. Aiha and Kinuha lingered inside, along with an array of first aid implements arrayed neatly across the table.
"Is he going to be alright?" Aiha asked, watching as Kuraha settled Yato on the bed.
"More alright than the sheets are going to be," Bishamon muttered.
"You can go," Kazuma said. "He'll be fine. Get some rest. We'll be busy with cleaning up after the storm tomorrow."
"Why weren't you cleaning up the storm tonight?" Yukine grumbled as Aiha and Kinuha shuffled out of the room and closed the door behind them. It would have saved everyone a lot of trouble if they'd been doing their job.
"We were," Kazuma said mildly. "We just called it a night an hour or so ago."
Yukine rather thought they ought to still be out there, but he had the presence of mind to realize this was probably an unfair manifestation of his anxiety and kept his mouth shut. If nothing else, he had been lucky that Bishamon and her shinki were home when he'd come knocking in a panic.
"Stop fussing, both of you." Bishamon began unwrapping the towels from Yato's limbs. Large red blotches were already bleeding through, and she frowned at whatever she saw underneath. "Wish we still had a proper doctor…"
Yukine did too, even if he had no love for Kugaha. If the wounds were straightforward and clean enough, he supposed it wouldn't take an expert to bandage them up. Still, he would feel better if someone with a bit more medical expertise could tell him Yato would be fine.
Kazuma caught the look on his face. "Don't worry so much, Yukine. We've been around for a long time and patched up a lot of wounds. Kuraha, would you like to take Yukine to get something to eat?"
"I've already eaten," Yukine said indignantly. "I'm not going anywhere."
Kazuma sighed but dismissed Kuraha with a wave of his hand to retreat after the others. "Just stand back a little and stay calm, then. Veena, let me."
He moved to the bedside to begin blotting blood, applying antiseptic, and bandaging wounds. Bishamon, ignoring his offer, got to work on the other side. There were plenty of wounds to go around.
Yukine crept closer. "Can I…?"
"We can handle it," Bishamon said. Her face was grim. "Why don't you sit down? If you want to learn more about first aid, then we can do it another time, when you aren't so upset and it's not…"
Yukine caught a glimpse of a gaping wound in Yato's arm, the flesh raw and torn to pieces with bite marks scalloping the edges. His stomach heaved, and he retreated to a chair in the corner.
He watched eagle-eyed as Bishamon and Kazuma fussed over Yato for a few more minutes before packing up the supplies. "Is he…?"
"He should be okay, but it's a good thing we got him out of there when we did," Bishamon said. "He wouldn't have lasted much longer."
"What happened?" Kazuma asked.
"How should I know?" Yukine snapped. He studied Yato intently for any sign of life, but the god remained limp and motionless. "I wasn't there."
"Why not?"
Yukine shrugged and slumped down in the chair as far as he could go. "We had a fight earlier," he mumbled. "He asked me to go with him on a job, and I said no. Then it was late and there was a storm and he didn't come back, so I went looking and found him like that. It's… It's my fault, really."
"Be careful," Kazuma warned. "Don't dwell on it. You don't want your negative energy to affect his recovery, and the last thing he needs is more blight."
Yukine straightened up abruptly. A new guilt pricked his heart, but he shoved it away just as quickly. He knew better than to give in to negativity and hurt Yato more. He had already caused enough damage, and Yato still looked horrible enough without anything else jeopardizing his recovery.
"It's no one's fault," Bishamon said with a sigh. "Bad luck. I'm sure we'll get his side of the story when he wakes up. It's not like he ever shuts up. We'll keep him here tonight so he can rest and we can check up on him. I assume you'll want to stay as well. Would you like to call Kofuku and update her?"
This did seem like the most reasonable course of action. Yukine borrowed Kazuma's phone to call Kofuku and Daikoku, just telling them that Yato had been injured by ayakashi and they'd be spending the night at Bishamon's. He fielded their questions, assured them everything was fine, and escaped the conversation as quickly as possible. He owed them a better explanation than that, but he'd save it for tomorrow once he'd had the chance to collect himself. He couldn't bear to go into detail now, especially if he was to be careful about not stinging Yato.
After Bishamon and Kazuma departed, Yukine dragged his chair to Yato's bedside and curled back up in it. Bishamon had offered him the use of the room next door or extra bedding to set up in here, but he didn't intend to sleep.
He watched Yato instead, hoping for any sign of wakefulness. Although he knew it was better for Yato to rest now, he wouldn't be satisfied until he'd seen his god awake and alert. But Yato showed absolutely no sign of returning to consciousness anytime soon. His chest just barely rose and fell with shallow breaths. With his pallor and the bandages wrapping nearly every inch of his body, he looked like death warmed over.
"I'm sorry," Yukine breathed.
Then he quietly tamped down his fear and guilt and worry, packing them away where they couldn't hurt anyone. He waited and waited as the hours ticked by, but Yato didn't stir and eventually his eyelids began fluttering closed.
He woke with a start and found himself slumped over onto the edge of the bed, drooling into the covers. His heart jumped into his throat as he noticed that the bed was empty, the covers neatly made up.
"Yato?" The chair scraped against the floorboards as he stood quickly and whipped around, searching the room for any sign of his master. He turned towards the doorway and froze in place. "Yato?"
A small child stood there, framed in the doorway. He had dark hair and Yato's electric blue eyes. He tilted his head and regarded Yukine curiously.
"Who's Yato?" he asked.
Yukine's mouth opened and closed soundlessly a few times before he choked out, "What…? Yato?"
"I'm Yaboku," said the child, and the pain that shot through Yukine's chest nearly brought him to his knees. "Who are you?"
Yukine shot up with a start, his heart pounding wildly against his ribcage until he thought he might throw up. He was sitting in the chair again, staring at the bed. Yato—adult Yato, the way he was supposed to be—lay motionless in the bed, dead to the world. He didn't look as if he'd moved a muscle.
Yukine gasped for air, his chest so tight that he felt as if he were suffocating. He reached out and touched Yato's clammy hand, reassuring himself he was real. Then he pressed his fists to his eyes and tried to push the tears back in and calm his racing heart.
Don't hurt Yato, don't hurt Yato. Do nothing to risk Yato dying or reincarnating.
Yukine couldn't shake the image of that small boy out of his mind. It burned there like the future that could have been and made him realize how close he had come to losing everything.
