Note: Felt like writing something with Bishamon and Yato since it was pointed out that I mostly use Bishamon as a lurking third wheel in the background lol (Which is true, because I enjoy having her find things out from the main trio even when I can't figure out how to fit her into the action XD) I really have no other excuse.
Bishamon was working with a skeleton crew tonight. It was later than she'd like to keep her shinki out working, but an alarmingly large vent had opened right in the middle of the shopping district that afternoon, located for maximum damage right in the busiest part of the city. They weren't notified of its appearance right away, giving the ayakashi the chance to swarm free and disperse throughout the surrounding neighborhoods.
In hindsight, it was at least partially her fault. She had been distracted with Tsuguha's death and hunting the sorcerer, and had not been paying close enough attention to her duties. She had not even had Kofuku perform a prediction of evil omens recently, so of course she didn't know where to expect vents to open.
During their frenzied rush to contain the damage and track down the escaped ayakashi, they had already uncovered disturbing reports of the fallout. A man attempting a petty robbery in a nearby convenience store had taken the cash from the drawer, walked to the door, and turned back to shoot two employees and four customers with the gun he'd originally brought only for scare value. Then he had turned it on himself, despite having the money he'd come for. Three people were dead, and a further four were in the hospital.
If Bishamon had been doing her job, the tragedy might have been averted. It was imperative they prevent further casualties, so although she had since sent most of her shinki home for the night, she had kept Kazuma, Kinuha, and Kuraha on duty.
She wouldn't keep them much longer. It was already the early hours of the morning after a long day, and they needed rest. She supposed she did too, if she wanted to keep up the pace tomorrow—later today, really—when she picked up where she left off, but she'd promised herself they'd go home after killing five more ayakashi, and then five more and five more. With failure gnawing at her heels, she couldn't make herself stop. It was her job, as a god, to protect these people. But also to protect her shinki, she reasoned, and she had already pushed them hard. Five more ayakashi, then, and she should really call it a night.
"Next street," she said to Kuraha, and he shook his mane in agreement and trotted to the corner.
Kazuma stayed quiet since no more ayakashi lurked in their immediate vicinity just yet, but disapproval radiated from him. Really just five more ayakashi this time, or she would have to face his sulking for the rest of the day. He still got fussy when he decided she needed rest or thought she was pushing the others too hard. Maybe that made him a good guidepost, but it could certainly be a bit of a pain at times.
"Behind the trashcans on the left, fifty feet back," Kazuma said in her ear, directing her line of sight to a small blob of an ayakashi oozing around the ankles of a homeless man huddled against the garbage bins lining the wall of the alley.
Bishamon clicked her tongue impatiently. She would rather cleanse the area of the more dangerous ayakashi than small fry like this, although every phantom was better off dead. This one wasn't likely to cause any homicides—unless some fool fed it, of course. It hardly counted. Five after this one.
She uncoiled Kinuha from her hip and snapped the whip through the air in an expert motion. The range was short enough and the ayakashi slow enough that she didn't need Kazuma's calculations to slice the phantom clean in two.
She cast a sidelong look at the homeless man as she passed, but he slept on undisturbed. No more nightmares tonight, perhaps. She directed Kuraha down the next street.
"Veena," Kazuma said quietly, "don't you think it's about time we called it a night? Everyone could use a rest."
"Tired already?" Bishamon asked with a half-smile. Kazuma didn't answer, but the frustration poured off him in waves. Not in the mood for joking, then. "Let's try for five more ayakashi and then turn in."
Kazuma heaved a sigh. "That's what you said two hours and thirty-six ayakashi ago."
"Is it?" Bishamon asked, surprised. She didn't remember verbalizing that particular benchmark before. Maybe she really was too tired. "Well, I mean it this time," she assured him.
She felt his skepticism.
"You can't save everyone, Veena," he said, ever so softly.
Bishamon pressed her lips together. Maybe not, but she couldn't help but try. She had made mistakes before, with how she handled her shinki or with allowing herself to be distracted from her duties, but she would do better. With so many lives on the line, she had a duty to do her best by them.
"I know," she said, although she had never let it stop her before. "Over there, Kuraha."
They tracked down another three ayakashi before hearing a commotion a few streets over.
"What is that?" Kinuha asked. She had grown increasingly quiet as the night dragged on, but the ruckus was hard to miss.
Something scuffled over paving stones, trash cans tipped over with dull metallic clanks, and heavy breathing punctuated by muffled speech wove in and out of the pounding of feet against pavement.
"Seems like someone besides us is still awake after all," Kuraha said good-naturedly.
Bishamon had no doubt that ayakashi were involved in such a late-night confrontation. She urged Kuraha towards the noise, while Kazuma began churning out predictions as he was often wont to do.
They took a shortcut leaping onto a nearby building and skimming the rooftops. It took only a few moments to locate the source of the disturbance.
Kazuma went abruptly quiet.
"What's he doing out?" Bishamon asked.
Yato swayed in the shadows of the street below, surrounded by half a dozen lupine ayakashi. He moved stiffly—Bishamon had no doubt she would see blight blooming in purple-black splotches against his skin if not for the darkness and mottled shadows—and was clearly outnumbered, but he dodged around the ayakashi deftly and kicked at them ineffectually.
"Hmpf," Bishamon huffed. "I ought to leave him to deal with his own trouble."
"Eight ayakashi," Kazuma said. "Strategy seems to be keeping target contained. Target is unarmed, has sustained significant blight, and has injuries to right leg and left arm."
"I hear you," Bishamon grumbled.
Yato was a thorn in her side, but it wouldn't be right to leave a defenseless god in the clutches of ayakashi. Not even one as annoying as Yato.
"Why do you have to make things so difficult?" sighed another voice, and Bishamon startled. "Just cooperate, already."
"The nora," Kazuma said, recovering from his surprise first. "Further down, shadows on the left."
Bishamon squinted down at the tableau and caught sight of the dead-eyed, black-haired girl watching from the shadows. Every muscle in her body went taut. This was the girl who had killed Tsuguha. This was a dangerous girl, the sorcerer's pet.
Bishamon couldn't risk this nora damaging the names of her other shinki. But without the sorcerer to wield her, she couldn't do that kind of damage. Maybe this was their best chance to eradicate the threat, while the sorcerer wasn't here to complicate things.
"I already told you no," Yato bit out through gritted teeth.
The nora sighed again. "You never do things the easy way, do you?"
Yato slammed a booted heel into the muzzle of a leaping wolf, pivoted, and executed a neat bit of gymnastics in a flip that sent another two ayakashi flying. Bishamon was impressed despite herself.
"You have to admit, he's got some moves," Kinuha said grudgingly.
"Veena?" Kazuma prompted.
Bishamon hesitated. "Do you think the nora will interfere?"
In the alley below, Yato sent a garbage can toppling over with a clatter of metal on pavement. Snatching up the lid, he wielded it as a shield to fend off an attack and then slammed it into the open maw of one of the wolves.
"Enough," the nora said sharply. "Stop fighting me."
Yato yelped as an ayakashi lunged and clamped its jaws around his arm. The pack converged. He managed to fend off one or two attacks, but he had nowhere to go and was missing the use of a limb. He gritted his teeth and didn't cry out again as the wolves bit down on his legs, arms, skin, and dragged him down, but his ragged breathing was loud in the night air.
"Odds unknown," Kazuma said tightly, giving up on his calculations. "She might attack or flee, depending on if she feels confident facing us on her own. But if we're going to do something, it had better be now."
The nora stepped closer, the darkest of the shadows slipping away as she approached the hamstrung god kneeling on the pavement. Her eyes gleamed hard and cold in the moonlight.
"That wasn't so hard, was it? Let's go. Father is growing impatient."
"Target?" Bishamon asked.
Kazuma focused in on one of the wolves stationed by Yato's left side. "That one looks like it's ready to go for his throat. Start there, watch the unattached ones hovering around, and aim for the ones with their teeth in him. Watch the nora too. She's dangerous and slippery, and keep in mind that you don't have the full team tonight. Maybe Kuraha can hold off the nora and unattached ayakashi while we free Yato."
Below, Yato sneered. "You can tell Father–"
"Tell him yourself," said the nora. "We're going home."
Bishamon nodded. "Kuraha."
"Understood."
Kuraha leaped down from their perch, massive paws slamming into the pavement outside the circle of wolves. Bishamon caught a fleeting glimpse of the nora's consternation before sliding off Kuraha's back and uncoiling Kinuha.
She snapped the whip through the air, slicing neatly through the ayakashi eyeing Yato's throat. The pack mobilized in a heartbeat, throwing themselves at her in a whirlwind of snapping teeth. She would have preferred a weapon more suited for close-range attacks, but Kinuha expertly dispatched the phantoms in ones and twos, Kazuma's directives and calculations a steady drumbeat to keep them on pace.
The wolves gnawing on Yato abandoned him in favor of charging Bishamon as she massacred their brethren. One nearly caught her from behind, but Kuraha pounced before it sank in its teeth.
They made short work of the ayakashi, even with their reduced combat capacity, and Bishamon turned on the nora as soon as the last of the wolves fell. But the nora was no longer standing around to watch. Bishamon caught a glimpse of movement at the mouth of the alley and reached for the pistols holstered at her hips. Her hands closed on empty air—Karuha and Kazuha lay asleep at home—and she cursed as the nora's shadow slipped around the corner and disappeared.
"Out of range," Kazuma said unnecessarily.
"Sorry," Kuraha rumbled. "I tried to corner her, but there were too many ayakashi and I had to cover your back. And she put up a borderline. Do you want me to go after her?"
Bishamon wavered. She didn't want any of her shinki facing the nora alone or risk them running into the sorcerer. And with only the bare minimum of shinki, she couldn't afford to leave one behind to check Yato over. They would have to go together or not at all.
She cast a dubious glance over Yato, wondering if she had fulfilled any duty to him and was free to go, but he looked awful. He regarded them with dull, pain-glazed eyes from where he lay slumped in a boneless heap on the pavement. Blight bruised nearly every inch of exposed skin, and she could scent a faint tinge of iron in the air as blood seeped from his wounds.
"Leave her," Bishamon said, bitterness sharpening the edges of her words. "For tonight, at least."
"The hell are you doing here?" Yato slurred, eyes shining with incomprehension.
"Saving your ass again, apparently." Bishamon bent to pick up a mask from the ground. A familiar eye shape marked its surface, and half a dozen others were littered across the pavement. "I thought the sorcerer didn't need masks anymore."
"Doesn't," Yato grunted. "Nostalgia, maybe. Always used the wolves."
"Always?"
"Since I was a kid."
Bishamon ran her thumb over the smooth surface and dug in her nail until the tension snapped and it went skating over the rounded face.
"I thought he was your father," she said. "Or at least called himself that."
"Yeah." Yato pushed himself to a more upright position, moving slowly and stiffly.
Bishamon looked around at the masks again. "Then why would he send ayakashi to hurt you?" Yato fixed her with such a blank, uncomprehending look that she felt the need to clarify. "Family isn't supposed to hurt each other. Even if he wants to kill the rest of us, why torture the one who is more or less on his side?"
She had a hard time classifying the scene she had witnessed tonight as anything else. What kind of person would sic a nora and a swarm of ayakashi on someone, not to kill them but to drag them 'home'? Especially when they called that person family? The logic did not compute to her, much less the morality.
Yato staggered to his feet, swaying unsteadily, and Bishamon tossed the mask aside as she stepped forward to take him by the arm. Kazuma murmured a warning about blight, but she ignored him.
Yato took a couple shallow breaths, forehead pressed to her shoulder. "That's how it's always been," he said, matter-of-fact, as if he still didn't understand her point.
"That's not right." A hint of blight prickled at Bishamon's fingertips and her bare arm, but it was a mild sting and not comparable to the damage Yato had suffered at the hands of his own 'family'.
Yato huffed out a soft, unamused laugh and sagged against her. "Isn't it?" he mumbled.
Bishamon frowned at him. He was not acting like himself.
"I'd imagine he's in a lot of pain," Kazuma said, as if reading her thoughts. "He might be a bit…delirious."
Just her luck.
"Well, let's get you cleaned up, then."
"I can do it myself," Yato said, jerking back and stumbling. Bishamon grabbed his arm again. His eyes had gone fever-bright with some sort of clarity, although she couldn't tell if he was entirely coherent again. "You should go. In case they come back. Father doesn't like you."
Bishamon sniffed disdainfully. "I don't like him either. And you're about to keel over. It would be remiss of me to send you staggering out into the night to get eaten by another ayakashi or picked up by the sorcerer and his dog…tempting though it might be."
"You don't understand," Yato mumbled, deflating again. "Bad things happen to people he doesn't like."
Bishamon stared at him, trying to pick apart his brain and failing.
"Right," she said. "We're taking you home to get cleaned up. Careful, Kuraha."
She didn't imagine there would be much need for Yato's skin to come in contact with Kuraha as long as he kept his seat by clinging to her, but blight would jump ship at the smallest opportunity. She was careful to keep Kinuha out of the way as she half dragged Yato onto Kuraha's back despite his mumbled protests.
"Are we taking him to Kofuku's shrine or back home?" Kuraha asked.
"Home. No need to wake everyone and stir up a fuss."
"Yukine will be livid," Kazuma said, but Bishamon shrugged him off.
"Your feud aside, we're doing him a favor tonight. Whether he likes it or not."
Kazuma offered no further protest as Kuraha bounded down the street to their nearest shrine. Thankfully, Bishamon had enough experience to keep her seat while she had her hands full. Yato had gone quiet, breathing shallowly and apparently sinking into a state of semi-consciousness. Bishamon wondered what might have happened before she intervened. She had seen Yato sustain far worse injures and tough them out, but she would assume nothing where the sorcerer was concerned.
Yato remained distant and largely unaware as they reached Takamagahara and crept through the darkened halls of the mansion. Bishamon directed Kuraha to carry them to her cleansing pool before reverting her shinki back to their human forms.
"You're all dismissed," she said, wrapping an arm around Yato to keep him upright. "Go get some sleep. We still have more work to do later."
They cast dubious looks over Yato.
"Are you sure you wouldn't like some assistance?" Kazuma asked.
"Are we going to return him to Kofuku's?" asked Kuraha.
"I can handle things from here," Bishamon said. "He can go home in the morning—I'd rather you get some rest. It's been a long day. I'll set him up in a spare room."
"Are you sure about that?" Kinuha asked. "Is it a good idea?"
"I don't see why not. He's a pain in the ass, but it's only one night."
"You may both retire," Kazuma said, giving Kuraha and Kinuha pointed looks. They murmured goodnights and retreated.
"You too, Kazuma. I'll need you again tomorrow, even if the others can afford to take a break."
"You need to be resting as well," he said. "Let me help you."
"I've got it, but thank you. You can open the door for me, though, if you'd like."
She sent Kazuma off to bed after a short and hushed argument, and then dragged Yato—who had remained largely unresponsive, gaze unfocused—into the room. She shoved him into the pool of purification water, clothes and all. That finally got a reaction.
He surfaced, spluttering, and scowled at her with such a strange mixture of confusion and righteous indignation that she almost smiled.
"What the hell?" he asked. "Why am I even here?"
Bishamon crossed her arms over her chest and scowled right back. "We're cleansing your blight, you ungrateful bastard."
"I can do that myself."
"Ha! Please, you were so out of sorts that you wouldn't have even made it back to Kofuku's without dying in a ditch somewhere."
"I've been taking care of myself for centuries. I think I could manage."
"Oh, yes. Because you were managing so well."
Yato busied himself with peeling back his sleeves and examining his skin. "It was pretty stupid of you to interfere," he said, and Bishamon's eye twitched. "But thanks. I guess."
"Oh…" Bishamon didn't know what to do with Yato's thanks, however lackluster. That was not their style. "Wait here. I'll be back in a minute. Make sure all the blight is gone."
She crouched down to dip her hands in the water and splash it wherever blight stung her skin, then stood and marched out of the room without a backwards glance.
It took a few minutes of poking around, but she found a spare pair of pajamas in the communal linen closet that might fit him and picked up a first aid kit from the infirmary. When she returned to the bath, she found Yato with his arms and chin propped up on the rocks, eyes closed.
"Yato."
He cracked one eye open and squinted at her. "What?" he mumbled.
"Don't fall asleep in there. Come on, I've got some dry clothes for you."
"Don't need them. I can change at Kofuku's."
"She threatened me once, you know. Kofuku." The memory struck Bishamon out of the blue. "Back when I was hunting you. I asked if she'd still been seeing you, and she said that if anything happened to you, I should be prepared for a lot of gloom." She shook her head in amused exasperation. "I couldn't understand it at the time, but I guess I see…"
Yato opened his other eye and regarded her with suspicion. "See what?"
She saw why someone might want to protect Yato. She saw that the sorcerer could expect her wrath if anything were to happen to Yato, even aside from the ill will she already bore him for Ebisu and Tsuguha. Maybe, somehow, they had become something like friends.
She didn't think it was fair to say that, though, even if her pride would ever allow it. She was, after all, intending to kill the sorcerer. The sorcerer who might be Yato's lifeline.
In the end, she might be the one to kill Yato after all. But not tonight, not like this, by setting a swarm of ayakashi on him while professing friendship. Maybe it didn't matter that she didn't want to, that he would just be collateral damage. She would not confuse the matter with sentiments that were worthless in the end.
But she would also not sit back and watch him die without trying to help where she could. Not tonight.
"That you have people who care about you, don't you?" she said briskly, holding out the pajamas. "Kofuku and Yukine and Hiyori would be very upset if I let you wander off to get eaten by an ayakashi, don't you think? My shinki are all asleep. I won't wake anyone to escort you home, and I'm not going to send you out defenseless. You're stuck spending the night."
"Excuse me? I can make it back on my own, thanks. I don't need a babysitter."
"Unless the sorcerer sends his pets after you again?" she asked. Yato's lips twisted and he looked away. "Get out and dry off. I'll show you to your room."
He clambered out of the pool, and Bishamon threw a towel at his head. She gave him a chance to dry off before tossing him the pajamas and a roll of bandages for any wounds purification water couldn't heal. Yato limped down the hall after her silently, although he looked like he might bolt at any second. She was counting on his obvious exhaustion to win out. She did not waste her time asking questions she knew he wouldn't answer.
"Here you go," she said, opening up one of the spare bedrooms. "You can leave in the morning, or I can send a message to Yukine letting him know what's happened. Do you need anything else?"
He looked forlorn and lost standing there in the doorway, dripping wet and clutching a bundle of clothing and gauze to his chest. Still, he looked better than the last time she'd put him up, when he was wrapped head to toe in bandages after Yomi.
"No," he said. "I'm good."
"Okay. Goodnight, then." Bishamon ushered him inside, but hesitated in the doorway. "Do try being a little more careful, Yato. Like I said…there are people who care about you, even if the sorcerer doesn't. We–they wouldn't want to see you get hurt, would they?"
She stepped back into the hall and shut the door behind her.
The next morning, she was unsurprised to find that Yato was already gone. She could have almost convinced herself she had imagined the night before entirely, if not for the pajamas and towel folded neatly on top of the bed in the spare room. That and hearing her shinki comment in awe about how sparkling clean the communal bathroom had become overnight. Which might have been the oddest thank you Bishamon had received in all her centuries of life, but, to be fair, Yato was also the oddest friend.
Note: Idk, I had no real plot or anything in mind. To be honest, I love that scene where Kofuku threatens Bishamon and thought about how Bishamon might reveal that tidbit to Yato, and that's the entire basis of the whole fic X)