A/N: I can't believe the reviews I'm getting. 0_0 Honestly, you're all… I don't know how to put words on it. My sincerest, deepest thanks to you, for being the lovely readers you are. I'll try my very best to write a story worthy of such praise.

I do not own or profit from any of what Kazue Kato has created.

Shiro could orientate himself, after a while. Kasumi had taken them on a shortcut to the path that led up to the little shrine that rested on a forested pinnacle in the wild parts of True Cross Town. He could hear Shizuku's distinct whistling long before he could see the shrine: a wooden building of humble proportions and traditional design. Shizuku sat on the ground, leaned against one of the stone banister posters, and let his skilled hands fly the whittling knife over a piece of wood.

"Would ye stop scarin' away the birds, ye tone deaf rake?"

"If I don't they might take ye' head fer a nest an' settle in", he returned easily and tucked the knife back into its sheath in the unrolled bundle of tools. "Hi, by the way." The gangly pilgrim stood, and stretched. "How's ye' leg?"

Shizuku remained tense, no matter if he stretched. Tense and fumbling like one not knowing what to say or where to start.

"Could've been better, could've been worse." Ngh, there should be a handbook for situations like this. First chapter: how to start talking. "Come down to formalities, has it?"

"It ain't formalities", Shizuku replied; and it really wasn't empty formality, when he wore that look. "I don't do formality: I care. But ye don't get that, do ya?"

Second chapter: how to make the things you mean come out the right way.

"You mean I'm an unthankful bastard that doesn't like having people worrying for me?" Shiro developed, just to be sure. "'cause that's true." He kept his hands in the pockets of his trousers without really being aware of it, not knowing where else to put them to keep from fidgeting.

"Yeah, sure is." Shizuku went on to brush wood chips and dust off his school uniform. "But more than that; ye don't get the concept of caring." With nothing more to brush off or fidget with, he crossed his arms to keep his hands still. He was at least as uncomfortable as Shiro in this. But he was no coward. "I'm not sayin' ye aren't a good friend. Ye're fun ta be 'round, an' a great guy in many aspects – but deep down? Deep down ye're cold. I saw that in yer eyes the day I hit ye; I think it's why I did it." …majestic; how he stood firm by his words, even when the breath that carried them quivered at the edges. "'cause it scared me. I didn't want that ta be you." He chewed at his lip piercing, nervous… but his eyes never left Shiro's. "Either ye were like that from the very beginning, an' I just didn't notice; or it's something ye turned into when ya started hangin' 'round Pheles. I need ya ta tell me which it is, an' I need it ta be the truth."

"Right. The truth is I've always had a cold side." He brought his hand out of the pocket and held the switchblade in his palm. "I carry this around, don't I? And I know how to use it." He shoved it back into his pocket, and let his hand stay with it. "You said it yourself that I'm quite possibly the most unfriendly person you've met." He made a short pause, to let his next words build weight: "But I'm only like that when there's a need."

Truth – but not a truth that had Shizuku entirely satisfied.

"What was the need when Agari-chan was bein' shipped off ta the crematory?" Shiro suspected that if Kasumi hadn't been there, his flat tone would have had a much sharper edge. Shizuku wasn't buying it. But Shizuku felt strong responsibility for people. He cared for people. He was a good, compassionate person.

"…I so shouldn't do this."

The strings were there; all he needed to do was pull them. Carefully, carefully; like that fish-catching game Yasuda had been so good at.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Just the right softness on the edges, making use of just the right information obtained from Kasumi. "You've buried family, too. Still, you had each other; you've always had each other." The right smile, the right hesitance. "I had no one. And I haven't been… close to anyone, since." The right words – can be forged into the key for any lock – oh, he shouldn't do this… "I haven't been to any funeral since, either. I'm only cold when I have to." The right sincerity, the right vulnerability. "And I only have to when there's something I need to protect myself from. I couldn't go, Shizu-san. I just couldn't." The right awkwardness; slightly faster paced speech to get it over with. "And Agari-chan loathed me, I know that. I don't think you wanna have a guy you hate say goodbye to you. I mean, imagine: would you wanna have Kita attend your funeral? Or the funeral of your family?" No: not in a million years, if he read the look on Shizuku's face right. "It doesn't- It's not fitting; even a blunt, blundering idiot like me knows that. I know Midori-chan went, but she's not exactly like ordinary people. She doesn't view things the same as we do." Kasumi would agree on that, wouldn't she? And now: slow the pace, shift towards earnestness. "I know I looked fucking horrible by comparison, but I was trying to honestly respect Agari-chan the way I thought she would've preferred." Just hit him! memory echoed in his mind, accompanied by clashes of blade against blade and unnaturally muffled cracks of gunfire. "As her final wish." For him to be dead: that had been her final wish. "I really didn't mean any offence."

Shiro surveyed the fruits of his performance with feelings of guilt and excitement competing for dominance. It seemed like it would work: Shizuku could understand the holes gauged by loss, good old compassionate pilgrim, he could see the discomfort an emotional display caused Shiro…

Is it worth it?

"Always such an idiot…" Yes, it worked: Shizuku's voice let the tension go. There was even a smile on his face, but there was also a line of worry between his thick eyebrows. "But why Pheles? Why would anyone wanna", quick glance at Kasumi, "make friends with a demon?"

"…well, I think you'd have to be an idiot to understand that", Shiro replied, pushing towards a lighter mood with a small smile of his own. "Or a Futotsuki. I'm a little of both. I-"

"Why don't ya tell 'im the story ye told me earlier?" Kasumi suggested with a Big Sister smile, and broke the standing formation by seating herself comfortably against the shrine foundation. "Best understandin' comes from real-life example."

It's such a basic human thing, to want friends. To sit down on a sunny afternoon with a stomach full of watermelon and amanatto and laugh at silly stories: the kind of simple, precious thing that changes the world. Shiro was human, so very human in that aspect: and it's very, very human to embrace the aid of a demon to get those basic, precious things you want.

"Why don'tcha come ta the crafts market next week?" Kasumi suggested, now sitting by the post where Shizuku had been when they came. "It's gonna be on Mepphy Land's premises, so it ain't far. Shizzy's comin'", she nodded at her brother, who was still giddy with laughter from hearing of Mephisto's cupcakes, "an' that tanuki boy, an' maybe Sen an' Midori-san. How's that sound?"

"Sounds just great", he said around his cigarette, stretched out on his back on the ground and propped up on his lower arms. "But I've got more exams next week than all of them together."

"An' fe' pulling that off, ye deserve one afternoon o' fun", Shizuku concluded from his spot on a rock next to the shrine stairs.

"An' it'll be my last day in True Cross Town", Kasumi added with a knowing smirk. "After that I head out east."

"Now that you put it that way…" Shiro let his wolfish smile reach full potential. "Careful, though: prolonged exposure to me might delay your departure."

"Just can't keep ye'self from playin' with fire, can ye?" Shizuku guffawed, but showed no signs of disapproving the approach. "Yer own fault if ye get burnt. Ye might wanna know", he added with a wicked glint in his eyes, "ye've got competition~"

"Stuff it, Shizzy."

There really was-? Pff, of course there was. Kasumi travelled the entire length and width of Japan, and she was cute to boot. There was no way there wasn't some guy somewhere who'd-

Shiro had one of those awkward moments of perspective as the realisation hit him right in the face. 'Some other guy?' Kasumi met hundreds of guys, and unless they had marbles for eyeballs at least half of them must be flirting with her. He was just one of many: he was 'some other guy'. She probably didn't even-

"Ye should see yer face." Shizuku wore a grin that showed at least two- no, wait; maybe three molars. "How many times 'ave ya been proposed to, Kasu? I stopped countin' when I started at True Cross, but it was at least eight."

"I've only had one more since then. From that guy."

"Oh~ that guy?" When Shizuku spotted material for teasing he looked exactly like his sister. "S'that what kept ye an extra day with the Futotsukis~?"

Kasumi whacked him over the shoulder with her staff.

"What guy?" Shiro's big mouth asked for him. "Great. That's one good thing closing my heart does: words don't fucking fly out of my mouth before I can think."

"No guy." Kasumi used her staff like a rapier to jab the laughing Shizuku rapidly wherever openings presented themselves. "Just some asshat that's too dumb ta get a hint an' too naïve ta get properly told off." An unsuccessful dodge saw Shizuku hitting the ground. "An' that's not what had me delayed."

"Hey hey hey, I surrenda'! I surrenda'! Shit, man…" Shizuku rubbed his assaulted ribs, still chortling. "If Makoto-san knew how violent ye are, he'd save 'imself the trouble." He picked himself up and sat down on the grass next to Kasumi. "What kept ya, then?"

"I trekked from the Futotsukis an' down here: passed St. Nicholas on the way." The mirth immediately evaporated from Shizuku's face, and his shoulders sank a few centimetres. "They were still diggin' out the bodies, so I volunteered ta help."

"St. Nicholas…?" Again, words were out of Shiro's mouth before he could think. Like a reflex. A reflex that made something flicker in the back of his mind although he couldn't quite grasp it. The name didn't feel familiar on his tongue; yet he had reacted as if it were…

"Orphanage, northwest-west between True Cross Town an' the Futotsuki's territory", Shizuku summarized in sombre tones, and looked back to Kasumi. "I heard it was pretty bad."

"All bad an' none pretty. It struck in the middle o' night when everybody was asleep an' brought the place down like a card house." Haggard sadness, raw and sudden, discoloured Kasumi's pixie face. "Ninety-two dead, no survivors."

"What struck? Demons…?"

"Oh, that's right: ye were away when it happened", Shizuku recalled. "Earthquake. St. Nicholas was built ta hold fe' that – it wasn't even a big one, but the orphanage was at the epicentre. An' it just collapsed."

St. Nicholas.

"There's something about that name."

"Well, it's a good thing the place was so isolated", Kasumi's voice drifted vaguely through his ears while his thoughts were busy elsewhere. "Nothin' else around that could be damaged. Ye gotta be grateful fe' the small blessings."

"I've heard that before; but why would that…?"

"I prayed fe' them, when I heard about it on the news. 's the kind o' thing that makes ye wish ye coulda' done more, but…"

St. Nicholas

Why did that ring a bell?

St. Nicholas

Why was that name important?

St. Nicholas

Why did he feel like he really ought to remember…?

St. Nicho-

"Guys, I… need to get back to studying." Immediately. "If I'm gonna have that free afternoon with you at the market, that is." He stumbled up on his feet, glad he could blame the leg for the unsteadiness. "I've had a great day, really, but duty calls." Oh, it sure did. "Thanks. I'll see you around."

Shiro walked at fast pace down the sloping trail. Once he'd rounded a turn and was out of sight, he jogged. When his thoughts were done processing, he ran.

Orphanage. Earthquake. Festival. Futotsuki meeting.

"I see them."

Strings thin as spider web, winding into the shadows; he wouldn't have noticed them, if he hadn't been at that meeting and seen them pulled.

strings hidden in the darkness

"If it really is you…"

connecting one thing to another

"…if you did what I think you did…"

weaving coincidences into skilful geometry

"…then you have things to explain, Mephisto."

with the spider at the nexus

A/N:

Ring a bell: recall something.