Note: Thanks for the reviews lol Glad to provide you with some more angst ;) (And LOL Aofery. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up, ha ha.)

Chapter 2

When Hiyori traipsed up to Kofuku's shrine, Yukine was already sitting out in front. She almost walked right past him because her phone was absolutely exploding, thanks to Yato and a barrage of texts that had started two hours ago and continued since then without ceasing, and she was typing out a quick message to let him know she was here. He was awfully excited at the prospect of a group outing to a new restaurant that had just opened across town—an outing that Hiyori would end up paying for, no doubt—and it was such a benign idea for him that Hiyori was a bit worried that he had other crazy plans cooking in his brain for afterwards.

Her feet slowed to a stop, and her finger hovered above the send button. Yukine was sitting with his back to the front of the shrine, his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them as he frowned down at the ground. Hiyori eyed him for a few seconds and then turned off the screen, ignoring the chime of another incoming text.

"Yukine?" she asked. "Are you alright?"

He started and looked up. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine." He laughed a little awkwardly. "Just hiding from Yato while we wait for you. He's going crazy in there."

"Did something happen?" Hiyori slipped her phone into her pocket and walked over to sit down beside him. "Is he still watching you like a hawk?"

Yato had been sticking to Yukine and Hiyori closer than glue since the incident last week, insisting on doing things together whenever possible. Yukine had it even worse than Hiyori, since he lived with the god. And although Yato seemed as exuberant as ever and never voiced a reason for his sudden heightened clinginess, it was obvious that he was feeling excessively protective of his shinki these days.

"Yeah." Yukine smiled thinly and looked back down at the ground. "And it's even worse than usual because he was having nightmares last night. He talks and moves around in his sleep so much that it's kind of hard to miss. He was saying her name a lot and… I don't know, but it didn't sound good.

"I think he's so hyped up because he's trying to distract himself. You know, he gets all crazy and clingy sometimes when he's trying to avoid thinking about stuff." He raised his eyebrows as Hiyori's phone chimed twice more. "That's probably why he's being such a nuisance, by the way."

Hiyori ran her fingers over the hard lump in her pocket as it vibrated and chimed again. It made sense. Yato was the kind of person who often seemed to get more and more frenetic the more upset he got, until he ran himself into the ground and had to face whatever he was running away from. And he hadn't stopped to breathe since the incident.

He had only given Hiyori the barest skeleton of what had happened, nothing more than "Izanami sent an ayakashi spelled with a glamour to try tricking me back down to Yomi, but I killed it," but she had gotten the full story from Yukine. Yukine had recounted every action and word in excruciating detail once Yato had left the room. Yato hadn't expressed any obvious lingering effects after how out of sorts he had been that first day, but if Hiyori had any doubts about how bad it had been, all she had to do was see how shaken up Yukine was about the whole thing.

And knowing what she knew about Sakura, she could feel Yato's heartbreak even if he didn't show it. She wanted to do something to comfort him, but she didn't know how to explain that she had somehow seen a handful of his memories shortly after his return from the underworld. On the one hand, the encounter convinced her that those really had been memories and she wasn't just going crazy, but she wasn't sure what Yato's reaction would be if she told him. She just knew that he wouldn't want her to have seen those things and glimpsed his most private memories. And she couldn't tell Yukine what she knew, because Sakura's horrible fate was fresh in her mind and she couldn't risk that happening to him.

All in all, she felt pretty helpless.

"I'm sure he'll be okay," she said gently. "Just give him a few days to collect himself." She felt bad as the words left her mouth, knowing that centuries hadn't healed those wounds and a few days was unlikely to do anything but bury them again. But Yato was tough and resilient. He would be alright. "How are you holding up?"

Yukine hugged his knees closer and dropped his chin onto them as he stared out at the street. "I'm okay."

"Are you okay with, um…?" Hiyori cleared her throat awkwardly. "You know, him being so preoccupied with her?"

Yukine could get a little weird and insecure when it came to Yato's other shinki, although maybe it was mostly just stemming from the insecurity Nora's continued presence had evoked. He had seemed more relaxed since Yato had released her, but Hiyori had the feeling that he preferred being the god's only shinki in every sense of the word.

"Hm?" Yukine frowned as he cut a glance in her direction. "I'm not going to hold it against him that he had another shinki a long time ago that he loved enough to mourn."

Hiyori turned red and stumbled over her words as she tried to cover up her misstep. "S-sorry, I…ah… I didn't mean…"

"In a way, it's kind of good, I guess," Yukine mumbled as he returned his gaze to the ground. "I mean, if he loved her that much, she must have loved him too, right? It's good that he had someone who cared about him when the only other people he had were his dad and Nora. At least he had someone, even if it didn't end well."

She swallowed. Sakura was probably even more important than Yukine realized, both for giving Yato the love he needed and teaching him a different way of life. But the way Yato had been manipulated into bringing about her demise would have broken him in a way Yukine couldn't understand without knowing the whole story.

"I suppose so," Hiyori said.

"And he must've loved her a lot, you know? I don't…" Yukine hunched his shoulders around his ears. "I've never seen him cry like that. And he knew it was an ayakashi, but he was still going to… To still love someone that much after centuries is…really powerful, I guess. Even if it has to hurt a lot. I can't take that away even if I wanted to. I don't really know what I'm supposed to do, though. It feels like part of his life that I have no place in."

Hiyori smiled a little sadly. Yukine had really grown up a lot. She knew this wasn't easy on him either, watching Yato, normally so indestructible and unfazed, fall apart and then cover it up like it had never happened. Yukine took his purpose of protecting Yato very seriously, but it was hard to protect someone from something that had happened centuries ago and left scars that ran deeper than the skin.

"Yato's tough," Hiyori said. "He'll be okay. I'm sure you're helping lots. You're always there for him, and he likes having you around. All you have to do is be there."

Yukine was quiet for a long moment, with only the incessant chiming of Hiyori's phone to break the stillness, and dug his fingers into his legs. "Speaking of which," he said finally, "you should probably tell him that you're here. He's really set on this outing."

Hiyori nodded. "If you're ready. But if you ever need anything, if you're having a hard time or anything, you can always talk to me."

He offered her a wan smile. "Thanks, Hiyori."

She nodded again and pulled out her phone. Ignoring the long list of unread messages, she sent the text she had failed to send before. She had about three seconds to collect herself before the door flew open beside her and Yato stuck his head out.

"Heeey, Hiyori!" he chirped. "About time you showed up. I can't find Yuki– Oh, you were out here?" Tension she hadn't even noticed until its disappearance melted off his face and out of the stiffness of his shoulders as he spotted Yukine sitting next to her. "Wonderful, we're finally all here. Let's go!"

Hiyori stood, Yukine following suit beside her, and barely had time to stick her phone back in her pocket before Yato swooped down on them. Flinging his arms around their shoulders despite the very real threat of a jungle savate and other unspecified maiming, he steered them down the street and chattered cheerfully. Hiyori let it go for a few minutes before shrugging his arm off, and she resisted her normal impulse to hit him out of considerations for what Yukine had told her about the nightmares. Yukine himself was fairly subdued and escaped Yato's grasp without putting up a fuss.

"How did that thing with your friends go yesterday?" Yato asked, throwing a grin in Hiyori's direction as he strolled down the sidewalk. "Have fun?"

Hiyori was glad she had planned her outing with Ami and Yama for yesterday instead of today. Yato's clingy mood would have been a lot harder to handle.

"Yeah, we had a great time," she said. "A new amusement park opened up. They have a lot of great rides and things. Maybe the three of us could go next weekend!"

Yato's eyes shone bright with skepticism. "No capypers?"

Hiyori sighed but smiled a little tiredly despite herself. "No capypers, but it's fun anyway."

"I don't see the point," Yato muttered. "We could just go back to Capyper Land instead."

Hiyori hid her instinctive wince. She had never quite gotten over Fujisaki's unwanted kiss there, and it had only been a thousand times worse when she discovered he was actually Yato's father. She wouldn't mind going again with Yato and Yukine someday—and could hopefully enjoy it without making a nuisance of herself like last time—but maybe not quite yet.

"Not everything has to have capypers," Yukine said, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, capypers aren't–" He caught Hiyori's warning glare and subsided with a cough.

"Capypers aren't what?" Yato asked.

"Uh… Capypers aren't going to be in the restaurant either, but you want to go anyway. There can be fun things without them. I think it would be a lot of fun to go to a theme park."

Yato tilted his head as he regarded Yukine with searching eyes and then brightened considerably. "Well, if you want to go, then we can go! Even if there aren't capypers."

He ruffled Yukine's hair and grinned, while Yukine flushed and shied away. Hiyori smiled as she watched them. They made a cute little family.

"Sounds like a plan!" she said.

"Whatever," Yukine grumbled, drawing a snicker from Yato.

"Anyway," said Yato, "we–" He broke off suddenly and stopped right in the middle of the sidewalk. An uneasy look passed over his face as he glanced around.

"Yato?" Hiyori asked. "Is everything alright?"

He hesitated a moment longer before shaking his head. "Yeah, just– Look out!" His gaze snapped downward, and he bit out a curse as he lunged at Hiyori and shoved her hard.

"Hey!" she cried as she stumbled to the side and toppled over on the ground.

She whipped back around as a loud rumbling, cracking sound split the air, and caught a glimpse of Yato and Yukine disappearing into the jagged fissure that suddenly ate through the sidewalk. Yukine's startled cry echoed back up.

Hiyori stared in shock, unable to believe her eyes. She scrambled over to the crack, which was already sealing up at a rapid rate. A vent? No ayakashi had poured out, but what else could it be? And with the events of last week… Yato had assured them that should be the end of it and Izanami couldn't do much outside of Yomi, but Hiyori suddenly wondered if part of the reason he'd been keeping such a close eye on them was because he was afraid that the queen of the underworld might try something else after all.

The vent was so deep and black that she couldn't see her fallen friends in the void, and it was sealing itself up so quickly that it was almost nonexistent by the time her brain snapped out of its shock and remembered what she was supposed to do.

"Yaboku! Yukine!"

Concrete closed over the hole, solid and unrelenting. Nothing happened.

Hiyori shook her head in denial, panic and desperation gripping her heart. "Yaboku!" she cried, pounding on the sidewalk with her fists. "Yukine!"

The ground didn't budge, and the only thing she accomplished was bruising her hands. How could she have been so stupid? If she had just called them a few seconds earlier, they would be safe. But she had frozen and wasted precious moments waiting for her brain to catch up to the situation, and now the vent was closed. She had wasted her chance to use a soul call to bring them back.

"Are you alright?" asked a middle-aged woman, leaning over a little to get a look at Hiyori's face.

Her eyes were wide with concern, and Hiyori started in surprise and looked around to see that people were giving her strange looks and a wide berth as they hurried past. Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized she'd just made a spectacle of herself falling to her hands and knees in the middle of the sidewalk and yelling at the ground. For half a second, she wished she had ditched her body beforehand. And then immediately berated herself for worrying about something so silly when Yato and Yukine had just fallen into the underworld with no way out.

"Fine," she squeaked, jumping to her feet and brushing the grit off her knees. "I just…uh…" Her eyes widened. "I have to go!"

She spun on her heel and raced back down the street, leaving the concerned passerby to stare after her in confusion.

If she wanted to do a soul call, she needed a vent. And if she needed a vent, she needed Kofuku and Daikoku.

Her heartbeat pounded loud and fast in her ears as she flew back to the shrine, thudding against her ribcage in time to the beat of her feet slapping the pavement. She needed to rescue her friends as soon as possible. Yato had faced Yomi before and come back a mess. He had never said much about his time there, but his eyes had been haunted long after the wounds slashed across his skin had finally faded. And now Yukine was trapped there as well, to face it with him. Hiyori would do anything to steal them back from Izanami.

"Kofuku!" she cried past her heaving breaths as she slammed the door open and stumbled inside a few steps before bracing her hands on her knees. "Daikoku!"

"Hmmm? Hiyorin? You're back early. Is–?" Kofuku stuck her head around the corner and blinked at the panting girl. "Hiyorin? What's wrong?"

"Yato," Hiyori wheezed past gasping breaths. "Yukine. Vent…fell… Need…need you…to open a vent."

"A vent?" Kofuku asked with a frown. "I'm not really supposed to open vents."

"Calm down," Daikoku added as he stepped out of the doorway behind Kofuku. "Take a breath and tell us what happened. Are you okay?"

Hiyori sucked in a few deep breaths until she remembered how to speak again, and then recounted the story in a jumble of panicked rambling that was still disjointed but more intelligible this time.

"You have to open a vent," she repeated. Trembling fingers clutched the fabric of her skirts at her sides. "I need to do a soul call again to bring them back."

"It closed up that fast?" Kofuku asked. Worry shone bright in her eyes as she exchanged a look with Daikoku. "She might be sealing off the underworld again. We had trouble keeping a vent open last time too."

"I only need a few seconds now that I know how to call them."

Kofuku nodded. "Right. Let's go. We need to get Yato-chan and Yukki back as soon as possible."

Hiyori agreed wholeheartedly and was already out the door and halfway down the street before Daikoku called after her.

"Where are you going?"

She turned back, rocking impatiently on her heels. "It happened this way."

He shook his head. "We can't open a vent in the middle of the city. If ayakashi start pouring out, we don't want it to be right in the middle of a whole crowd of people. We'll go outside town."

"But–"

"Places closer to the Far Shore work differently," Kofuku said. "We can call Yato-chan and Yukki from wherever we open a vent. It doesn't have to be at the same place where they fell."

Hiyori wavered, every muscle in her body straining to run back to where her friends had disappeared, but then hurried back to Kofuku and Daikoku. They had a point about intentionally opening vents in the city, even if Izanami might be closing the vents too quickly for ayakashi to escape. Better safe than sorry.

She followed Kofuku and Daikoku as they raced in the other direction, on the shortest path to the city limits. They made it several streets over before Kofuku came to a screeching stop. Hiyori nearly ran straight into her before stumbling to a hasty halt.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "We need to go!"

"Let's get Bisha since we're here." Kofuku pointed to the shrine they were about to run past and hurried across the street to step inside.

"Bishamon?" Hiyori asked. She itched to run, and Kofuku's sudden break was absolutely frustrating. They didn't have time for silly diversions now, not when Yato and Yukine were in trouble. "You can talk to her later. Come on, we need to hurry!"

"If the vent starts spitting out ayakashi, it would be a good idea to have her around to fight them off. I don't know if she's in, but it can't hurt to take a second to try." Kofuku drew in a deep breath and cupped her hands around her mouth as she called, "Bisha!"

"Anyway, she's the only other one of us who has been in Yomi," Daikoku added as he followed after Kofuku. "Don't know if it'll help anything, but it can't hurt."

Hiyori sighed and joined them, still bouncing impatiently on her heels. Their logic made sense—again—but she didn't want to wait on anything that wasn't strictly necessary to their rescue mission. Kofuku called for Bishamon a couple more times, and Hiyori was just about to suggest that they head on up to Takamagahara and drag the goddess out of her mansion when she finally appeared with Kazuma at her side, as usual.

"What is it?" she asked, eyeing the trio with narrowed eyes. "I'm in the middle of–"

"We're going to open a vent," Kofuku said with no trace of her usual bubbly smile on her face. "We're going to do it outside the city, but we thought we'd see if you wanted to come along to do some damage control."

Bishamon's eyebrows nearly jumped right up off her forehead. "You're going to open a vent? Absolutely not. What are you thinking? You can't just–"

"Yato-chan and Yukki are in trouble."

"Yato is always in trouble. What does that have to do with–?"

"A vent opened right underneath them," Hiyori interrupted, willing Bishamon to listen. "They fell. I would have too, but Yato pushed me and… The vent closed before I could call them back. We need to open another one so I can do a soul call."

Bishamon's irritation evaporated like the morning dew under a hot sun, and concern darkened her eyes as she and Kazuma exchanged a meaningful look.

"Izanami," said Kazuma.

Bishamon shook her head slowly. "It has to be, after that…thing. She was obviously looking for a way to get him back into Yomi, I just didn't realize she could interfere so much with the surface."

"We have to hurry," Hiyori said, shifting on her heels and dancing a couple steps down the street.

"Agreed," Bishamon said in an unusually solemn tone. "There are ways to force people to stay in Yomi forever, soul call or not. Just let me grab a few shinki in case we do have to fight."

She disappeared before Hiyori could protest.

"What does that mean?" Hiyori asked. "How…?"

Kazuma shrugged and frowned at the ground. "For one, eating any of Yomi's food will trap you down there forever. And Izanami rules the underworld absolutely. She's impossible to fight and controls every aspect of that place. If she doesn't want you to leave… Well, it's extremely difficult to escape." He noticed Hiyori's wide-eyed anxiety and offered her a wan smile that might have been meant to be reassuring. "But as long as they don't eat anything, a soul call should work. They'll be fine."

Hiyori sure hoped so, but her companions were all looking rather grim in their determination, which only served to further unsettle her. Every second Bishamon was gone felt like nails on Hiyori's skin, pins and needles up and down her spine. Each one was a second they could be using to pull Yato and Yukine out of Izanami's hell. Yukine would be so scared, trapped in the dark in a place no child belonged, and Yato… Well, Hiyori wasn't sure what Yato would face, exactly, but all past evidence pointed to something dark and painful.

Bishamon shimmered back into view with Kuraha by her side in lion form. She carried her whip and pistols and wore the armor she'd worn into Yomi last time.

"Better safe than sorry," she said when she caught Hiyori looking. "Come, Chouki. Let's go."

She was already hopping onto Kuraha's back and urging him forward as Kazuma disappeared, and Hiyori rushed after her in a tangle of limbs. The group moved fast, but Hiyori still felt every second ticking in her chest like a bomb waiting to explode. Everything would be fine, she knew. All she had to do was–

"Wait," she gasped as she pelted around a corner and looked between the two goddesses with horrified eyes. "Can you soul call a shinki?"

"Of course," Bishamon said dismissively, not slowing. "Why wouldn't–? Oh." A small crease appeared between her eyes as she exchanged a look with Kofuku.

That wasn't what Hiyori wanted to hear. She had been hoping Bishamon could provide a god's reassurance that everything would work just fine.

She really knew very little about soul calls, although theoretically they should work on shinki. But to make it work, you had to call someone's true name. It was why summoning Yato back hadn't worked until she'd figured out 'Yaboku'. But a shinki's true name was their god's greatest secret, and she had seen what had happened to Sakura when it was revealed. What name was needed for a shinki's soul call? Their true name or the name their god had given them? Hiyori had no way of knowing Yukine's true name, and certainly wouldn't risk calling it even if she did.

Nora had gone to Yomi with Yato but hadn't come back with him. But she had reappeared later, so she must have escaped somehow. Hiyori didn't know if it was through a soul call—although it made sense since Yato's father was human and only humans could perform one—but it was a distinct possibility. And Nora was a stray. Which of her many names would have called her back? Would any of them do, as long as they were written on her skin and bound to her soul? Would only certain ones work? Would it have to be the name that had been bestowed upon her during her life? And if the last, did that mean she wouldn't be affected by her true name like Sakura?

Hiyori's heart sank like a stone. What if she couldn't save Yukine?

"Why wouldn't it work?" Daikoku asked.

Kofuku shook her head and whipped around a corner. "It will work. It has to."

"We can at least try," Bishamon said grimly. "I'm sure it will be fine. But if it doesn't work, we'll find another way."

Hiyori swallowed hard and picked up the pace again. It was going to work. It had to. Bishamon's shinki had all come back with her last time, so as long as Yato was wielding Sekki, none of this should even be a problem. She was probably worrying over nothing.

"Now!" she wheezed as they broke free of the city limits.

"A little further," Kofuku said.

She dragged them along until she was satisfied, then summoned Kokki and snapped the fan shut to stab at the earth in a swift, vicious movement. The ground cracked apart, and Hiyori was already on her knees in the dirt before Kofuku stepped back.

"Yaboku!" she called into the crevasse. "Yukine!"

Everything was still and silent, with only her own voice and pounding heartbeat echoing in her ears. No ayakashi emerged, no gloom or fierce whirlwinds. And neither did Yato and Yukine.

"It didn't bore all the way into Yomi?" Kofuku asked, her eyes widening in disbelief. The gash in the earth was already sealing itself back together at a rapid rate, but the soul call should have worked—if the vent had broken through to the underworld, of which there was no indication. "Impossible!"

"Try again!" Hiyori said. "If you keep doing it in the same spot, I'm sure you can break through."

Kofuku was already thrusting Kokki downward again, at the spot where every trace of her first attempt had already been obliterated.

"Yukine! Yaboku!"

Another half-formed vent slashed through the ground, but it was healing before Kofuku could try again. No matter how many times she tried, no matter how many times Hiyori called, the vent never reached the underworld and Yato and Yukine never appeared.

"I don't understand," Kofuku said through tears Hiyori hadn't realized she'd been shedding. "I can't bore through. And every time I try, it's shallower and shallower."

"Just keep trying," Hiyori rasped, her voice scraping along a throat rubbed hoarse from screaming.

"Hiyorin…"

"Izanami has total control of Yomi," Bishamon said grimly from where she was watching a few steps away. "She forced Kofuku's vents closed more quickly than usual before, and now it seems like she's even more determined to keep them out. She knows we were rescued with soul calls last time, so she's working to prevent that from being possible again. I didn't realize she could stop it entirely."

"We have to keep trying," Hiyori said, her voice wavering. "All we need is for her control to lapse for a couple seconds, and I can call them."

"Maybe we should go to Yomi's entrance," Bishamon mused.

Hiyori stared at her like she'd grown a second head. "Why? It was sealed last time—Yukine and I checked before finding the vent Ebisu opened. Izanami would have sealed it again."

"I'm sure, but if anything happens that could give us the opportunity to sneak in that way, we'll miss it if we aren't there."

"It's too far! Why waste the time going there when we should be trying to–?"

"We're increasing our odds," Bishamon said evenly. "We'll at least have another option to look into. There are only two ways we can get them out: manage to open a vent and do a soul call or find a way in through the entrance. There are only two ways they can get out: find a way to open a vent like Ebisu or sneak out the entrance. All of those options are currently blocked, but we give ourselves better chances if we leave them all open. If they find a way to make a vent and escape that way, they could be spit out anywhere. If they find a way to get out through the entrance, that's where they'll end up. We can try making vents and doing soul calls from anywhere, but we can only watch for an opening at the entrance if we're at the entrance. That's the only place we could possibly meet up or explore that option."

"I agree with Bisha," Kofuku said, swiping her sleeve across her nose. "We aren't having any luck right now anyway. We can try again near the entrance."

"We won't leave anyone trapped in Yomi," Bishamon promised. Steel glinted in her eyes and whispered along the edge of her voice. "Not even that stupid bastard Yato."

Hiyori nodded, but that steely edge had flaked off the edge of her determination. She was frightened and feeling terribly, terribly hopeless. But there was no way she would give up, no way she would leave Yato and Yukine to rot away in the underworld.

She was absolutely going to call them back.

Note: Tbh, this chapter is more for set-up and bridging purposes, but it had to be done. All the fun stuff comes next :D