Note: Thanks for the reviews :) About the questions on updates... I used to keep a pretty consistent posting schedule, but a while back I posted a reaaally long story and it started stressing me out, so I picked up a way more flexible schedule so that I'm posting when I want to rather than when I feel pressured to. I usually post chapters within three to seven days. Sorry X)

Chapter 3

Yato crashed into the ground after an impossibly long fall. Hard, slick stone scraped against his skin, and the impact jarred his injured arm and sent pain zipping up every nerve. It had been healing nicely up until now, but his entire upper arm and shoulder were throbbing again.

Yukine's wail cut off with a sharp exhale as he slammed into Yato, who was ground into the stone floor under the shinki's weight. The air was driven from his lungs again as his forehead thunked against the ground and his back bowed where Yukine was draped across him in a gasping puddle.

A wheezing cough rattled in Yato's throat as he caught his breath. The pleasant aroma of decay and fetid, dank air burned his nostrils and scraped down his throat. It was distressingly familiar.

"Ow," he moaned. "You alright, Yukine?"

"S-sorry," Yukine stammered between rapid breaths. The sound of his hyperventilating was loud and harsh in the stagnant stillness of the air, and Yato's chest constricted as the shinki's fear wrapped strings around his heart and sent it tap dancing along his ribs like a crazed puppet. "Wh-what–? What happened? Where…?"

He scrambled off Yato's back, and the god sat up with a sigh of relief. Yato squinted against the gloom shrouding the cavern—undoubtedly one of the many, admittedly good, reasons Yukine looked like he wanted to curl up in a ball and pull the covers over his head—and glanced around, but he didn't see or hear Hiyori anywhere. Good. She must still be on the surface. The underworld wasn't any place for humans, and keeping her alive down here and getting her out again would be far more difficult than finding a way to get Yukine out. Also, having her up top to do a soul call considerably increased their chances of escape.

"Welcome to Yomi," Yato said as he picked himself up off the ground and held down his left hand to pull Yukine up with his uninjured arm. "I guess you'll get the tour today."

Yukine's eyes glinted in the twilit gloom, wide and frightened. "Yomi?"

"How nice of you to drop in," said a new voice, low and feminine.

Yato clenched his jaw and turned on his heel in a smooth, unhurried motion. Fear hadn't quite caught up to him yet, and Yukine already had enough for the both of them. No, he was seething with a quiet anger. In some small corner of his mind he had been half-expecting something like this, but dragging Yukine into it was going much too far.

Izanami glided out of the shadows all by her lonesome, although Yato knew that would change the instant he upset her and she lost it again. But she was going to try charming them first, just like before. A delicate glamour was laid overtop her graying bones and mess of stringy hair.

Unsurprisingly, she had taken on the appearance of Hiyori again, but Yato's teeth ground together with the gritty scraping of bone on bone as he noted that more elements of Sakura had been incorporated into the illusion: the cut of the hair, the shape of the eyes, the angles of the face. He supposed that shouldn't be a surprise either, since Sakura had very much been on his mind recently. Maybe he shouldn't blame Izanami directly since her glamour was picking and choosing from his own mind, but he very much did.

"Hi-Hiyori?" Yukine squeaked in disbelief. No surprise there. Hiyori was one of the people he felt most comfortable with too, which meant he would be seeing something similar to Yato.

Yato stepped in front of Yukine protectively, and small hands clutched at the back of his jacket.

He ran his unfriendly gaze over the goddess's glamour. It held little power over him anymore, and it didn't leave him unsettled the same way the ayakashi's had. This was undoubtedly Izanami wearing someone else's face, and she knew nothing about the faces she borrowed. Underneath the mask, it was still her.

The ayakashi was more unsettling because it was an empty vessel filled with his own knowledge and feelings about someone he loved. It had become a model of Sakura by pulling bits and pieces out of his mind to create a frighteningly lifelike likeness, whereas Izanami knew nothing about Hiyori or Sakura and borrowed only their physical appearance from his memories. She still acted like herself instead of like them, and that made it easier to keep the distance between them.

But that didn't mean Yato liked that she dared to wear their faces. Hot anger coiled tight and low in his belly, while resentment simmered like embers waiting to ignite.

"Absolutely not," he said. "This is the glamour I was talking about. She takes on the guise of someone you feel comfortable with so that you'll stay with her. Meet Izanami."

"Izanami," Yukine repeated in a faint voice. An ache started up behind Yato's eyes, sharp and throbbing.

"I'm going to ignore the horrible pun," Yato told Izanami coldly. "Visits are always fun, but it's not nice to overstay your welcome, so we'll be taking our leave shortly."

Izanami pouted. "But you only just arrived. At least have something to eat." She reached into the shadows and pulled out a platter piled high with steaming rice and fish to offer them.

"No." Yato knew well what hid beneath that illusion, and he could almost smell the cloyingly sweet stench of rot tickling his nostrils. "I thought I told you to stay away from my shinki."

Izanami tilted her head, her gaze sliding past Yato to catch on some stray bit of Yukine poking out from behind him. Yato bared his teeth at her and shifted to conceal his kid from view as best he could.

"He looks like such a sweet little thing," she murmured. Her eyes widened ever so slightly as her pupils dilated in a strange way that was jarring against the rest of the glamour. "The more friends, the better."

"Send him back," Yato said sharply. "He has nothing to do with this, and he was never part of the deal. I won't negotiate with you unless you let him go."

"What?" Fingers tightened in Yato's jacket, pulling the fabric taut. "I won't leave without–!"

"You care," Izanami observed. Her face lit up in a smile. "He's your friend?"

"Something like that," Yato muttered. More than that, but she didn't need to know that.

Her eyebrows drew together in a puzzled expression. "Then why do you want him to leave? Shouldn't you want your friends to stay with you?"

Yato watched her with a mixture of pity and disgust. "I see why you have such a hard time making friends. Of course I want him to stay with me, but not down here. You're supposed to want what's best for your friends, even if sometimes that means letting them go."

"I don't understand," Izanami said, shaking her head. "Friends are supposed to stay with you forever."

There was a feverish gleam to her eyes that Yato didn't like, and he saw no point in arguing philosophy or morals with her. She was more than a little insane after all these centuries of isolation, and probably long past the point of saving.

"Just send him back and we can talk."

"Yato," Yukine hissed. "What are you doing? You can't stay down here without protection."

Yato ignored him. He was more interested in Izanami's response, in seeing where her fragile state of mind was right now. He doubted she would give him such an easy out, but it couldn't hurt to try. He was going to get Yukine out of this mess one way or another, no matter what it took.

"More friends would be nice, but the deal was for you," Izanami said with a sigh. "If you stay, he can go."

Yato's breath escaped his lips in an almost silent whoosh of air. A sigh of relief he hadn't realized he had been holding.

This was better than he had expected. He could buy Yukine's way out of here now, and then he just had to stick it out until Hiyori had the chance to do a soul call.

"Fine," he said. "Let him go and we'll chat."

"Yato," Yukine said again. He tugged on the god's jacket hard. An aching pain was working its way out from Yato's heart.

Izanami's smile had returned, wider than ever. "Not so fast, little god. I'm on to your tricks. Your friend can leave…after you have a meal with me. We wouldn't want you changing your mind and running off again, would we?"

She drifted closer, abandoning the far side of the cavern to offer Yato the plate again. Yato stayed defiantly still despite every nerve in his body twitching with the urge to step back, and Yukine's fear increased exponentially as he clung to him.

"What are we going to do?" Yukine whispered.

"How do I know you'd keep your end of the bargain?" Yato asked, stalling for time. He had no intention of giving up this early, not until he had exhausted all his other options, but he had very little bargaining power at the moment.

"Just because you break the deals you make doesn't mean that I will," Izanami said. For a second, her voice slithered and clicked like an ayakashi's underneath the glamour before settling back into Hiyori's. "I'll release the child if you stay and be my friend. It won't be so bad, my dear Yato. It will be so nice to have company. And you can even keep your friend, if you want. What did you call him? Yukine?"

Her free hand dipped into her robes and emerged with a slender brush held loosely between her fingers and a scrap of paper that she pressed against the plate. The brush swept across the page in smooth, well-practiced strokes, and the familiar symbol of an eye stayed inked there for a moment before peeling away from the parchment.

"Yuki," said the goddess in a breath like a sigh.

A quick flash of an otherworldly blue-green was the only glimpse Yato got of the ayakashi before the glamour settled over it and he found himself staring at Yukine. A strangled sort of sound gurgled in the back of his throat.

"You wouldn't leave me here, would you?" The thing that looked like Yukine tilted its head, soulless amber eyes boring into the god. It took the plate from Izanami. "It's alright," it said in Yukine's voice. "I'll stay with you."

Izanami laughed in delight. "Ta-da! Now you can keep him!"

"Oh, that is so wrong," Yukine said. "Creepy. Get my face off that thing. Hey, Yato? Snap out of it. That's obviously not me. I'm right here."

Izanami clicked her tongue in a way that made her skeletal teeth rattle out of sight in the skull buried beneath the magic. "Silly child. It is you, in all the ways that matter. Isn't that true, my dear Yato? It has his name, his face, and everything you fill him with. Everything you love about him is there. It's the him you know. Oh, we can make lots of friends! You do have other friends, don't you? We can bring them all to life down here to keep us company!"

Yato was transfixed by the monster masquerading as his kid. The horrible thing was that Izanami was right, in a way, even if she was also wrong.

"Don't do this to me again," he mumbled.

He was on guard and knew better than to let the fetch rattle him after last time, but it was looking at him with Yukine's eyes.

Pull yourself together, you fool, he told himself harshly.

This thing might look like Yukine, talk like Yukine, act like Yukine, be the spitting image of everything Yukine was to Yato, but it was still an ayakashi under Izanami's control. The Yukine that mattered was still clinging to Yato like the frightened child he was.

"I'm right here," Yukine snapped.

"It's dark," Not-Yukine whispered, trapping Yato's focus with his glittering glass eyes as he closed the distance between them and held out the plate of rotten food. "I'm scared, Yato. Don't leave me here."

Yato's breath hitched in his throat. Yes, he could feel Yukine's fear like chilly fingers stroking his spine and an erratic pounding in his chest. But not that Yukine's fear.

"No deal," he rasped, cutting a glare at the twisted smile on Izanami's face.

He whipped around, sending Yukine stumbling with a yelp, and grabbed the kid's arm.

"H-hey!" Yukine stammered.

Yato pressed his lips in a tight line and ran for the dark mouth of a tunnel dug into the wall of the cavern, dragging Yukine along with him. The shinki found his feet and started running as well.

Behind them, Izanami let out a screech of pure, unadulterated fury. "Where do you think you're going?" she screamed after them, the glamour dropping away to reveal the grating, hissing voice beneath. "You'll never escape here, little god!"

Yukine cried out and went crashing to the ground. He was jerked out of Yato's grasp, and the god's fingers closed on air.

"Yato!"

Yato spun around and spit out a curse as he saw the rope of stringy black hair wrapped tight around Yukine's ankle. The shinki's fingers scrabbled at the stony floor as Izanami dragged him back across the rough ground. Yukine looked back over his shoulder and blanched at the sight of the skeletal queen without the glamour covering her bones. His fear was starting to make Yato lightheaded.

"Sekki!"

Izanami howled in fury once more as Yukine shimmered and vanished, leaving the loop of troublesome hair to close on nothing. Yato was already running again before the swords slid into his hands.

"There's no way out, little god!" Izanami yelled. Her voice bounced off the walls and echoed back in a discordant jumble of hissing words.

"You okay?" Yato asked as he darted down the passage.

"Y-yeah, but… What the hell?" Yukine squeaked.

Yato huffed out a laugh past his wheezing breaths. With Yukine's panic tightening his chest and sending his heart into palpitations, he was already short of breath and in a world of pain.

"There's a reason she uses glamours," he said. His footsteps reverberated in the still, dank air as his boots slapped against stone. "Stay sharp. She'll send her ghouls after us."

"Gh-ghouls?"

Yato didn't have breath to waste on explaining. A new tunnel opened up farther down the passage, and he turned off the main corridor. He was going to be hopelessly lost in a matter of minutes, but maybe it would help keep some of the baddies off their trail if he didn't stay on a straight path. Or maybe that was wishful thinking when Izanami and her goons had home field advantage and infested every inch of this underground prison.

A snakelike ayakashi lunged at him from the shadows, and he whipped up his dominant arm for a strike out of instinct. He regretted it instantly as pain clamped its jaws around his shoulder and went searing down his arm, but he managed to slash the sword across the beast before his arm fell back to his side limply. The handle felt like it was slipping from his grasp, and he tightened his fingers reflexively even though they were feeling numb and nerveless again.

"Are you okay?" Yukine asked.

"Fine."

Yato rushed headlong through the maze of tunnels, now more careful to use the other blade when taking out troublesome ayakashi. To be honest, Yukine's emotions were doing more damage than the injury, but it wasn't like Yato was going to tell the kid that and he didn't have time to try fixing anything right now.

He kept an ear open for sounds of pursuit, but the scrabbling and clattering sounds and echoes of Izanami's haunting voice had faded now. He was not foolish enough to think that meant they were out of danger, especially when he turned the corner to find a stretch of tunnel covered in several inches of black water. He skidded to a stop, the toes of his boots just touching the edge of the underground pool and sending small ripples skittering across the glassy surface.

"Well, shit," he muttered.

"What?" Yukine asked, his anxiety ratcheting up another notch. "What is it?"

"Izanami's favorites have this bad habit of popping up from water. Not that they aren't dangerous elsewhere too, but the water is their territory. Just…keep an eye out."

Yato took off again, boots splashing through the stagnant water as he raced down the passage. His heart thumped loudly against his ribcage and climbed into his throat like a heavy lump clogging his airway as every nerve in his body tensed in preparation for the feeling of clawed hands wrapping around his feet and dragging him down into the murky pool. His body hummed with anticipation, and he flew across the water with such speed that his boots barely touched the ground before taking off again. He wasn't going to make it easy for the ghouls to catch him.

He made it a couple hundred feet before the hands began snatching at the air just shy of his ankles. The dark-skinned women with their glowing eyes and sharp teeth rose from the water all around him, rivulets sliding off their blue-gray skin as they reached out and filled the air with a chorus of chittering hisses.

"What are those?" Yukine demanded, and the air fled Yato's lungs as the shinki's fear sent his heart into spasms again.

Yato pushed past Yukine's panic ruthlessly, having no time to spare for the child and his comfort. If he made one misstep, lost one second, he could be dragged down into the water and pulled back up right in front of Izanami again.

At least, some hysterical little corner of his mind thought, they weren't trying to eat him like when they'd pounced on Bishamon.

A hand closed around his foot, and he went crashing down into the water with a sharp cry. The once still pool was roiling with lithe, inhuman bodies that churned the water into a frothing frenzy. He coughed and gagged as he fought to keep his head out of the brackish liquid. Hands were clutching at him, at his arms and legs and clothing, and something sharp pierced his leg—holy shit, were they biting him?—and Yukine was yelling something, and everything devolved into chaos made worse by the tightness of Yato's chest and the shortness of his breath and the frantic whirling of both his and Yukine's emotions.

But he was absolutely not going to let these things drag him back to Izanami like this. He lashed out, feet kicking and swords slashing. A chorus of eerie chittering and screeching drowned out the splashing as he fought to free himself. Yukine was just as desperate, and seized control of the right blade with a vengeance once he realized Yato's movement was hindered by his injured arm. Yato choked back a cry as the shinki's exuberance sent sharp pains tearing through his arm, but the stratagem did the trick and pushed back the onslaught on that side, albeit with a great deal more pain on Yato's part than was ideal.

"Sorry, sorry," Yukine was muttering like a mantra.

If Yato could breathe, he would tell the kid to shut up and relax. He needed Yukine's help on that front, while he didn't have the full range of movement he needed on his own.

He threw everything he had into hacking himself free and staggering back to his feet. The ghastly women clutched at him and something sharp ripped through his leg as he took off, but he ran and didn't look back. They followed, of course, and he had to slash at their grasping hands defensively.

He didn't want to stand and fight them. Instead, he ran. Ignoring the pain each step sent jarring through his left ankle and nibbling at his calf, he ran for all he was worth. He had to get just far enough ahead…

There! He skidded around a sharp bend, nearly losing his footing on the slippery stone. The tunnel split in two, with one branch following along the shallow underground river and the other rising at a mild incline to leave the water behind and disappear into the darkness. Yato had half a second to make his decision.

He ducked into the branch where water still pooled about his boots and bent down to run his hand frantically along the rocky ground. Come on, come on… Yes! His fingers closed around a couple smooth, slippery pebbles, and he whipped his arm around and tossed them back down the path he hadn't chosen, where they clattered loudly against the stone floor. He inched deeper down the passage and pressed himself close to the wall, careful not to make any sound. When the horde of ghoulish women slithered and splashed into sight, he went still and held his breath.

"What are you doing?" Yukine whispered.

Here was to hoping the underworld denizens weren't very smart. They paused at the crossroads, but took off after the pebbles bouncing down the other corridor.

Yato didn't dare breathe until they had disappeared into the darkness, but then began hurrying down the tunnel as quietly as possible, placing his feet carefully to avoid any splashing. They were lucky the ghouls hadn't split up or stuck to their favored watery domain. If they had any brains at all, hopefully they would assume he wanted to get out of the water and would be tricked by the rolling pebbles for a few seconds more.

It wouldn't be long before they realized the deception, though, or at least realized that they heard neither footsteps nor splashing. It would be obvious that he had turned to stealth instead of speed.

He would take advantage of every second the subterfuge had bought him. He rushed through the web of darkened tunnels, jumping at every out-of-place sound and squelching along in his waterlogged boots. He wished Yukine would calm down so that he could breathe properly—the headlong rush and subsequent attempts to keep his breathing as quiet as possible were making him feel nauseous and a little lightheaded and like he was suffocating—but he could only expect so much of the kid and he could deal with it later. For now he just needed to get away, and preferably out of the water.

When he finally found another branch that wasn't waterlogged, he took a moment to splash the stagnant water all over himself before wrinkling his nose at the stench and escaping to the drier tunnel.

"What's that for?" Yukine asked, speaking up for the first time in quite a while.

"It'll cover up my scent and make it seem like I belong here," Yato muttered. "Hopefully."

"That's…actually pretty smart."

Yato decided it probably wasn't a good idea to tell him it was something Nora had recommended he do last time he was down here. Yukine still got weird about anything involving her.

Yato wandered aimlessly for several minutes longer, limping grimly past the throbbing ache jarring through his legs at each step. He was hopelessly lost in the maze of tunnels, but it wasn't like he knew where he was going anyway. He was mostly just concerned with keeping quiet and listening for anything that might be sneaking up on him. All he ran across were a few more ayakashi, which he and Yukine made short work of.

He crept down a tunnel cast in pitch black shadows that drowned out even the gloomy half-light much of Yomi received. He couldn't even see his hand in front of his face, and his heart rattled against the cage of his ribs in desperation as his breathing choked and turned into harsh hyperventilating that bounced off the walls and echoed in the darkness.

He picked up the pace, because Yukine was going to give him a heart attack at this rate, poor kid. When the darkness began lightening back into a twilit gloom, Yato took a moment to check for anything sneaking up on them before deciding now was as good a time as any to try talking the kid down.

"Revert, Yukine."

"What is it?" Yukine asked, eyes darting about apprehensively as he materialized beside the god.

"I'm sorry, kiddo." Yato wrapped Yukine in a tight hug and tucked the shinki's head against his chest, away from the dark. He knew it was bad when Yukine squirmed a little and then went still instead of fighting his way out of the embrace. "You shouldn't have been involved at all… Father's always dragging me into messes and then I drag everyone else along with me.

"I know it's scary, but I've got you. I'm going to get you out of here if it's the last thing I do, so hold on, alright? You'll be safe before you know it."

He stroked Yukine's hair, and the shinki's hands clutched at the front of his jacket. The poor kid was trembling all over. Yato rocked back and forth on his heels, rocking the child along with him. It was reassuring for him too, to hold the small, warm body tight in his arms and know Yukine was okay.

He was going to do whatever it took to get Yukine out of here. This was his fault for getting caught up in Father's machinations and Ebisu's schemes, and he wasn't going to drag his kid down with him.

"Don't be stupid," Yukine mumbled into Yato's chest, his voice thick and quivery. His breaths were quick and fast, trapped in the small space between their bodies like frightened butterflies beating their tiny wings. "We're both getting out of here. This is the worst vacation destination you've taken me to yet."

Yato chuckled despite himself and a new surge of fondness warmed his battered heart. "That's the spirit. Chin up, kiddo." He pushed Yukine away to arm's length and rested his hands on the shinki's shoulders as he met large, teary amber eyes with solemn eyes of his own. "You're my partner. I'm counting on you. I know this sucks, but I need you to stay sharp and focused, okay? We can't afford to freak out or get distracted if we want to get out of here."

Yukine sniffled and scrubbed his sleeve across his eyes and nose. "I'm sorry. I'll keep focused."

"It's okay," Yato said gently. "Anyone would be scared." He smiled a little and patted the shinki on the head. "I know you can do it. You're a brave kid."

Yukine turned red and sputtered a little, and Yato laughed as quietly as possible. At least the kid was calming down a bit, if the easing knot in Yato's chest was anything to go by. Yato knew Yukine would do his best to keep his fear under control, and that was all he asked. He knew it couldn't all be quashed, but all he needed was for it to be toned down just enough that it wasn't putting them in serious jeopardy by doing a number on his body.

He bent to poke at the slashes ripped through his pants just above his boot. Blood welled from a set of parallel scratches torn through his skin, and puncture wounds that looked suspiciously like teeth marks littered the skin a little higher up.

"Are you okay?" Yukine asked. "How's your arm?"

"I think they bit me!" Yato said indignantly. "Scratching is whatever, but biting? Honestly." Warm wetness was seeping through his jersey and dribbling down his arm from his shoulder, but he didn't give the injury more than a cursory poke. He must've ripped it back open, but it could wait. He couldn't afford to be distracted by his pain any more than by Yukine's fear. "It's fine."

He ghosted a little further down the tunnel on silent feet and poked his head around a bend, narrowing his eyes and sweeping the gloom to ensure the coast was clear before they started moving again.

"If you say so," Yukine said doubtfully. "What's the plan?"

"Plan? Don't get caught. Especially not by Izanami's hair. That's pretty much game over."

"…I was kind of hoping you had a better plan than that. But I guess I should have known better."

"Rude," Yato huffed as he scanned the shadows and took advantage of the quick breather to rest for a moment before setting off again. "We're looking for the exit. There's one somewhere, but I have no idea where it is. And it's undoubtedly blocked off. Izanami shut it down last time too."

"Then why are we looking for it?"

"Because we have nothing better to do, and slim chances are better than none. I mean, unless she parked herself in front of it so that we're walking right towards her, which would suck. Mostly we're just buying time and waiting on Hiyori."

"Hiyori?" Understanding, quickly followed by hope, threaded through Yukine's voice. "She can do a soul call!"

"That's the idea."

"It shouldn't be long, then, right? All she has to do is get Kofuku and Daikoku to make a vent if she wasn't able to call us through the other one."

"Yeah, but…" Yato hesitated, torn between tempering the kid's enthusiasm and not wanting to crush his hope. "Time works differently down here than on the Near Shore. It shouldn't take long up there, but you never know how long that translates to down here. So don't drop your guard, and we'll hold out until Hiyori calls us."

He didn't honestly see many options besides a soul call, and he was sure Izanami would be in a frenzy to catch and force feed him before Hiyori had the chance. The goddess would know about that possibility after last time, and Yato hoped that whatever precautions she might be able to take against it happening again were going to fail. But that Hiyori hadn't already called them through the vent they'd fallen through was not an encouraging sign.

"But–" Yukine started. "Hey!"

Yato whipped back around and swore under his breath as he came face to face with two Yukines.

"Damn glamours," he hissed. "Begone."

The identical boys stared at each other with nearly identical expressions of disbelief and distaste.

"That's really freaky," said one.

"Don't wear my face," said the other.

"Yato, let's hurry up and kill this thing."

"Yato, use me."

"He can't use you. I'm Yukine."

"No, I'm Yukine."

Yato could feel a headache coming on as the clones argued back and forth. This seemed like a slightly different strategy than before. He wondered if Izanami was laughing her skull off right about now.

"Just call me," said one, turning back to Yato with a scowl. "Only I'm your shinki, so only I can transform anyway."

"Yes, call me," said the other. "Don't leave me for him, Yato."

Yato ignored them both and narrowed his eyes at their indignant faces. The one on the left was a little too…perfect. All the rough edges were smoothed out, the eyes were a little too soft, everything was a little too sweet. Because glamours borrowed from the mind of the targeted victim, and Yukine was a little too perfect in Yato's eyes despite all the bickering and insults and bratty teenage attitude. Because Yukine was Yato's kid, and it was all too easy to gloss over your kid's flaws when your love for them made you forgive their imperfections.

He crossed the floor in a heartbeat and grabbed Yukine's wrist, bickering and insults and bratty teenage attitude and all. The kid yelped in surprise as Yato took off running and dragged him along for the ride.

"Don't leave me!" the ayakashi wailed after them. "Don't leave me alone in the dark! Don't you care? Yato! Yato!"

Yato closed his eyes, set his jaw, and ran. It hurt to hear his kid calling after him like that, even if it was just a fake.

"H-how…?" Yukine stammered past his gasping breaths as he stumbled alongside the god.

"You really think I can't tell you apart from an ayakashi?" Yato asked tightly. He pried his eyes back open just in time to swerve around a bend instead of crashing face first into the wall, but pressed his lips back into a grim line. The ayakashi was still wailing in Yukine's voice like its heart was broken, and it was ripping Yato's heart to shreds along with it.

"Shouldn't we kill it?"

Yato didn't answer, only narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on Yukine and ran a little faster. Of course they should. It was an ayakashi that could cause them more problems later if they didn't take care of it now, and it was proving to be a particularly troublesome ayakashi at that. He told himself he was sparing it because it would disturb Yukine to kill something wearing his face, but that wasn't true and he knew it.

He had talked a big game against Sakura's fetch, he knew he had a responsibility to care for his shinki even if it meant putting down ayakashi masquerading as them, and yet… He had enough nightmares about Sakura. He didn't want to add nightmares of sliding his blade between Yukine's ribs too.

Damn, he was pathetic.

He and Yukine didn't run across any more ayakashi or ghouls as they zigzagged through the shadowy maze, which was just as well. Yato should really summon Sekki to be prepared if they did stumble across something, but it was more comforting to hold the warmth of a child than cold steel. His grip had already slipped down from Yukine's wrist to grasp his hand instead, and he held it tight

The encounter with the fetch had shaken Yukine up again, or maybe it was still just the dark and general malaise of a dangerous underworld, and Yato was quickly becoming short of breath. But the kid was obviously trying to keep calmer and it helped a little. Yato was willing to blame his uneven gait and pained exhaustion on his own injuries.

They skidded around a bend and drew to an abrupt stop as the tunnel widened into a large cavern. Yato eyed the wide pools of glassy water warily, but was more interested in the homey little setup on the far end with the table and screens and cushions.

"That's…different," said Yukine.

"Izanami hangs out here. This is where Ebisu and I first met her."

Yato shot one more look at the water, remembering very well that the ghoulish women had caught him and Ebisu in the shallows and dragged them up right there, and released Yukine's hand before hurrying past and up to the low table.

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

"Just a second."

The little wooden box was still on the table, and Yato hesitated a moment before flipping open the lid. There were three long, slender indentations inside, next to the one remaining brush. One that Father had taken, one that Ebisu had taken, and one that Izanami was currently using to make a nuisance of herself. Yato brushed a hesitant finger down the brush that remained, his mind in a whirl.

"Yato!" Yukine hissed. He hovered anxiously by the mouth of a tunnel leading out, alternating between searching the darkness ahead, looking back the way they'd come, and shooting glares at Yato. "Hurry before something finds us!"

"Coming," Yato mumbled.

Was there any way he could use this to his advantage? Izanami had been willing to strike a bargain to let Ebisu take one, but Yato's interests were pretty much opposite of his: he would rather use the brush to escape than stay to get the brush. And down here in Izanami's domain, she could get the thing back from him easily enough and he'd still be left without any bargaining power. If Hiyori did a soul call quickly enough and he took the brush with him, maybe he could use it as a bargaining chip to get Izanami to stop harassing him in exchange for its return? But Izanami had another brush and seemed far more interested in trapping living company down here than in the brushes.

And…Hiyori should have called them by now, if everything had gone well. Time had a way of twisting and turning, speeding and slowing, as you slipped closer to the Far Shore, so maybe there was really nothing wrong. But Yato had a feeling that something wasn't right, and it felt like they had already spent an eternity racing the shadows. He really had no plan for if Hiyori couldn't come through for them, so he firmly shelved his niggling suspicions away somewhere deep in the back of his mind. He had no time to entertain them at the moment, nothing better to go on, and no desire to worry Yukine more.

He was no closer to figuring out how he could use this brush to his advantage either, and he was quickly running out of time to scheme. It wasn't only frustration that gave him the sudden burning desire to smash the box and brush to smithereens. This thing was what Izanami was using to bring him grief and heartache under the guise of his loved ones, and he wanted it destroyed. Each brush he'd seen seemed to be more powerful than the last, and he didn't want to see if this one had even more horrible quirks.

"Yato!" Yukine said again.

Yato shook his head sharply and snapped the box shut again. He was drawing a blank, and right now it was imperative that they stay on the move. And get out of here, just in case Izanami came back.

He hurried over and brushed past Yukine. "Let's go."

"What were you doing?" Yukine asked as he jogged alongside the god.

"Nothing, really."

Yukine shrugged it off, which was just as well since Yato had already run himself ragged and didn't have the energy to keep up a real conversation anyway. His limp was becoming more pronounced as the gashes in his calf burned more and more, and his injured arm hung uselessly. What a pain.

He and Yukine paused and waited with bated breath as the eerie murmur of ayakashi whispers echoed in the darkness, but nothing appeared and they hurried on. After a couple more twists and turns, they burst into a small room hewn into the rock. On the other end was a hole dug into the side, opening to fresh air—the entrance to Yomi. Bands of purple glyphs shimmered in the air like shackles, chaining the doorway firmly shut. The tang of salt and sunshine in the air tasted like defeat.

"It's sealed?" Yukine asked, his voice growing small.

"I did say it probably would be," Yato said grimly.

"But then–"

"It wasn't nice of you to leave me behind." Yukine's doppelganger stepped out of the shadows and stood in the middle of the floor between them and the useless exit, watching Yato with soulless amber eyes. "It's scary down here, you know. I thought you were supposed to protect me."

Yato's breath caught in his throat and he hunched his shoulders. Not this again.

"Yato." Yukine poked him in the ribs none too gently. His lips were pressed together in a grim line and his eyes were hard. "We need to get rid of this thing already. Snap out of it."

I'm right here, his eyes seemed to say. You know that isn't me, so why are you so worked up?

Yato still didn't know how to explain, wasn't sure he even wanted to, but the kid was right: it was time to get rid of the ayakashi dogging their steps. He had told Yukine that he needed to stay focused, and the same was true of himself. These glamours shook him up like nothing else did, but he couldn't afford to lose his focus.

This felt like a final stand, their last exit closed off and no help coming and Izanami just behind them, and he was tired and battered and done with running. This was where he would stand, and he would cut down this beautiful monstrosity while he was at it.

He turned to Yukine and met his gaze steadily, hoping his eyes weren't as conflicted as he felt, and took the shinki's hands in his own. Yukine blinked back, eyes widening in surprise, but Yato held him for a moment longer before taking a deep breath.

"Sekki."

The small, warm hands in his turned to cold, heavy steel. He turned back to the fetch and set his jaw. He had a responsibility to Yukine that he couldn't outrun anymore.

But it was going to hurt.