The day dies easy.
Meant to take place after the point where the television series stops; between that, and the events in the manga that follow it.
The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for October 16, 2007.
It has been a long time since they've had a night like this one: quiet and uneventful, full of the sort of ayakashi that both of them, by now, can trap and eliminate on reflex. Strange, how prior to all that they have gone through, both of them were raring for a little action. Now they feel much older than their actual years, with enough excitement to last them until they're both old and gray and content with watching whoever their future successors will be run around and bicker with each other.
They find themselves face to face well before midnight, blinking almost confusedly at each other, refusing to believe that they may have just banished the very last creature for the evening and no evil things were going to leap up out of the dark and threaten to destroy the world starting with their humble little school. They turn away at roughly the same time once they both realize that they've been staring. Yoshimori mumbles something about the cake he made the other day and how he brought over the slices his family didn't already consume in their enthusiasm. Tokine tucks some loose strands of hair behind her ear and says that perhaps she could try it since he sounds like he really, really needs her opinion anyway.
As they sit side by side on the extension over the entrance to their school building, Yoshimori and Tokine's fingers nearly touch whenever one of them moves to shift through their stuff, or fight off a yawn. They talk a little, just once, a bit about how the cake is rather good and Yoshimori should probably try making it in another flavor just for kicks, but beyond that, they are content with the silence.