Chapter 5

It had been several weeks since Madarao had walked out of the training hall after Yoshimori. And though, Yoshi smiled more often it still never seemed to stay long enough.

Toshi knew he was tired. He had been watching his big brother since he came home from his journey with their mom. They were all worried about how little he genuinely smiled and wanted him to do what made him happy but.—

A laugh sounded, making Toshi look to the kitchen doorway as his Grandfather came inside followed by the spirit dog. He was laughing at something Madarao had said. He caught his youngest grandson's gaze.

"Toshimori! You should tell Madarao about how you made the soccer team!" Shigemori turned to the white dog as he sat down at the table across from the child. "He trains just as hard as Masamori always did. We are very pro—"

Toshi slammed his hands down on his homework to cut his Grandfather off. Slowly he turned his eyes to meet Madarao's startled ones. "Yoshi-nii helped me practice a lot." Toshi stood and gathered his books. "If it wasn't for Yoshi-nii having faith in me and coming to try outs I never would've made it. Excuse me, I need to finish my homework."

Madarao watched the young Sumimura walk out and Shigemori frowned after him.

"Where is Yoshimori?"

The old man looked to the spirit dog at the question. "Probably at work. He's been working part time in construction and lately he's been slacking off."

The quiet violet eyes looked sharply at the old Sumimura. "Shigemori, you aren't normally this degrading towards Yoshimori. What's changed?"

He tensed. Was he being degrading? He wasn't being anymore tough on his grandson's than normal. He still had very high expectations for his family. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Shigemori." Madarao stood up. "Have you even stopped to talk to him about how he managed to make me corporeal? Have you not noticed the only time he stays in range of you is during meals? Have you not noticed he doesn't smile?"

"He smiles plenty."

"Not for real my friend." Madarao whispered as he walked out.

Once outside he lifted his snout to the air to scent where his young companion was. Being a physical being had it's perks like eating but being a spiritual form was better for tracking and traveling. Must make do with what we're given.

He started east, easily scenting the young Sumimura the further away from the residence he got. He felt unease ripple through him the closer he got to the site. Each emotion and feeling had it's own specific scent, altering a normal scent just slightly. Happiness smelled sweeter, sadness salty, anger bitter. And pain smelled humid.

There was a lot of humidity in Yoshimori's scent lately, and it was time someone got to the bottom of the cause.

Madarao followed Yoshimoris scent around town before coming across it at a small café just down the street from a construction site. 'He must be on lunch break' He looked in at the window and scanned the many patrons until he finally saw the familiar mop of spiky brown hair towards the back. He was hunched over a table with his head resting in one hand while the other held a cup of ice to his temple. His eyes were closed and his face pinched. As he tensed Madarao caught another wiff of the humid sent.

'Hmm? A headache?' Madarao continued watching his young charge. The boy had changed since Chushinmaru had been removed from Karasumori. He seemed like he found new purpose with studying with the Yukimura girl, then, he'd seem like he was still in the same frame of mind as before when he was overwhelmed by his Kekkaishi duties.

'He's also spending an alarming amount of time meditating' Madarao had noticed Yoshimori spent much more time in the dojo in the morning now than he did ever before. Several times when he'd gotten up to relieve his bladder (an old and unwelcome sensation) the boy was already sitting in the darkened dojo.

Worrying about the boy was nothing new, not since he became the legitimate heir, but this new type of worrying, the kind that happened for seemingly no rhyme or reason…

Squeals of joy distracted the white ghost dog. He turned his green eyes towards the sound to see several younger children had caught sight of him and were cooing. Madarao, not willing to sink to the level of a common dog, did not approach them and turned back to looking in the window. He jolted when his eyes locked on Yoshimori's brown ones. 'Damn' He sank onto his haunches and waited for the boy to come out. 'No point in trying to avoid it' He had already been seen, it was pointless to leave.

Though, when several of the young children got tired of waiting and moved closer to pet him he debated on leaving. Just when a growl started to work it's way up his throat Yoshimori stepped out. A light smirk graced his face before he crouched down and spoke quietly to the children.

"Yes, he is quite the interesting dog."

"Ne, ne! Mister, can we play fetch with him?"

"Does he know any tricks?"

"Do you have any puppies?"

Yoshimori fielded the questions gently (surprisingly) as he leaned in to run his hands over Madarao's head. At the feel of his fingers behind his ears Madarao felt a warmth spread over him and he closed his eyes in pleasure, breathing a sigh of relief that the children had stopped petting him when Yoshimori had reached for him.

Then, Madarao's eyes snapped open as he caught the scent again. The humid scent that seemed to radiate of the brown eyed boy beside him. His green eyes tracked up to Yoshimori's face. No pain showed on his features, though his eyes seemed just the littlest bit duller than normal.

He laughed at something one of the children said before standing up and looking down at his ghost dog. "Come on Madarao, it's time to go home."

The children waved and cooed as the dog turned away and walked with his 'master'. As they strolled down towards the construction site Madarao looked back at the boys face. 'I've known him for years, I've been in charge of helping him and keeping him safe' The scent wafted again. 'so why is it I'm just noticing how bad his pain is?'

"So," Yoshimori stopped and crouched down to be eye to eye with his faithful friend. Green eyes met brown, "what brought you out to the café?"

Madarao looked away before sighing, "You're hurting"

"I'm not hurt"

"I didn't say you were hurt." Madarao looked back into those brown eyes, "I said you're hurting." He leaned up so his paws were propped on Yoshimori's knees. "Headache?"

Yoshimori's eyes had widened slightly. The small tell confirmed his suspicions but he wanted to hear it. Yoshimori had always been vocal when it came to his dislikes and his passions but he rarely spoke of any pain or sick feeling he was having. "Kind of" came the quiet reply.

"Everyday?"

Yoshimori looked over Madarao's head at that. "It's fine." His voice was shaky as if thinking about the headache made the pain worse.

In response to Yoshimori's reply Madarao growled low in his chest before pushing off his knees. He walked away to go home as his thoughts circled what he'd learned. 'It's not fine, Yoshimori.'

Later that night Madarao bellied under the table to lay his head next to Toshimori. He was determined to find out everything the younger Sumimura knew. When Toshi was done with his next math problem he looked down to see green eyes staring at him.

"Madarao?"

"Do you know what's wrong with Yoshimori?"

Toshimori's eyes, so like his older brothers, darkened in sadness, "No, but I know whatever it is, it's been going on since he came back with mom's shikigami." Toshi stroked his hand over Madarao's head. "He also stares at his hand sometimes. Where his houin mark use to be."

Madarao's ears twitched in thought. 'He's been staring at where his mark was.' His green eyes closed as he continued, 'He's meditating almost every morning.' He growled low in his throat, 'He somehow made me corporeal.' Madarao stood and wandered out towards the dojo.

The fact, alone, that Yoshimori was able to make him solid, told him that his kekkaishi powers returned. But to what degree?

'The headaches' Madarao's eyes glinted eerily with anger. 'Tokimori use to get headaches when his power would build up,' which wasn't often since he was so busy exterminating demons.

"Damn, he has too much power…"