Hi all! Thanks for the lovely comments! I hope you all will enjoy this chapter too!

Disclaimer: Nurarihyon no Mago is not mine..

The brown hair boy hummed a little tune which his snow maiden used to sing to him, as he walked down the pavement leading to his house. In his hands, there was a tub of squid ink ice cream and a horo horo ghost plush which he won for Tsurara in the shooting stall. Throughout the outing, Rikuo couldn't help but wondered how Tsurara was doing at home. He had excused himself while the group was on the way to the lake for the fireworks, saying that there's something he needed to attend to. Kubinashi wanted to follow but Kejourou giggled and held him back. It seem like no one could escape Kejourou's observation.

"Tadaimasu!" Rikuo called out as he opened the main door. He listened for the familiar cheerful reply, while he removed his shoes. "Is she not in the main hall?" He wondered. Hanging around in the hall or more precisely, around Tsurara, had always been every summer's pastime for the Nura clan. It was even more so during this summer heat. Being a snow maiden, her presence lowered the room temperature to a more comfortable level. As such, the Nura clan never felt the need to install air-conditioners in the house.

"Maybe I shall install one," Rikuo thought, while walking towards the hall. He could see that Tsurara was suffering even though she still behaved very energetic in front of him. Just a week ago, she almost fainted from the heat while helping out with the Arawashi family. Rikuo immediately forbid her to go out and tried to make her rest more, but she wouldn't listen and still moved about, doing the household chores. Only when the sun was high up in the sky, she would then hid herself in the hall.

Cool air greeted him as he pushed the main hall's sliding door open. "Tsurara, look what I bought." Rikuo looked around the room. There was not a single soul in the room. "Maybe she is in her room," thought Rikuo, walking in the direction of Tsurara's bedroom and stopped in front of her door. "Tsurara?" Rikuo called out, but there's no reply. Uneasiness came over Rikuo as he felt warm stuffy air slipped from the gaps of the bedroom door. "Tsurara, I'm going to open the door." Rikuo pushed open the door, and to his dismay, no one was in.

"Where could she be? Did she went out?" Rikuo thought as he quickened his pace to the kitchen. "The temperature outside is 39 degree Celsius! What if she fainted on the street?" He felt his heart tightened at the thought of it. "No, I must find her fast!" Rikuo closed his eyes and tried to sense her fear. Dark aura surrounded him while he focused all his concentration in searching her fear. He felt a weak sensation of soft fresh snow lingering in the air, leaving a trail to the nearby woods. Rikuo's long white hair shone in the moonlight as he ran out into the garden, leapt over the walls and flew straight into the woods.

"Yuki onna!" A young little boy ran across the courtyard towards the girl who was sweeping the leaves.

"Rikuo sama, welcome home," smiled Tsurara at the boy.

"Yuki onna..." the little boy looked tearfully at her, "Teacher said good children will go to heaven. Bad children will go to hell with the yokai..*sniff* I told him that yokai are good. He said I was talking rubbish...*sniff sniff*... Is my father in heaven?" Tsurara inwardly cursed the teacher and planned a haunted night visit to the latter. She knelt down and hugged the 6 year old tightly. "Yes. He is. Your father is a very good man."

After a few moments of sniffling, the young boy looked up at the beautiful maiden and asked, "Will my mother and grandpa go to heaven?" "Of course, they will," Tsurara replied, drying her young master's cheeks gently with her sleeve. "Will you?" Tsurara gave a tiny smile and said, "We, Yuki onna, are different. When we die, we will evaporate and return to The Mountain."

"Evaporate?" Rikuo tilted his head in question.

"It mean that we will disappear into the air."

"Which mountain? I will go and find you!"

Tsurara chuckled and changed the subject, "Waka, do you want some chocolate ice cream? I will make some for you."

"Yes!"

"Tsurara!" Rikuo's ruby eyes scanned through the darkness, looking for the snow girl, while he wove through the trees. Memories of that moment kept replaying in his mind as he searched for the weak icy thread of fear. Ever since he entered the woods, he had lost track of her fear. Rikuo clenched his fists. That idiot! I am going to ground her for the whole year!

An object gleamed under the moonlight and caught Rikuo's eyes. "...Cannot be..." Rikuo slid halfway down the slope towards the lake. He knelt down and stared at the item disbelievingly. It was the snowflake bracelet he had given for her birthday.

"When we die, we will evaporate."

"No...it can't be... no... TSURARAAAAAAAA!"

Hehe finally! Was stuck at the last few paragraphs for a month, as I couldn't convey my thoughts into words... Had checked up japanese shrine shooting stall in google and saw one piece and other anime merchandise as prizes... If my local shooting stall has such prizes, I will be at the stall for the whole day!

Please read my first fan fic - in winter for the snowflake bracelet!

Oh yeah 39 °C is 102.2 °F

dennou - I was thinking of making it over 40 after reading the news about the searing temperature in australia, but this story happened at night, so i had to lower the temperature a bit ^^

Sorry this is quite short as I'm scared of making Rikuo ended up sounding girlie :P