A/N: I know, I know, this is late. In my defence, the Olympics were on and I managed to get myself obsessed with them (go, countries!). I was rooting for literally every country thanks to the anime Hetalia.

Anyway, thanks for your reviews, and I have to agree with Ameyo Yume, the last chapter did turn out slightly sadistic. Juuuuuust a bit.

So, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own Noragami

Hiyori felt completely useless at the present time. Daikoku and Yato were busy taking care of Yukine, and Kofuku was downstairs, eating an apple while Hiyori sat next to her in silence.

She was worrying about many things. Nora – would she come back? Yukine – will he survive this? And Yato – will he go for revenge? She was desperate to know these things, but she knew none of them could be answered at the moment.

Kofuku seemed to notice Hiyori's worrying, and leant over to pat her on the back. "Don't worry, Hiyori! I'm sure he'll be fine!" She reassured, and Hiyori locked eyes with her.

"Who? Yato or Yukine? Both? Or neither? What if they-" Hiyori began, but was cut off by Kofuku waving her arms in the air for Hiyori to shush.

When she'd finished waving her arms round, Kofuku put a hand on Hiyori's shoulder and said in a serious voice, "They've been through worse. Yato may be suffering from emotional stress right now, and he may be itching for revenge, but he won't do it. He's learnt that friends and family come before revenge, or other things like that. Trust me on this." Then she released Hiyori's shoulder and looked out the open door. "Yato will stay with Yukine until he's all better."

Hiyori was speechless after that. Kofuku really has a way with words at times, huh. She thought with a small smile.

Then the brunette nodded. "Thanks, Kofuku."

Kofuku hummed in response, before changing the topic to something completely random.

Meanwhile, Daikoku had just left the room to get some cold water and a cloth. Yato sat by his unconscious Regalia, looking at him with concern. Yukine was getting worse by the minute. He was running a high fever, hence why Daikoku had gone to get cold water and a cloth. His breathing was ragged and shallow, as if he had difficulty breathing.

Whenever Yato felt his pulse, it was at a rapid pace, which wasn't good. They'd tended to his other wounds, using some nearby holy water to cleanse the blight before dressing the injuries. Luckily, his wounds had stopped bleeding, and with no blight now, all they had to do was heal. Easy enough on their own, but with some sort of poison running through Yukine's body, it made it difficult to heal.

Yato's mind was drawn to the words Nora had said to him.

"He won't be 'alive' in his 'present life' long, though."

"What?!"

"He's dying, slowly and painfully."

"How dare you – what did you do to him?!"

"Well, let's just say he's got a rather special poison running through his body."

Poison, huh? Yato thought after his flashback. Question is, how would I go about curing it? Then he glanced out the window, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. Does Nora have the antidote?

Then Daikoku came in, carrying a bowl of cold water and a cloth over his shoulder. Yato nodded a greeting to him, and Daikoku grunted quietly in response.

Setting the bowl down, he crouched beside Yukine and held a hand to the boy's forehead. It was burning underneath his hand. Sighing, he set to work, soaking the cloth in the cold water before spreading it over Yukine's forehead.

"You know, Yato," Daikoku began while he worked, "while I was gone, I was thinking."

Yato glanced at him. "Mmm?"

He can't even be bothered to ask me with words?! Seriously, Daikoku thought angrily, before pushing the anger at the former god of calamity to the back of his mind.

"What if the blight that was on Yukine's wounds went inside his body and merged with the poison?"

Yato perked up, curious. He silently urged Daikoku to continue.

"So, what if we made Yukine drink holy water so it can travel round his system and hopefully get rid of any blight?"

"But won't it just go through his digestive system or something? What if the blight's in his bloodstream?" Yato asked.

"Well," Daikoku began, sitting back as he finished with Yukine temporarily, "When we put some holy water over the blight on his injuries, he flinched, didn't he?" The Regalia allowed Yato a few seconds to remember before continuing, "So I was thinking, if the holy water went in Yukine's wounds, then it would cure that part of his body of the blight, wouldn't it?" Then he hastily added, "Of course, that's if there's any blight in his body at all."

Yato hummed thoughtfully as Daikoku finished his idea. "Nora mentioned a special type of poison in Yukine's body." Yato admitted, not looking forward to Daikoku's explosion reaction. He'd held back this detail, as he didn't want everyone to panic and run round like headless chickens (of course, this was just his prediction of what would happen). But now he had no choice but to tell Daikoku.

Grabbing him by the collar, Daikoku started violently shaking Yato, yelling about 'holding back important details' and 'how much of an idiot he can be'. Things like that.

"Stop shaking me and I'll tell you everything I know about it!" Yato shouted at him, and Daikoku immediately stopped, dropped him, and waited impatiently for an explanation.

Sighing, Yato straightened his creased clothes and began, "Nora said something about a special type of poison."

A tick mark appeared on Daikoku's forehead. "You've already told me that!"

"That's all I know." Yato shrugged, smirking at Daikoku's reaction.

Daikoku grumbled under his breath, but fell silent when they both heard a groan.

~Yukine's POV~

It's dark. The darkness is everywhere. Wherever I look, it's just pitch black. But I can't feel any pain here. Actually, I can't feel anything. It's like I'm just a spirit, floating around without a body dragging me down.

But where am I?

I try to recall what happened to me. I remember Nora, the phantoms – and the poison. It hurt so much. I hope Yato did get my message, though. I'm not mad at him anymore. I just overreacted, really.

I wish I could apologize to him, really I do. But I can't. Not like this, anyway.

Am I dead?

No, I can't be. Not yet. Nora said the poison would kill me slowly and painfully. Hell, the painful part was right, but if it kills me slowly, then I can't be dead yet, right?

I gaze up at the infinite darkness above me. I'm so confused. So many unanswered questions.

Sighing, I wonder if it's possible for me to wake myself up – that is, if I'm just asleep or something and not dead. Ugh, this sort of thinking is so confusing!

But the real question is – do I want to wake up? The real world is painful, and it hurts. But here, I don't feel the pain, the stress, or anything like that. I can truly relax here, with the feeling of being free.

But there's one problem here.

It's dark.

I'm scared of the dark.

My mind wanders back to the time when that little girl was a spirit, and was waiting for her mother to pick her up. She didn't realise she was dead. The phantoms hiding in the darkness corrupted her. And Yato…he killed her. Using me.

An involuntary shiver shoots up my spine as my mind starts to create images of the girl and the phantoms in the darkness.

I don't want to be here any longer.

I want to wake up.

As if on cue, the darkness starts to ease a bit, and weak light starts to envelop me.

All of a sudden, the feeling of being free disappears as I begin to stir.

My entire body feels heavy, not to mention the dull throb and ache in my limbs.

I groan with exhaustion. I know I've just woke up, but I'm so tired. I just want to go back to sleep.

But then I feel someone lightly shaking my shoulder, whispering my name and telling me to wake up.

I crack one eye open, but immediately shut it as bright light temporarily blinds me.

There's some shuffling about, as if someone's moving.

"It's alright, Yukine. Open your eyes." I hear a voice, I hear someone speaking, but my ears can't hear it properly. I hear it muffled and slurred, the words jumbled together and hard to understand.

Slowly, I begin to open my eyes again, surprised and relieved to find the light dimmed.

I try to take in my surroundings, but my vision's blurry and unfocused, and it refuses to clear. But I think there's a ceiling above me - I must be inside somewhere.

I see two blurry figures above me. Are they looking at me? I'm not sure, but one of them is saying something. I can't hear it properly – there's some sort of ringing in my ears that blocks out most of the sounds around me.

My throat feels sore and dehydrated – I need water.

I open my mouth and say in a hoarse, croaky voice, "…Wa…ter…" I'm surprised at how my voice sounds.

One of the figures disappears, but soon returns with an object in their hands. It looks grey or silver – or is it clear? I can't tell, but the other person props me up. I hiss at the contact; it hurts and I don't like it.

But the other person comes closer and puts a gentle hand on my chin, lifting it up. Suddenly, I can't breathe well. Is it the position my head's in? I can only take small intakes of breath, and it hurts my throat to breathe. I need water to ease my sore throat. But I also need air to stay alive.

I struggle against the two people, desperate to escape their holds so I can breathe properly, but I have very little strength.

The object that the first person had gets closer to my face, until its contents are poured down my throat.

At first, I panic, but I immediately relax as I realise it's water. Nice, cold water.

Hungrily, I drink the rest of the water, and the first person lowers their hand from my chin.

I lower my head and cough as I wheeze and try to take deep breaths. It hurts my chest to cough, but I can't stop it.

My vision starts to darken, and I realise I'm losing consciousness.

No matter how hard I try, I can't fight off the exhaustion, and embrace unconsciousness, hoping to escape this torture.

The last thing I see is the two blurry figures above me sharing a look before my eyes close and I feel my body go limp in the second person's arms.

A/N: This chapter is quite long, sorry about that.

I kept losing inspiration, so this actually took me over a week to write.

Hopefully updates will be quicker, but no promises.