I own nothing.

"So what sort of circle were you planning to use to seal it with?"

"None of your business."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, good, you're learning! Careful, though; if I catch even a glimpse of the design I'll start using it for myself."

"Go away already!"

-0-0-0-

"Haven't we already gone this way?"

Shuuichi had rather emphatically not asked for help on this job or any other. He certainly hadn't asked to be followed around by the world's biggest pest while he looked for the cave where the ayakashi he was supposed to be sealing lived. Seriously, Seiji must have had the global pest market cornered (and strangled); Shuuichi had told him to stop following him upwards of a dozen times and he still hadn't quit. That Seiji hadn't been carrying his bow with him today didn't reassure Shuuichi in the slightest; he still didn't want any "help", thank you.

Of course, Seiji had not stopped following him; that was just an exercise in futility. Shuuichi was still dealing with his second shadow when he found the cave, nestled as it was in a hillside and half-covered with soggy deadfall. Seiji had followed him right into the cave, apparently uncaring of the fact that he had no flashlight of his own and his field of vision was limited to the light cast by Shuuichi's metal flashlight (Which he supposed he could always use as a club if the ayakashi snuck up on them unawares). Neither did Seiji seem particularly bothered by the fact that the cave had turned out to be a cave system, and when the revelation came down that they were lost in this cave system, he seemed about as bothered by that as he would have been had he happened to find a bit of dirt under one of his fingernails.

"No," Shuuichi snapped, swishing the flashlight around to see if there was any way out of this particular opening that wasn't the way the two of them had come. He saw two openings. One of them was probably about three feet high at most—Shuuichi would not be going through that one; for one thing, he had no desire to get down on his hands and knees and crawl, and for another, he knew quite well that wasn't the way he'd come—but the other was tall enough for them to walk through. "Follow me."

"Are you sure, Shuuichi-san? You do seem to have gotten turned around rather easily."

"I don't see you finding the way out! Just follow me, and don't wander off, unless you want to do your own rendition of the Cask of Amontillado."

"Wasn't the man in that story walled in? I don't think we have that problem."

"Whatever."

Probably the one good thing about the fact that Seiji kept running his mouth, Shuuichi thought, was that at least he didn't have to constantly shine the flashlight behind him to make sure Seiji was still back there. Of course, it was also probably going to be the reason they both died; the ayakashi would hear them coming long before Shuuichi was able to properly set up a circle and he wouldn't be calm enough to go through the incantation correctly because Seiji would be standing at his shoulder and distracting him by commenting on the fact that his circle wasn't in fact perfectly circular. Or something like that, anyways. No matter the cause, Shuuichi knew that if he died today, it was probably going to be Seiji's fault somehow.

In light of that, Shuuichi thought it would be better if he focused on finding a way out of the cave right now, instead of finding the ayakashi he'd been sent to seal. He did have a few days before his client expected him to bring her proof of the sealing; that at least gave Shuuichi time to come back with something that he could use to keep track of where he'd been. String, maybe. If it could work for Perseus*, it could work for him.

"These are lovely caves," Seiji remarked airily, as though they weren't hopelessly lost in them and risking imminent death by starvation, dehydration or horrible ayakashi curses unless they found a way out of them. "Much cleaner than the last one I was in."

Frankly, Shuuichi could do without the pitch-black darkness everywhere outside the light of his flashlight, and he was rapidly growing tired of the omnipresent smell of earth. Actually, he could do without everything, and he was equally tired of everything. "Yes, they are lovely death traps, aren't they?" he retorted acidly.

"You know what your problem is, Shuuichi-san? You have no appreciation for nature." Seiji laughed lightly, and Shuuichi briefly entertained the idea of braining him with his flashlight. "Don't you ever stop to drink in your surroundings?"

Shuuichi rolled his eyes as he bent his head slightly to step through another opening, into yet another cave that showed no signs of being the way out. "Nothing bothers you, does it, Seiji?"

"…Some things do," Seiji said quietly.

There was something odd about his voice, a timbre Shuuichi didn't recognize, not from Devil-may-care, eminently talented and confident Matoba Seiji. He turned about and directed the beam of his flashlight at Seiji. Much the same as Shuuichi, Seiji's palms and the knees of his trousers were streaked with dirt from tripping on stones or the occasional loose clod of earth (Though for the most part, the ground was surprisingly level). But in face, Seiji was composed. His expression was a bit more serious than Shuuichi was used to seeing, but gave away nothing. His eyes were like glass.

They looked at each other for a moment, the silence yawning between them. Seiji broke off staring first, casting his gaze around the cave and frowning bemusedly. "Are we going to keep moving?" he asked.

Shuuichi wheeled right back around, suddenly grateful that it was too dark for Seiji to see his face. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "I was… I was just thinking."

"About what?"

"Well, there've been so many openings that have been pretty easy for us to get through. Nearly all of them have been. I don't know much about caves, but that's pretty unusual, isn't it?"

"Shuuichi-san…" In the months it had been since they had first met, this was the first time Shuuichi had heard Seiji sound confused. That probably did not bode well. "These caves aren't natural."

"What?" Shuuichi stopped and turned again to face the younger boy. What do you mean, not 'natural?' "What do you mean?" he demanded.

For once, when Seiji knew more about something than Shuuichi, his reaction was not to tease or taunt him. Instead, his brow furrowed, he explained, "There are times when ayakashi too weak to defend themselves on their own against stronger ayakashi will band together and excavate caves like these to have somewhere safe to live—safety in numbers, and all that. I've never visited such a community while it was still occupied—exorcists generally aren't welcome there—" Probably more like exorcists from the Matoba clan aren't welcome there "—but I'm told they can be very impressive." He'd practically taken on the tone of a lecturer; Shuuichi watched him, admittedly just a touch fascinated. "There's one somewhere in the Akaishi mountains that's supposed to be home to over a thousand ayakashi. This one was probably abandoned for reasons having to do with your, ah, pest control job." Seiji pointed to an opening into another chamber. "Shine the flashlight there, to the ceiling."

This was all news to Shuuichi. Suddenly, a dozen or more questions were swirling around in his head, but he did not ask them (had no desire to ask them; Seiji's explanations had up to now been surprisingly free of pointed comments on his ignorance, but Shuuichi had no faith in things staying that way), and instead did as Seiji asked and pointed the flashlight to the ceiling. His eyebrows shot up when he saw two hooks and a nameplate of some kind drilled into the narrow bit of wall between the doorway and the ceiling.

"There, you see?" Seiji nodded to them. "There are hooks were lamps would have hung, and there's a sign of some sort. He went to the doorway and stood on tiptoe. "Pity the writing's not in Japanese; it might have been directions." After inspecting the nameplate, Seiji looked at Shuuichi and frowned, tilting his head slightly to one side. "You didn't know any of this?"

Shuuichi looked away, trying not to look too obviously defensive (He suspected he was failing, somehow). "No," he said shortly.

He could practically feel the confusion radiating off of Seiji as he asked, "Your family never told you about any of this?"

Shuuichi scuffed at the ground with one foot and glared at Seiji. "My family has been out of business since before I was born, and they'd preferred that it stay that way. They didn't exactly jump for joy when they found out I could see."

What information he had, he'd gotten from stealing into the storeroom when his father wasn't looking and reading snippets from files and research notes and spell books before he could get caught—and if he got caught, there were always unpleasant consequences, and new locks which weren't exactly easy to circumvent. Shuuichi had never focused much on ayakashi society when he looked things up. He was looking for more practical information: instructions for spell circles and incantations, what to do when sealing and what to do when exorcising, advice on avoiding or removing curses, and more of the same.

It must have seemed strange to Seiji, who'd never had to skulk about unseen and avoid his family's scrutiny in order to learn anything about anything. Seiji, who'd never had to teach himself anything, who'd never had any shortage of teachers and tutors. Seiji, who'd never been told to shut up about things no one else could see.

Seiji stared at him silently, his eyes narrowed. Shuuichi stared defiantly back, daring him to say something smart like he so often did. After a long moment, Seiji did speak, but it wasn't what Shuuichi expected. "How long has your target been causing problems?"

"The client things he's been here about a year." A sudden sting of suspicion pricked in his mind. "Why?"

"The inscription on the nameplate is quite worn," Seiji replied. His eyes narrowed further. "And the hooks are badly rusted. More than you would expect if the community living here had abandoned this place around a year ago."

"What are you—" Shuuichi took a step forward, only for something to loudly crunch under his foot.

He swung his flashlight to the ground, and nearly swallowed his tongue when he saw what he had stepped on. Bones.

Shuuichi jumped back from the bones littering the ground, heart pounding and eyes as wide as dinner plates. "Those aren't—"

"They're not human, if that's what's bothering you." Looking frankly much calmer about this than he should have (though Shuuichi supposed he shouldn't be surprised by that), Seiji swept across the chamber and knelt down in front of the bones, picking one up and holding it close to his face. "Not an ayakashi's, either; their bones tend to disintegrate not long after death. It was something small, maybe a rabbit or a cat." He gazed up into Shuuichi's face, an amused smile stealing over his lips. "You can't tell the difference between human bones and animal bones?"

"I—Shut up! Not all of us are nature freaks."

Seiji looked decidedly unruffled by that retort. "Hmm." He ran a finger over the bone in his hand. "There are teeth marks on this bone. I'd say your target dragged its prey back here to eat."

"Wait… Did you say teeth marks?"

"Yes, I did. Weren't you listening?"

Shuuichi didn't respond. That's not right. She told me the target doesn't eat meat. He thrust the flashlight out at Seiji. "Hold this."

"What—"

The moment Seiji's hand closed around the flashlight, Shuuichi found a patch of ground clear of bones and sat down, rooting around his bag for the map he'd brought. "Shine the flashlight over here." Shuuichi scanned the map, looking for the red-ink circle he'd drawn over the cave where his target was living. After a few seconds, he found it. And he tipped back his head and groaned. "Oh, God."

"What is it now?"

"This isn't even the right cave!"

The information, such as it was, was damning. Shuuichi was a good ten miles off; the actual cave was on the other side of town from where this one was. Well, there went any hope of getting this job done today. Sometimes Shuuichi hated the fact that he had a hard time reading maps. Then, he shot a distrustful look at Seiji. "Did you know about this?"

"Oh!" Seiji glanced back and forth at Shuuichi and the wall behind him. "Well… Yes, of course I did." His voice was decidedly high-pitched as he spoke, and unless Shuuichi was very much mistaken, he thought his face might have been coloring. "I was just wondering when you would realize it yourself."

That'd be a 'no', then.

"Right." Shuuichi folded his map, stuffed it back in his bag and got to his feet with a harsh sigh. "Okay, so we're not lost in a bunch of caves with an ayakashi that curses its victims. We're lost in a bunch of caves with something, possibly an ayakashi or maybe a bear or something like that, that eats its victims. How exactly could this get worse?"

The flashlight battery chose that exact moment to give out.

"Shit."

Shuuichi made a mental note not to tempt fate in the future. Fate did not appear to appreciate tempting.

"I… don't suppose you have a spare battery in your bag," Seiji said. The almost desperate tone of his voice might have been funny in any other situation.

"Yes, actually. You think I'd go looking for an ayakashi who lives in a cave without bringing spare batteries?"

"Well, considering that you ended up in the wrong cave, I don't suppose it unreasonable to be concerned."

"Oh, give it a rest."

But as Shuuichi rooted through his bag trying to find his spare battery, he noticed something. "Hey, is it just me, or is it lighter in here than it was in the other caves?"

It wasn't just him. Though it was very faint, there was light emanating from one of the openings out of the chamber they were in. And at that very moment, as if Shuuichi and Seiji needed any more incentive to leave than they already had, something deeper in the caves howled.

"Seiji?" Shuuichi thought it odd how calm he sounded. He really should not sound this calm, considering there was a probably hostile wild animal or ayakashi whom he was really not prepared to deal with coming their way. "I think it's time for us to go."

"Agreed." Seiji, by contrast, sounded a little bit like he was being strangled.

The two boys wasted no time getting out of the cave. After who knows how long wandering around in the dark, the sunlight was nearly blinding, but Shuuichi wasn't really in any state of mind to notice. They had just gotten behind the massive trunk of an oak tree when the source of the howling emerged from the cave mouth.

It was an ayakashi, one humanoid in shape and size, wearing a featureless white mask and a kimono heavily stained with blood. Shuuichi and Seiji both held their breath, eyes riveted on the ayakashi as it paced the entrance of the cave, tossing its head like a fretful horse. Shuuichi could feel Seiji digging his fingers into his shoulder, though whether to keep something between him and the ayakashi or to keep Shuuichi from getting any closer to it, he couldn't begin to guess.

Had it seen them? Shuuichi had no idea how strong the ayakashi was (though all the blood gave him some idea), and though he had pre-made spell circles in his bag, those were for weakening opponents, not sealing or exorcising them. He had no time to set up a proper spell circle before the ayakashi would be on top of them, if it saw them. And while Shuuichi had figured out early on that Seiji pretty much always had supplies on him, there was no telling what he had, or if it would be enough to save their skins.

But for once, fortune chose to smile on Natori Shuuichi instead of spit on him, because the ayakashi eventually gave up trying to spot those who had stumbled upon its resting place, and stalked back into the caves, disappearing into the deep shadows.

They stayed silent and hidden for a minute more. Shuuichi could still feel his heart racing, but after a while had passed and the ayakashi didn't appear at the cave mouth again, he took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut. Then, he realized that Seiji's fingernails were still firmly embedded in his shoulder.

About the same moment Shuuichi turned to look incredulously at Seiji's hand, Seiji seemed to realize for the first time that he'd even had his hand on Shuuichi's shoulder to start with. He drew his hand away so fast that Shuuichi was a little surprised he hadn't broken the sound barrier doing it, and suddenly seemed to become very fascinated with a spot somewhere above Shuuichi's head, because Seiji would not make eye contact with him.

When Seiji finally seemed to recover, he asked, "What will you do now?"

Shuuichi sighed and shook his head. "Find the right cave tomorrow and seal my target. It's getting late." Though the sun was still high in the sky, there was no missing the fact that it was starting to sink from its zenith and the shadows were getting longer. "I don't want to try to find the place in the dark. As for here…"

He stared back at the cave mouth, troubled. Shuuichi didn't have any proof that that ayakashi was feeding on anything other than wild animals, but the fact that it was living in a place that had once been occupied by many ayakashi, only to be abandoned, didn't exactly give him a good feeling. Ayakashi like that would target spiritually powerful humans just as soon as they would animals or other ayakashi. It would be better if it was exorcised, but Shuuichi didn't know exactly how strong it was…

"Shuuichi-san." Shuuichi turned back to Seiji to find him staring at him, serious and unsmiling. "Don't worry about that. I'll deal with it."

"What?!" As much as Shuuichi didn't like the idea of trying to exorcise the ayakashi without first being able to gauge how strong it was, he liked the idea of Seiji trying to force him away from this even less. "Wait a minute, I—"

"We're quite close to one of my clan's estates," Seiji explained, his eyes growing sharper and his tone colder with each word, "and there's no way for us to know if that ayakashi is only preying on animals. This is a matter of internal security for the Matoba clan. You have no reason to get involved, Shuuichi-san."

Shuuichi gaped at him for a moment, shocked by the abrupt shift in Seiji's demeanor. Then, he nodded. He understood. Seiji wasn't speaking for himself. He was speaking for the Matoba clan, and Shuuichi knew better than to pick a fight with the entire Matoba clan. "Alright."

Seiji let out a deep breath. He seemed almost relieved. "Good. In that case, I need to go. Good luck with your assignment. I'll tell you when it's safe to come back this way again."

"Yeah."

As Seiji began to head back the way he had come, he turned back and smiled thinly at Shuuichi, eyes glittering strangely. "Oh, Shuuichi-san? When you go to seal that ayakashi tomorrow, maybe you should try using bait."

Shuuichi glared at him. He knew by now what 'bait' meant, coming from a Matoba exorcist. "I can handle it on my own."

"If you say so!"

Alone, Shuuichi rubbed the back of his neck, before heading for the road. "Jerk," he muttered, but without the heat he'd usually put into it.

Seiji was a pest, it was true. He was a pest of the highest order. But sometimes, Shuuichi didn't really know what to make of him at all.

-0-0-0-

It was a little before nightfall by the time Seiji made it back to the main estate—the bus would take him part of the way out from town, but only so far. As he neared home, he became acutely aware of the dirt on his hands and trousers. It would have been far more immediately noticeable if he'd tried to get to his room to wash up and change without greeting anyone, but he kept his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, his greetings brief, and ignored the stares he got from some.

He found Nanase at work in her office, poring over reports. When she noticed him, she raised her eyebrows. "You're back late." There was no mistaking the note of disapproval in her voice. "You missed supper."

Had he really? Seiji hadn't thought it that late; neither had he felt hungry at all since before lunch. "Nanase-san, I was…" He trailed off, trying to think of a way to lead in to what he'd seen at the cave without mentioning Shuuichi.

Nanase's lips twitched. "Yes, I am aware that you follow the Natori boy around everywhere he goes like some sort of lovesick puppy," she said dryly. "I could hardly have failed to notice. I'm not opposed to you trying to win over one of our old rivals, but you might try keeping better track of time in the future."

Seiji felt his face grow hot. "I don't…" He drew a deep breath and told himself not to respond to that. Any attempts to deny it (he did not follow Shuuichi around 'like a lovesick puppy', and the idea that he did grated deeply) would only lend power to Nanase's beliefs. "Is Father back yet?"

"No, he's still out of town. He probably won't be back until tomorrow morning. Why?"

As Seiji explained what he had seen and where, Nanase's face paled. When he finished, she asked sharply, "You're sure it didn't see your face?"

"Yes."

"And you're sure it didn't follow you here?"

"Yes, Nanase-san."

She ran a hand through her graying hair, a look of distinct irritation coming over her face. "What are those sentries doing?" Nanase muttered, more to herself than to Seiji, before shaking her head and turning her attention back on him. "Do you think you could find the caves again?"

He nodded decisively. "Yes, I can."

"Good. When your father returns, I will send for you, and you will tell him what you told me. The sooner this is dealt with, the better."

"Alright, Nanase-san."

Having been dismissed, Seiji headed not for the kitchens, but for the archives instead. The room was empty, he was pleased to note; while it was hardly forbidden to take books or scrolls out of the archives, he preferred to avoid scrutiny for what he was doing. He picked out four books and then proceeded back down the hallway and up the stairs to his room.

As he walked, he wondered what exactly would be done about the ayakashi. I suppose Father could decide to try to make it work for us, but he usually just kills threats outright. Well, except… His free hand strayed to his right eye; Seiji pressed at his eyelid and frowned. He put thoughts of that away. He'd been told on numerous occasions not to worry about it. That was for the future. Not now.

Father will probably decide it needs to be killed, and he'll probably decide he needs to kill it himself. He never was content with people just telling him something was dead, not when it poses a risk to the clan. Which means… He grimaced. Which means he won't let me come along. Seiji's father never allowed him to come on the same assignments as him, his logic being that the head and the heir should never be in the line of fire at the same time and place as one another. Seiji would be lying if he said he didn't find this attitude a touch… annoying, though he never said as much to his father—he understood the sentiment behind it, he appreciated the sentiment behind it, but he still couldn't shake the feeling of annoyance. Having discovered the ayakashi in the first place, he would have liked to settle things himself. But what he'd done already would have to do.

Anyways, Seiji had other things on his mind.

Once he'd gotten back to his room, he got out paper and pen, and began flipping through the book on top of the stack, looking for the information he wanted.

Seiji would not pretend to understand the behavior of the Natori family as regards to their youngest. It seemed to him that if an exorcist clan fell on hard times and its members were no longer able to see, the birth of a child who could see, and one as powerful as Shuuichi too, should have been treated as a blessing, not as something to be ashamed of and suppressed. He'd gotten the impression that Shuuichi had had to teach himself most, if not all of the spells he knew as an exorcist, but Seiji hadn't imagined that Shuuichi had been left so ignorant of the world. The Natori family had been inexcusably cavalier with their child's safety.

He wasn't copying down anything that would have represented a loss to the Matoba clan if it fell into the hands of an outsider. There were just the things Shuuichi should have grown up knowing in an exorcist clan, if his family had ever cared to teach him. Seiji didn't know when he'd be able to give this to Shuuichi—he couldn't go to the latter's house; even if the Natori family at large no longer practiced, Seiji doubted that the Matoba clan heir would be welcome there—but he would, eventually.

If you were to ask Seiji why he was doing this, he would say that he didn't have a particular reason. It just didn't sit right with him, is all.

* Actually, it was Theseus. Natori, having only a passing familiarity with Greek mythology and dealing with two figures who have somewhat similar names, assumed it was the guy he knew a little more about.