[Just a quick note that this is a sort of half chapter to relieve a bit of tension before things start to get really bad. It's also because I have a lot of love for the Kyoto boys and it's only downhill from here. Enjoy.]
The air around the shrine was quiet and cold and it nipped at Renzou Shima's ears, cheeks, and nose. He was bundled up in the layers his mother had wrapped him in and his brothers had pointed and laughed at him when he'd waddled outside in them. Two scarves to keep her little darling cozy, his father's hat because his mother liked the way it fell into his eyes-it was oh so cute-and gloves this time, young man, because the last frostbite scare had been too much for her heart to handle.
Standing next to his best friend, Ryuji Suguro-or a better name, Bon-Renzou felt childish. Bon didn't have his father's too-big hat on, nor did he need hand-me-down gloves, no he was too cool for that. Even at twelve years old he was the kind of man Renzou wanted to be. Even Konekomaru Miwa, shivering on Bon's other side wasn't dressed in so many layers. And when Renzou mentioned this to his mother she pursed her lips and muttered that if he still had a mother she would dress him well too, so hush up about it.
Renzou didn't like to think about that, the fact that Miwa didn't have parents to look out for him. It never really seemed like a big deal, he was like a brother to Bon and yet another brother to Renzou. It couldn't possibly be that lonely, not when he had everyone else to take care of him. Bon's mother had baked cakes for Miwa's birthday and Juuzou taught him how to tie his shoe laces, but no one cared for him out of pity, he was just another kid to love.
"I'm cold," Renzou muttered. "And bored. And hungry. And OOF."
Bon's elbow dug into his side like a knife and he cringed.
"We're not going anywhere until we see the ghost," Bon said, his words catching in the cold air, forming their own ghostly shapes.
"It's going to be so amazing." Miwa's bright red cheeks puffed up as he beamed at Bon who shot a confident grin back. "I heard that she's an old witch who shrieks and moans all night because she lost her children in a snowstorm and that if you're bad she'll rip out your eyes but if you're good she'll tell you your future."
"What a pleasant lady," Renzou grumbled through his first scarf, then nuzzled his chin over top to be properly heard. "Can't wait to meet her."
"Seeing a ghost, it's like the first step to becoming a true Exorcist." Bon looked ahead at the shrine, pure determination shining in his eyes. The three of them were crouched behind a bush a few meters away with a perfect view so as not to disturb anything before the witch showed up.
"Here we go..." Renzou rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the thin layer of snow. "Not everyone wants to be an Exorcist."
"I do," Miwa chirped.
"Not everyone is as lazy as you, Shima," Bon added snidely. "At least we have prospects for the future."
"Hey, I have prospects and they all happen to have nice bodies and cute faces." Shima leaned back and grinned up at the sky. Miwa giggled and even Bon gave a defeated chuckle.
"I think one of the prospects might be Nishiki Hojo," Miwa said suddenly and then clamped his hands over his mouth. Bon raised an eyebrow as Renzou turned a whole new shade of red. He sat up, snow clinging to his hat, and glared at Miwa.
"You weren't supposed to tell anyone!"
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Miwa somehow managed to become even smaller than he already was. "But it's just Bon."
"One of the snake girls? Really? Do you want to have a girlfriend or get venom spit in your eye?" Bon teased, shoving Renzou head playfully for added effect. He smirked as Renzou's face scrunched up angrily.
"It's not her fault, girls are just moody like that. Besides, Nishi-chan is so pretty and talented and smart and I've made her laugh a bunch of times." Renzou stared ahead, recalling the way Nishiki's shoulders shook as she suppressed a giggle and how she always said Shima with an added little hiss.
Miwa and Bon looked at each other then at Renzou and said, "Nishi-chan?"
They doubled over in laughter at the look of extreme distress on Renzou's face.
"Shut up you guys, it's not funny." He kicked himself for having let that slip. He couldn't even muster the courage to call Nishiki that to her face, it had only ever been a cute nickname to use when thinking about how cute she was. Cheeks burning, sweat pouring from his brow, Renzou yanked the scarves from his neck and tossed the stupid hat into the bush. His unkept black hair sprang straight up, causing Bon to double over in laughter. Miwa had tears in his eyes.
"Whatever, I'm going home to warm up and read manga. You two can sit out in the snow until night, and you can do it without me." Renzou stood up in a huff.
"Aw, c'mon, Shima we were just teasing." Bon cleared his throat and shrugged. "If you wanna be a snake charming, that's just fine."
Renzou narrowed his eyes but before he could say anything, Miwa raised a silencing hand and tilted his head to the side to listen for something neither Renzou nor Bon could hear.
"What?" Renzou reluctantly crouched back down next to Bon and the two of them watched Miwa with bated breath.
"I thought I heard someone coming up the hill," he said quietly.
"What, like a woman?" Renzou asked.
"What the hell do you mean 'like a woman?' What does a woman sound like?" Bon snapped.
"Elegant."
Bon stared at Renzou for a moment before bopping him over the head with his fist and turning back to Miwa.
"Does it sound like a witch?" he asked.
"What does a witch sound like, Suguro?" Renzou hissed, holding his aching head.
"Elegant," Bon retorted.
"Both of you be quiet." Miwa scooted backwards behind Bon. "Something's definitely coming."
The three boys huddled together as the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow grew louder. Renzou tried to imagine the ghost of a witch, or as Miwa had described her, a mourning mother. He didn't have too many memories Take-nii, but Renzou recalled the heartbroken sobbing his mother tried to hide late at night. It must be hard to lose a son, more difficult even than losing a sibling. And then there was Miwa's situation, the opposite. Could there be children ghosts mourning for lost parents?
Renzou settled his eyes on the shrine. A strong wind blew the snow up off the ground into a dizzying swirl of glittering flakes and for the briefest moment it almost seemed to take shape. Perhaps that was an arm, there could be a leg, a head with billowing hair or a cloak...as he squinted, something grabbed a hold of Renzou's shoulder. If it had been Bon who'd been grabbed, he would have maybe just turned and socked the ghost in the face. Miwa, even, would have been startled and maybe gasped. But it was Renzou, who wanted nothing to do with spirits and exorcisms, who still had nightmares about the Blue Night, and he screamed.
Arms flailing, he rolled froward into the bush, protecting his head with his hands. In the protective shape of a ball, he held back tears and eventually rage as familiar laughter hit his ears. Miwa helped him out of the bush as he and Bon glowered at Kinzou Shima, who was still giggling. Next to him, Juuzou fought to keep a straight face.
"Mom was getting worried when you all skipped out on dinner so she told us to come and find you before you froze to death," Juuzou said, offering Renzou a hand and helping him to his feet. He tugged the hat from the branches of the bush and plopped it lopsided on his little brother's head.
"Figures you would come out here after Suguro-sensei told you that dumb witch story. You know he makes that up for all the kids, right? Just to spook them." Kinzou gave Bon a pointed look as he wiped his runny nose on the back of his hand. "Yeah, Bocchan?"
Bon ignored him and pointed at the shrine. "She was going to show up before you idiots came and scared her away."
"Look, you wanna be exorcists then it takes a lot more than scaring your mothers half to death by sitting out in the cold all night. C'mon, we're going home." Juuzou herded the younger boys back to the path.
Renzou looked from his disappointed friends back over his shoulder to the shrine. There was nothing ghostly or spooky about it and though he knew for a fact that demons existed, he doubted he'd ever be someone fighting them. Every loss they'd encountered in their lives had been because of demons, but that didn't drive him to revenge or defeat. It made him sad, in the pit of his heart, knowing that lives could be taken so easily by something like a snowstorm and yet no one in his life passed like that.
"It's too bad it was just a dumb story," Miwa said, looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry I got all caught up in the mystery, you guys. I should've, uh, researched it more."
"Maybe it's for the best," Renzou said. "Ghosts are pretty sad after all, aren't they? I mean they can never move on or be happy again."
Bon remained quiet as they walked. Juuzou ruffled Renzou's hat, brushing snow from it down the back of his coat.
"That's very compassionate of you, Ren-kun."
"Don't call me that," Renzou grumbled, pushing his hat up out of his eyes. The next second a snowball hit him on the side of the face.
"Ten points!" Kinzou shouted, throwing his arms in the air.
"Oi!" Renzou wiped the slush from his face and knelt down to make his own snowball when Bon placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked down at Renzou sternly.
"I've got this." Bon scooped up some snow and packed it together roughly and flung it at Kinzou, hitting him square on the nose. He staggered backwards and was pelted with another ball of slush on his forehead. Bon and Renzou stared at Miwa.
"Good shot," Juuzou commented, tossing his own snowball at his younger brother so that Kinzou finally flopped over into the snow. "Nice arm, Koneko-kun."
"Thanks, but really it's just knowing how to use physics proper-" Miwa flew backwards in a burst of white flakes.
"HA!" Kinzou got up, another snowball in hand. He threw it at Bon, who dodged it easily so that Renzou who was standing behind him took the full brunt.
"Ow." Renzou rubbed his chest.
"Sorry. Here." Bon placed a lumpy chunk of snow in his hand. "We're going to win and create a deep rift within your family."
"Sure thing, Bocchan." Renzou grinned.
Until the sky turned from a dusky winter haze to a deep starlit inky black, the boys played in the snow, their layers of clothing sopping wet by the end. Renzou laughed the whole time so that the ghostly howling in the wind never reached his ears.