Activating Fear

Disclaimer: I don't own Nurarihyon no mago or any of its characters

The sun had already set as a dark, star-filled sky began to blanket the sky of Toono. The dining area was as it always was during a meal: noisy chatters from other yokai echoed through the room while everyone enjoyed their food. Reira, Yukari, Amezo and Dohiko were all chatting amongst themselves as well but the blonde yokai remained silent. She did not speak throughout the entire time period spent in the dining hall. Instead she simply sat, quietly eating and occasionally listening in on conversations around her. At the moment, the only thing that was on Awashima's mind was the certain favour that Yusuke had asked of her.

"Can you...do me a favour?"

"Uh, sure...what is it?" Awashima replied.

"I...I would like to...activate my fear tomorrow...and...I-I want to learn how to use it...t-to become strong." Yusuke began, her gaze remaining on the floor. Awashima had been taken aback, slightly by the half breed's words. A heavy silence had wrapped around the two of them for a moment before Yusuke continued, her gaze now shooting towards the blonde with a fiery spark of determination lighting up her grey orbs.

"C-could you please help me?" The half demon stammered. Awashima raised a fine brow in slight confusion. Once he had processed her words, his look of uncertainty had been replaced with a wide grin.

"If by "help", you mean spar with you...then I'm in! But just remember; I'm not gonna go easy on you if you really want to become strong." The blonde's words had managed to bring a gleeful smile to Yusuke's lips as the rest of her face lit up.

"Thank you...Awashima." Yusuke spoke, her words coming out soft. "We can meet at the arena tomorrow then."

Awashima was not going to lie. She was terribly curious as to what sort of fear Yusuke did possess. There was a high chance that she could have a very unthreatening, weak fear. If that were the case, then it would be pointless to have her train if she would not even be able to win a single battle. But...if Yusuke were to have a much stronger fear, then that would be a whole other story.

Awashima's eyes drifted towards the two vacant seats next to her, their usual occupants absent. Yusuke had refused to leave until Itaku had woken up, which in other words meant that she would most likely miss dinner. Awashima exhaled loudly before turning her attention back to her food. She continued to eat until she was suddenly interrupted by a harsh sounding voice.

"Hey, Awashima. Where are Itaku and that Yu girl?" said blonde glanced to her side, not too surprised to see that it was Ai who had spoken to her. Awashima did not waste anymore of her precious time to look at Ai; instead she turned back to her food and proceeded to ignore the redhead.

"Hey, I asked you a question. Well? Where are they?" she whispered harshly as a look of impatience swept across her features. The blonde yokai did not spear a glance to Ai as she continued to eat.

"It can't be a coincidence that they're both not here. I know that you know, so tell me, where are they and what are they doing?" Ai asked, much harshly than the other two times. Though Awashima knew that it would be a bad idea to joke around about the matter but she could not hold it back any longer.

"They're eloping." she answered bluntly. Ai's ocean blue eyes grew larger than the moon itself.

"What?!" she screeched, gaining the attention of most of the other yokai in the room. Awashima began to snicker silently at the redhead's reaction. Something told her that she probably wouldn't hear the end of it from Itaku but with a reaction like that, it would be a shame not to keep the train rolling.

"Yeah, she confessed to him just the other day and it turns out that just the other day and it turns out that Itaku had feelings for her too." Awashima tried her hardest to stifle the laughter that desperately wanted to escape as Ai bolted to her feet with a priceless expression glued to her face.

"What?! B-but why her?! I mean, she's only been here for a week or so, plus she isn't even pretty!" By now, everyone in the room had turned their attention to the screeching Ai as she rambled on about Yusuke's flaws. Awashima could no longer hold in the laughter anymore and began giggling continuously until the redhead had finally picked up on it. Ai quickly ceased rambling and sent the laughing blonde a piercing death glare. Awashima always knew that Ai wasn't the brightest yokai in Toono but she had no idea that she could be that stupid.

"That is not funny!" she yelled, clearly very angry. "Fine, if you won't tell me where they are then I'll just go find them myself!" Ai screeched once again while stomping her way towards the sliding, wooden doors and exiting. After a few moments, the room had gone back to the way it previously was, with yokai chatting and eating.

"Great job, Awashima. Now Ai is gonna go bite Yusuke's head off." Amezo spoke between bites of food.

"Eh, she'll be fine." Awashima said as she simply shrugged off the kappa's words as if they held no meaning or truth.

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Itaku slowly pried open his heavy-feeling eyelids. His vision was blurred before blinking a few times to adjust to the lighting in the room. Soon his sight had come back into focus, noticing the ceiling rafters that were above him. He slowly lifted his head up from the pillow. Itaku had a pretty bad headache but had only noticed this fact after sitting up completely and feeling a sharp pain travel up his neck and to his head. Itaku brought his hand up and clutched onto the part of his head that was hurting the most. It took him a moment to collect his thoughts and remember what had happened. Finally the memory had found its way back into his mind after searching for a few seconds. He had been punched, knocked out, defeated if you will, by the weakest yokai in the village; Yusuke. Itaku had to admit that for such a weak girl, she could punch really, really hard.

Itaku took the time to study his surroundings, reeling his eyes around the room. He was in the women's room, lying in someone's bed but he was unsure of whose. The sound of the sliding door opening brought Itaku's attention towards the entering figure.

"Ah, y-you're finally awake!" exclaimed a very familiar, stuttering voice. The voice was unmistakably Yusuke's voice.

That theory was proven even further as the source of the voice dashed to the side of the bed, letting their knees drop to the ground, uncaring of the pain that pricked their knees. It definitely was Yusuke. Her facial expression was a twisted mix of worry and haste as she began to speak again.

"Thank goodness! I was worried that you might never wake up! H-how are you feeling? D-do you need anything?" she continued to throw useless questions at him until Itaku finally interrupted her.

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"Huh? Oh, well, uh...a while-at least almost the whole day?" Yusuke was slightly unsure of her words or at least how to say them. His eyes widened slightly in surprise. He was only expecting an hour or two, not almost the entire day. That fact caused Itaku to be even more curious as to what her fear was and what type of yokai she was. Instead of replying, Itaku slowly touched the bruise on his face with the tip of his fingers. A pair of small, delicate fingers wrapped around his hand, pulling it away from the injury. Itaku glanced questionably at the half demon, awaiting an explanation.

"I don't think you should touch it. You see, I happened to notice something a little strange about it..." the kamaitachi gave Yusuke a more interested look, indicating that he was listening intently before she continued. "Well...instead of being a bruise, it actually turned out to be a burn."

"A burn?" Itaku questioned as the half breed merely nodded.

"It's strange, isn't it? I thought for sure that it was a bruise..." A long and heavy silence enveloped the two yokai as Itaku sat quietly to think things through.

In all honesty, Itaku was a bit surprised. He was sure that Yusuke had punched him and yet he sustained a burn and not a bruise. It is simply common sense to assume that by being punched, one would be left with a swollen wound or a nasty bruise to deal with, especially since the only way you could get burned is by having contact with anything of intense heat such as fire. The only explanation for a strange event such as this would be that...Yusuke's fear...was fire. The fact that that was clear now left only one question remaining: what type of yokai is Yusuke? The most common fire yokai were birds. Could she be some type of Tengu? There was no way of knowing for sure, especially considering how hard it would be to figure out such a fact. It would take a long time before Yusuke could transform into her true form which meant that it would be a while until he would be able to determine that answer. The only other easy way to find that answer would be to ask her. Itaku was not too keen on asking her but unfortunately she was the only one who could easily determine what kind of yokai someone is by just merely looking at them. Besides, if Yusuke turned out to be a powerful yokai then it wouldn't be such a waste to train her. Itaku's train of thought was suddenly broken by a sudden outburst from Yusuke.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" she exclaimed before pulling her sleeve up slightly to reveal her forearm. She had Itaku's bandana tied tightly around her arm. The bandana was free of any blood stains that it had sustained previously when he had used it to wrap her hand. Yusuke untied the red cloth before handing it back to him with a warm smile tugging at the tips of her lips.

"Hm?" Itaku took the bandana from the half breed before examining it intently. She had done a very good job of washing it; in fact it was probably cleaner than it had been before. Once he was finished staring at it, Itaku tied the bandana around his head in the way that he always wore it before getting out of the bed and making his way towards the door.

"H-hey, w-where are you going?" Yusuke stammered as she scrambled to her feet.

"I have to go talk to someone." was all he spoke before exiting the room, leaving a very confused Yusuke.

"Talk to someone? Who?" she asked, mostly to herself.

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Awashima stood impatiently tapping his foot on the ground. He had been waiting there for at least half an hour. He wasn't sure what was keeping Yusuke.

"If she doesn't get here in the next ten minutes, I'm leaving." Awashima spat impatiently. Just as he had said that, a small cry rung through the forest.

"S-sorry I'm late!" Awashima's head spun around to Yusuke who was breathlessly running towards him. She stopped in front of him, dropping her hands to her knees in a desperate attempt to catch her breath.

"If you're going to be late like this every time we spar than you might as well find someone else to help you." Awashima spoke sternly.

"R-right...sorry, Awashima." Yusuke spoke between breaths. Once she had finally caught her breath, Yusuke regained her posture.

Awashima quickly shook off the small event before turning on his heel and jumping up onto the arena (which was empty at the time, considering how early in the morning it was). Yusuke soon followed suit. Once she was on the arena, standing parallel to the blonde yokai, she gave a slight shiver.

"Wow, its cold this morning." Yusuke spoke as she began to rub her arms in an attempt to gain some warmth.

"It's normally like this; we were just experiencing a heat wave here in Toono." Yusuke's eyes widened slightly.

"You mean the weather that we've been experiencing before is considered a heat wave in Toono?"

"Pretty much."

"Ugh, I can't even begin to imagine how bad it will be in winter." Yusuke let out a small sigh before brushing the matter off. Awashima did the same.

"Alright, so you know how to activate fear, right?" Yusuke nodded her head in reply. "Good. Now then, I want you to activate it and see if you can bring fear to me."

"O-okay." Yusuke stuttered. She began with calming her mind; the first step in activating fear.

This was it. She would now find out what her fear was and whether it was strong or weak. Either way, she did not want to wait any longer. Yusuke allowed the large urging, aura inside of her to break free of the prison she had created for it. As she did so, a sudden and powerful energy began to flow around Yusuke. Awashima's eyes widened in surprise at the power of the energy: of Yusuke's fear. The sudden flow had sent Awashima stumbling back slightly. Her fear was burning hot, causing Awashima to feel as if he were being engulfed in the flames of a fire. He was taken aback by the fact that Yusuke had managed to bring so much fear on her first try. Awashima had expected a much weaker fear which only added to his surprise.

Suddenly the immense and burning energy disappeared all at once, causing the crisp, cold air to continue nipping at Awashima's warm skin. The blonde's eyes remained wide as he stared at Yusuke in amazement. Said half breed allowed her gaze to fall to the ground in a sheepish manner.

"S-so...uh, how did I do?" Awashima could not find the words to respond to Yusuke's question. Instead, he merely replied with a simple "Wow."

"Huh?" A look of slight confusion swept over the half demon's pale features.

"Yusuke...your fear, it's...so strong." Awashima managed to speak, finally after what seemed like centuries. Yusuke soon bared a similar look of surprise on her face at the blonde's words.

"R-really? My fear is...strong?" It only took a few moments for Awashima to recover from his amazement and surprise, replacing them with a large grin.

"Alright! This is going to be awesome! I've never sparred with a fire yokai before!" he exclaimed with obvious excitement as he wrapped his arm around the stunned Yusuke. She couldn't believe her ears. Her fear was actually strong. It took Yusuke a moment before she had finally processed what Awashima had said.

"Wait, fire yokai? Are you saying that...my fear is...fire?" Yusuke questioned. If her fear really was fire, then that would explain why Itaku got a burn and not a bruise when she had punched him.

"Yeah! Just wait 'till I tell the others, won't they be surprised. But before we do anything else, we're gonna have to find you a weapon."

"A weapon?"

"Uh-huh, what else are you supposed to spar with?" Awashima replied as-a-matter-of-factly. "C'mon, let's go." He released his hold on the half breed before making his way to the edge of the arena. Yusuke still stood, dumbfounded by the entire series of events. All within just half an hour or so, she had learned that her fear was fire and it was a very strong one at that. She stood still for a few more moments in deep thought, processing everything very slowly before snapping her head up at the sound of Awashima calling out to her.

"Ah, coming!" Yusuke yelled back as she began to jog towards the blonde yokai who had already managed to get a fair distance away from her.

Once Yusuke had caught up to her, she remained silent for the rest of the walk back to the temple, despite the large, happy smile that had curled onto her face as she walked next to Awashima. Once the two had reached the temple, Awashima lead the way down a flight or two of stairs to, what looked to be a storage room. The room was relatively large with dust covered floor boards, making it obvious that the room was not entered often. The storage room was almost pitch dark if not for the small rays of light seeping through the slight cracks and openings in the floor above. There was barely room to move around since most of the area was occupied by huge piles of crates, old weapons and other junk, all blanketed in a thick coat of dust. Awashima hastily sped towards one of the unorganized piles, speaking something along the lines of "Ah, there it is." Yusuke shot curious glances in all directions as she examined the objects within the storage room that stunk with age.

The sudden loud sound of falling items, toppling over each other attacked Yusuke's sensitive ear drums. Her head shot towards the source, realizing that her friend was nowhere in sight. Anyone with common sense could realize what had happened.

"Ah, Awashima!" Yusuke cried, clear anxiety building up in her voice. The half breed ran towards the messy pile, grabbing hold of Awashima's flailing arm. Yusuke pulled as hard as she could until Awashima's body was already half pulled out from under the "rubble". The blonde left out a few coughs as he desperately attempted to hack up however much dust he had managed to swallow.

"Damn it! Why can't they ever clean up down here?" Awashima spat in frustration as he pulled out the rest of his body.

"Are you okay?" Yusuke asked with a frown. Awashima began brushing off the dust that clung to him, muttering complaints and occasionally sneezing as he did so.

"Man, I think I have dust in my eyeballs." the blonde-haired yokai said as he rubbed his eyes with his hands. Once he was sure that there was no more dust clinging to him, Awashima turned pack to the pile of junk that had just toppled onto him and picked up a long, sheathed blade. He turned back around and handed the blade to Yusuke.

"Here, this used to be my old sword but I don't use it anymore, so it's yours." Awashima spoke before brushing himself off once again for good measure.

Yusuke glanced at Awashima before staring back at the blade, examining it intently. The handle was a simple black with gold trim. The sheath on the other hand was a dark, dull blue with prints of beautiful, white cherry blossoms on it. She examined it with a look of pure awe, admiring its fine detail. Yusuke wrapped her slender fingers around the sword's hilt, pulling out the blade as slowly as possible in order to get a good look at the blade itself. The sword was as clean as a mirror, making it easy for Yusuke to see her own reflection, clearly as she marveled at its beauty.

"W-wait, if this was originally yours then...wouldn't you rather treasure it instead of simply giving it to me? I mean, doesn't it mean a lot to you?" Yusuke asked while allowing the blade to slide back into its scabbard.

"Well it's only been collecting dust in here besides, I have this blade now, and I don't need that one." Awashima replied, simple shrugging off Yusuke's concerns. Yusuke's pale face lit up with joy as she threw her arms around the blonde without warning. Awashima tensed at the half breed's sudden actions as he awkwardly tried to pry her off of him.

"Hey, I'm a guy right now, remember?" Awashima said, finally managing to escape the awkward gesture.

"O-oh, right, sorry about that." Yusuke apologized, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "...Thank so much, Awashima." she added afterwards while clutching the sword given to her, even tighter. A wide grin found its way onto Awashima's face as he nodded.

"Well what are we waiting for? We have work to do."

Author's note: Well I feel like a horrible person for taking so long with this update, sorry about that but anyways, here you go! You know, I used to update quickly...but then I took an arrow to the knee :3 heh heh heh puns-okay I'll stop ._. Review if you have the time, thanks

~FlammingAxel