Chapter Text
Yato hung upside down out of the window of the tower.
He had hooked his legs over the sill to keep his balance, his arms swaying limply in the light breeze as he stared out at the treetops. It made him feel a bit like laundry left out to dry, especially as wind chilled his sweaty palms, but he figured being laundry was better than waiting antsily in that wretched room.
“Nora, Nora!” He called out to the treetops, imagining she could hear him, wherever she was. “Wherefore art thou, Nora?”
The birds chirped their reply, twittering on in their nests. He could see some of them fluttering from the green forest into the vast blue sky.
He stared down at the sky, starting to feel a bit dizzy. He’d had years of practice hanging from his window, but that didn’t mean it was impossible to lose his balance and break his neck. He closed his eyes, letting the blood rush to his head.
“Noraaa!” He attempted one last time. “Won’t you rescue me already~”
“Quit fooling around, Yato.”
The young man flinched, then grinned as a voice barked at him from inside the room. They must have snuck in while he was distracted.
He pushed back against the stone wall to right himself and sit on the windowsill. The room, predictably, tilted about on its axis, his head swimming. He stayed on the sill to keep from toppling over, fixing his eyes on the white figure waiting impatiently on the carpet.
“Wow, talk about timing. I was just calling you!” Yato declared happily. “You’re a damn good shinki, if I do say so myself.”
“Stop calling me a shinki, and stop calling me Nora.” Hiiro snapped. Her little pout and judgemental, condemning eyes were a regular fixture whenever she came to check on him. “Father will be here in a moment. Have you prepared dinner?”
“Prepared dinner, swept the place clean, sorted the bookcase, read half the books in the bookcase.” The boy counted it off on his fingers. “Did I miss anything?”
“Finishing off the ayakashi, perhaps.” The girl suggested, deadpan.
“You think so low of me, Nora. Of course I killed them, what else do I have to do all day?”
The large wooden door, the only door apart from the bathroom in this tiny circular room, creaked as it was pushed further open. Yato, who had been about to make another wisecrack, fell silent.
A large, imposing figure stepped into the tower, shaggy hair shadowing his eyes. A cold smirk pulled up the man’s lips, though there was not a touch of it that seemed amused.
Nora immediately turned to face their father, stepping in front of Yato as if to shield him. “Father! I was just about to bring him down.” She chirped, a bright smile shining on her cherub-like face.
“You killed all of them, did you?” The rumbling voice murmured.
Realising his hands had come together to nervously knit his fingers together, the boy pulled them apart. “Yeah, I did. It took an hour to find the last one.”
The tall man regarded him appreciatively. His smile curved up, and Yato felt his cheeks pink, hoping for praise.
“Good job, Yaboku.”
A smile immediately flashed on the younger man’s face. His eyes slid down to his re-laced fingers and stayed there. “Thank you, Father.”
Despite the appreciative look, Yato could tell Father was in a bad mood, the same one he’d been in for a week now. His bulky figure stooped, his shaggy hair had grown in streaks of grey. Under the heavy fringe, there were bags ringing his glinting black eyes, and wrinkles surrounding them.
He knew today was the day. Tiring as it was, it would be a relief. They were all happier in the days soon after the cleansing.
“Well.” The older man dusted his hands together, turning to the door. “Time for dinner. What’s on the menu today, son?”
Son . Yato beamed. “Um, leek soup.”
“Leek soup? ” The grimace was back, twisting his mouth down. “Do I leave you nothing in the cupboards?” Yato and Nora winced when he banged his hand against the door, sighing in unison as he stomped down the stairs to their dining room.
The boy shot his sister a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, he’ll love it when he tastes it. He always does.”
“You better hope he does.” She muttered sourly. “Really, leek soup.”
“I was bored, Nora. I wanted to experiment!”
“Experiment with your own soup, then.” She darted a look at him. “He’s going to ask for a cleansing today, again.”
“Hm, I figured.” The boy tapped a finger against his chin. “Aren’t they getting more frequent? I’m exhausted all the time now.”
“Really? Exhausted? You?” Hiiro giggled, much to his delight.
“Of course I can get exhausted! Look at the bags under my eyes!” He gestured exaggeratedly, making her struggle to hold in her laughter. “Just because I’m hyperactive doesn’t mean I’m a god or something!”
“Yaboku! Hiiro!” Their father called from downstairs. Their smiles dimmed ever so slightly.
“Eh. Let’s go serve him, he’ll be waiting like a king at the head of the table.” Yato rolled his eyes, trotting down the stairs. Nora followed him like an undersized shadow, seemingly deep in thought.
After great deliberation, just as they reached the bottom of the stairs, the girl slipped her tiny hand into his.
“I hope your leek soup tastes good.”
“Yukine, I’ve had it with you! If you lie to me again, we can’t be friends anymore!”
Hiyori had successfully broken in her new shoes. Unfortunately, she’d broken them in so well that the soles had begun to squeak. They had been running for two hours now, two damn hours through the woods, pursued by the King’s finest horsemen.
Yukine, the rogue she’d had the misfortune of befriending, mumbled a sheepish apology.
There had been four of them to begin with: her, Yukine, Bisha and Kazuma, but the other two had been sidetracked trying to fight off their pursuers. Being the cowards that they were, Yukine and Hiyori had taken advantage of their distraction to flee with their prize.
Hiyori looked down at the crown in her hands, burning with the feeling of betrayal. Yukine had roped her into this burglary telling her it was a small job, only the matter of taking a pinch of gold from the royal treasury. He hadn’t told her it involved the dead prince’s crown , but perhaps she should’ve expected it.
The kid had always had stickier fingers than what was good for him. His moral compass was a bit...off.
“Hiyori!” He cried, now, grabbing her wrist. “Let’s hide in those bushes!”
“Well, don’t shout it!” The girl glanced over her shoulder into the darkness, crossing her fingers. They seemed to have lost their pursuers for a time. “Okay! Okay, let’s hide!”
Yukine, in response, proceeded to dive into the bushes. Before she could follow, though, the blond boy let out a cry, disappearing into it as if he’d landed in quicksand.
Hiyori’s eyes widened. “Yukine?” She placed her hands on her knees, huffing for breath. She reached out to touch a leaf, recoiling as it let off a faint glow. “Yukine?”
He’d been swallowed by a shrub. There was not a trace of him left.
“Stop! Stop in the name of the King!”
Hiyori’s head whipped up as she heard the horsemen thud through the woods. All she could see was a vision of the gallows waiting for her head.
Damn Yukine. They would hang her for this whether she had the crown or not, but the fact that she did have the crown would only add salt to the wound. She was going to die in disgrace, in the gallows, her parents sobbing in the gallery as the rest of the city jeered.
Well, if she was going to die, so was he!
Her resolve set, without thinking twice, Iki Hiyori leapt headfirst into the bushes, dissolving into a dim glow as the woods faded out of view.
“Relax, Yaboku. It won’t take more than a second.”
Yato sat in his chair, tightening his fists on his lap. He kept his head ducked down, but he was determined to watch, this time. They were in the empty room, a dusty closet-sized nook he only ever entered alone when he was hunting Ayakashi.
“Relax. I won’t tell you again.”
Nora stood in the doorway, he knew, offering what support she could. He took comfort in her presence, slight as it was.
His father loomed before him, a shadow against the torch lit behind him. Yato closed his eyes, trying to stay limp, to relax. It really would only take a second, and he would need to preserve his strength to hunt a new batch of Ayakashi the next day. It wouldn’t do any good to strain himself by resisting.
The book was flipped through with a rustle of pages, though all three of them knew the words to the cleansing well enough to recite it in their sleep.
As the older man began his chant, Yato cracked an eye open to watch the silhouette before him.
A few moments into the first verse, the man he called his father bent in half. His muscles melting away, bones crackling, wrinkles rumpled his perfect skin. Curly hair fell in clumps around him, replaced by a bald, liver-spotted crown. His teeth tumbled out of his mouth, gums red and raw smacking together as he continued to chant.
Hiiro would be looking away by now.
It was in the second verse that the pain began. Yato winced, curling into himself, his hands wrapped around his stomach. It burned, stung, charred his skin, but his father was smiling again. He was glowing .
What had looked like a centuries-old crone was filling out, blushing with colour. Hair corkscrewed out of his scalp, fresh and healthy. His teeth popped back in place, white gems behind his lips.
He finished the second verse with a sneer. Ayakashi erupted from him, bubbling ghosts that absorbed themselves into the walls, chittering and crying out for attention.
Yato’s head was clouded. He doubled over, his head resting on his knee. He pried his eyes open to spot an Ayakashi embedded in the floor at his feet, blinking oversized eyeballs at him.
“Ah, that feels great . Amazing work, Yaboku.”
A hand ruffled his hair. He was tired enough to bat it away.
“Well, you’ll have a busy day tomorrow, but I’m giving you permission to sleep in, okay? You have all week to hunt them down. Get your strength back up.”
Little Hiiro followed them, watching the drama in silence.
All three of them knew how this worked. Yato would give his father a cleansing, his father would return the favour with as much affection as he was capable of, and Hiiro would relish in the harmony of her family. The system worked, it powered itself on Yato’s heart.
That was why his dream was impossible. Bounty-hunters and father alike, they were all greedy for him. Father would never let him leave his accursed tower, even for a day, even if all he wanted was to walk ten yards into the outside world.
It tired him to think of the rest of his life, spent alone with the only family he’d ever had.
His father stopped at his bed, lowering him down gently onto the mattress. Tucking the covers around him, the old man leered, teeth shining white in the moonlight.
“Sweet dreams, my son.”
Outside, allowed in by the momentary lapse of Father’s magical hold on their bubble, two thieves crawled out of a thick bush and stared up at the glimmering Ayakashi streaming out of the window of a tower that reached up into the sky.