Chapter Text
The sun was already high in the sky when Yaboku peeked out of their old hut in the middle of the woods. He looked around just to make sure that Father and Hiiro were indeed gone for the day on yet another mysterious business. To his relief, the coast was clear. Yaboku cast one last doubtful look at the hut and then started running in the opposite direction of where Father and Hiiro had headed not so long ago.
The weather was especially nice that day. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, but the calm wind helped cool down the air just enough to make it pleasantly warm on the skin. Yaboku ran past the trees surrounding their little house, past the golden rice fields with a few farmers that had already started picking their harvest, past the small spring surrounded by waterfalls and sakura trees… The boy barely even noticed all those things. The only thought on his mind revolved around Sakura. Would she even be there to welcome him? She still wasn’t very good at casting borderlines to protect herself from ayakashi, and far too much time had passed since their last meeting. What if when he finally arrived..?
Yaboku’s worries were relieved when Sakura’s hut came into view. She was standing right at the doors as if she was able to sense his arrival. The boy didn't even think about slowing down; instead, he picked up his pace and ran into his shinki at full speed.
“Careful, Yato-sama! You almost knocked me down there.”
There it was, that strange name only Sakura called him. Yato-sama. At this point, Yaboku wasn’t even bothering with his futile attempts to explain to his new shinki that “Yato” wasn’t his real name. He tried to do it a few times before, but with no luck. Sometimes Sakura seemed to miss his words entirely and other times he was interrupted by something or someone. But Yaboku didn’t mind it anymore. More than that, he was growing fond of his new name.
“Your name is Yaboku, the night diviner. I’ll use you to divine the fate of the world of men.”
These were the first words Yaboku heard from Father. He knew who he was from the very beginning. What his purpose was.
A cull.
Yet when Sakura called him Yato-sama he could almost imagine that he was someone else. That it wasn’t his job to fulfil his Father’s wish. Or that maybe, just maybe, there was another way to make Father happy and proud of him. One that did not involve severed ears.
“... hear me, Yato-sama? You kind of spaced out for a bit.”
Sakura’s voice sounded amused, but there was an undertone of worry in it, too. Yaboku shook his head as if attempting to bring his thoughts in order. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Sakura.
But that didn’t mean he was going to let her make fun of him.
“I was just busy, er, thinking. I’m a busy god, you know.”
Sakura laughed. Yaboku couldn’t help but smile, his determination to keep her from poking fun at him, gone. So she was laughing at him. Who cared. As long as she was happy, so was he.
The shinki bent down to ruffle Yaboku’s hair. “Of course you are. Well, I hope your business won’t keep you from going to the market with me?”
“... Business can wait.”
***
Yaboku was eagerly anticipating the moment they would finally arrive at the market. Even though they had been there before several times now, the place would be just as interesting as ever, he knew it. There would be food stalls (that he wasn’t allowed to steal from - apparently his being invisible to most people did not mean he could just walk away with sweets without paying. Or so Sakura said; Father certainly had a different opinion). There would be all sorts of craftsmen, too - blacksmiths and shoemakers and weavers and many more - offering their services to whoever needed them. Yaboku always enjoyed watching them at work. The way they were able to take the most mundane things and turn them into something else - something useful in a completely different way than the raw materials - was mesmerizing. Very different from what he was supposed to do as a god.
But they weren’t at the market yet. Sakura’s house - an abandoned hut Yaboku found near the spring where he named her - was quite far from the town (and even farther from his home, which was very fortunate and very sad at the same time). Of course, the shinki’s safety was the priority, but having a home so far removed from the nearest human settlement meant that getting to the market took considerable time.
This inconvenience did not bother Yaboku at all. The boy was happy to be able to spend as much time as he could with his newest shinki. Sakura was so different from his other one. Not that Yaboku didn’t like Hiiro - she was his sister, after all, and he cared for her deeply both as a master and a family - but she was always so quiet. Contemplating. Secretive. Father said that gods could sense their shinkis’ emotions, good and bad, and Sakura proved his words true, but Yaboku could never tell what Hiiro was thinking, or feeling. Sometimes he wondered if even Father knew what was on that girl’s mind.
Sakura was the opposite of Hiiro. With her, Yaboku didn’t even need that special connection to know when she was happy, or upset, or angry. She laughed when he did or said something silly; smiled and thanked him whenever he would bring her flowers and those tiny frogs that she liked (sometimes both at the same time). She was also quick to chastise him for his misbehavior, although those occasions were becoming ever rarer.
Sakura wore her heart on her sleeve, and her god’s job was to protect it.
They were passing yet another rice field when Yaboku noticed something on the side of the road. His childish curiosity took the better of him. The boy let go of Sakura’s hand and walked towards the small object that lay half-hidden in the yellowing rice stems. When Yaboku came close enough to see what it was, he found himself picking up a tiny crude replica of a horse made entirely of straw. Or maybe it was a cow. The thing was quite poorly put together, so it was hard to guess what it was originally meant to represent.
“Yato-sama? What is it that you found?”
Yaboku showed the horse-cow to his shinki. Sakura looked at it with amusement.
“Oh, it’s a toy! Someone must have lost it. I wonder if the poor child is looking for it.”
Yaboku examined the tiny thing in his hands once more. Why would anyone be looking for this ? It was just a pitiful little horse (or a cow), not even the real deal.
“Sakura… What’s a toy?”
The shinki’s eyes widened. “You really don’t know?”
Well, Yaboku had seen these… toys at the market. Or at least things that resembled them. But he never knew what they were used for. He could understand why people needed clothes, and shoes, and spoons, and plates, and many other things. And he knew all too well what blades were for.
What was the purpose of this thing?
When Yaboku looked up at Sakura, her expression was soft and gentle. She took his hands into her own and gave the boy one of those smiles he was always seeking for.
“A toy is something that children play with to entertain themselves. Don’t you ever play, Yato-sama?”
“From now on, I want you to go out together, whenever you want… and play to your hearts’ content.”
Play. That was the word Father used whenever he sent Yaboku and Hiiro to yet another unsuspecting village soon to be destroyed by blade and water. But Sakura couldn’t possibly have meant that. Yaboku still remembered how she stung him when he tried to play with Ōki for the first and the last time.
Something children play with to entertain themselves.
Yaboku was entertained when Father sent him and Hiiro on their jobs. At least he used to be, though he didn’t enjoy it as much these days. Still, Hiki was an incredible weapon. Light and durable, she never got in his way, despite being almost as long as he was tall, and she could turn to water, too. Wielding Hiki felt as natural as breathing regardless of what his feelings towards his job were.
If Yaboku played with Hiki, did that make her his toy? Ōki, too?
No. Hiki - Hiiro was his sister. And Sakura was-
Yaboku studied humans even before his shinki set to show him what they were really like. Of course, back then, before their encounter at the spring, he wouldn’t look at them for too long - couldn’t. After all, Father instructed him to never talk to strangers. Still, Yaboku would catch glimpses of what humans’ lives were like - before they were cut short by Hiki. By him.
Another thing Father had taught him was family.
That’s what they were, the three of them. Father was, well, a father. He looked after them, prepared their food, and taught them to read and write. He told Yaboku everything he needed to know about gods, spirits, and shinki. He protected them from wild ayakashi, and disciplined them when they misbehaved.
Hiiro was Yaboku’s sister. Unlike him, she wasn’t born from Father, but it didn’t really matter. Hiiro was kind to him. She trimmed his hair and listened to his ramblings long into the night. Hiki was also the weapon he used to carry out his Father’s wish. She never failed him on that front, either. Whenever Yaboku got distracted or unwilling she would step up and finish the job and make sure that Father’s wolf ayakashi had nothing to bite into when the children would get home.
However, Yaboku learned soon enough that human families had more than three people. Not all of them, of course; some had even fewer. There were also some families just like theirs, sure; but most of them had someone Yaboku thought he would never have. Not until Sakura sought him out and asked him to give her a name.
No, Yaboku didn’t have any toys.
The boy slowly shook his head, answering Sakura’s question.
“Well, that won’t do. You may be a god, Yato-sama, but you are also a child. Oh, I know! What if we made some for you?”
Make toys? Yaboku was about to say no, they should really get going so that they could spend enough time at the market for Yaboku to return home before Father and Hiiro -
The thought of the market brought to his mind the craftsmen he admired. What if Yaboku indeed tried making his own toy? Would that make him a craftsman, too? Would he be able to turn something raw into something beautiful? Maybe his toy would even look like a proper horse. Or a cow.
‘Y-yeah. Let’s do it.”
Finding the materials wasn’t that difficult, as it was already the harvest season. After asking for a bunch of rice straw and some rope from a nice old farmer - who seemed to immediately forget about them as soon as they were out of his field of vision - Yaboku and Sakura sat on a fallen tree trunk not far from the place where they found the toy. The boy doubted anyone was looking for the thing, but they decided to stay there just in case - at least until they were finished with their own creations.
They both examined the horse-cow from head to toe to understand how it was made. It seemed simple enough to replicate; however, Yaboku didn’t know how Sakura would react if he suggested using Ōki to cut the straw and the ropes into smaller pieces. After the horse incident, Yaboku didn’t completely trust his judgement and only ever summoned her when Sakura asked him to. Luckily, she offered the same thing. Soon enough they both had small heaps of straw and ropes ready to be turned into toys.
Yaboku was pleasantly surprised when his hands started working on the tiny horse he was going to make. He was determined to make it look like one, and not like a cow. Even though he had never done this before, making a small body and attaching even smaller legs, tail, head, and mane came easy. Yaboku glanced sideways at Sakura and noticed with pride that, while her toy was decent to look at, his looked a lot better. It was cute and neat and looked very much like the real thing and -
“Excuse me, have you seen a toy here? It’s a horse.”
A child’s voice made Yaboku stop admiring his creation and look up. A girl no older than six stood in front of him, her feet covered in dust, her eyes red-rimmed and a little puffy. Her hands, also somewhat dusty, wouldn’t stop fidgeting.
Sakura smiled and showed the girl the horse-cow that Yaboku had picked up from the road. “I believe it’s yours, then? Here, you can have it back.” The shinki put the toy into the girl's hands. “We’ve also made a couple of new ones as well. Would you like a new toy? Yours seems to be a little old.”
The girl looked at them with unending gratitude.“Thank you! N-no, I don’t want another, just this one. My- my brother made it for me before he went to join the sōhei .” She bowed to both of them and then quickly ran towards the town.
Yaboku looked at the miniature horse in his hands. He clearly misjudged the thing’s importance when he first picked it up. He put the toy aside and took another heap of straw. Sakura silently did the same. Soon they were out of straw and ropes, surrounded by a dozen tiny animal replicas instead.
“Do you really want these many toys, Yato-sama?” Sakura teased her master with a wide grin on her face.
“No, I… I thought that maybe there were other children who had lost their toys.” Or never had any to begin with. “I thought we could give these to them.”
Sakura looked at him again. She had the same gaze as when they saved that man that got tangled in his horse’s reins.
***
The miniature zoo that Yato and Sakura had created vanished not long after they finally came to the market. The children there really were happy to get new toys, even if the straw animals wouldn’t last long. Sakura enjoyed watching them play around with her and Yato’s gifts. She only wanted to make a couple of toys for Yato, but they ended up using all the materials that the nice farmer gave them. And while her own god had nothing to play with now, seeing other children be happy because of something they created together was fulfilling on its own.
Though Sakura wasn’t sure if Yato felt the same way. She could tell that something was different about her master now. After the last toy was given away, they went around the market, and Yato never once tried to steal some sweets while she wasn’t looking, nor did he pay attention to the crowd.
He was silent all the way back to her hut, too. Sakura wondered what she was supposed to do about him. Yato was just a child, yes, but he was also a god. The girl still remembered how angry her previous master, Sugawara no Michizane, could get, as well as that time when Yato... when he…
Suddenly Sakura felt a lump in one of her sleeves. That was it! She remembered now that she had tucked away one little toy to give to her master later. Of course, now that they knew how to make straw horses, cows, dogs, and even mice, they could make a new batch any time. But this one still felt special. Maybe it would alleviate Yato’s mood?
“Yato-sama, I-”
“Sakura...” The boy’s tone was way too serious for his age. Or at least the age he looked, since Sakura didn’t know how old Yato was. That was the trouble of being his shinki, she hardly knew anything about him. Did he have other shinki? Where would he be off to after leaving her little hut near the spring? What was this “business” he was thinking about earlier?
“I want to make more.”
Sakura smiled at him. Maybe she was overthinking things after all. He really was a child, wasn’t he?
“More toys? Of course, we can, Yato-sama! There is plenty of straw to go around.”
Yato shook his head. His gaze was turned to the ground. Sakura wondered why he wouldn’t look at her.
“Not just toys. Other things, too. I want to be like those craftsmen. To,” he paused, “to give to people.”
“It appears his heart is capable of caring for those beneath him.”
Sakura knew that, of course, even without Tsuyu spelling it out to her. And she could see it clearly now. She smiled again, softly.
“Actually, I have something to give to you, too.”
Yato finally looked up at her with those big blue eyes. Still beaming, Sakura reached into her sleeve and produced the tiny straw horse that she’d made. For him. Yato took it from her carefully, not unlike the girl they met earlier.
“You can do it, Yato-sama. If you set your heart to it and work hard, you will. And one day you will become a great god. One who can make people happy.”
I believe in you.