Nurarihyon no Mago/ぬらりひょんの孫 1. Chapter 1- Beginning's Goodbye

_"Then how about Purin for pudding?"_

_He frowned and looked onto the ground. "Because of Maki?"_

_"You dislike it?"_

_"No-... It's... ok." _

_"But?"_

_"It's unmanly."_

_A slight twitch on the corner of the lips told him that she was amused by his proclamation, causing him to further shrink into himself and glare balefully onto the ground._

_"If that's the case then I suppose we'll have to change it...", she tipped her head to a side and then smiled at him. "Rin. That isn't unmanly, right?"_

_"That's a girl's name."_

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><p>Despite the fact that it would be the last time they would sing together, the graduating class together with the lower classes and teachers, they might or might not be happy to never see again, not many people paid attention, the majority only singing the lines to get over it already, occupied with bigger things than a school song. What did it matter that it would be the last time they'd see this school grounds? He was sure that most of them felt relieved they could start anew in middle school.<p>

When the song finally finished and the principal entered the podium again, a general sense of excitement from the graduating class could be perceived, many of them craning their necks to see their parents before their big moment.

After a few short sentences where nobody bothered to listen to the supposedly heartfelt words of the principal, a female teacher entered the stage, clothed in a hakama, smiling at her students with real warmth. She was new at this school, having only started teaching this year but he had appreciated her enthusiasm in his last school year in elementary school. Seeing as they had five graduating classes this year, he knew it would take a while for his name to be called so he leaned back on his chair and watched as the students got their diplomas, clapping when it was due and nodding or smiling in acknowledgement when he knew the person.

It took longer than he thought to distribute the diplomas, so then they finally reached class 3-E, he could hear a few relieved sighs when his class was allowed to queue up. After that nobody spoke anymore and they walked in a straight line, only taking ninety degrees turns when necessary at a deliberate slow pace as if to savour the moment. He had to clench his hands to remind himself that this was procedure and he couldn't interrupt it no matter the fact that he had more important things to do.

Only minutes later it was his turn get his diploma when he heard the name "Saga Minoru." being called and he quickly replied with the standard answer "Yes!" hoping not to prolong the ceremony. He walked towards the principal who picked up said diploma without preamble from the tray the teacher clothed in hakama was holding in her hands, turned it around to face him in order to be able to hand it to him. With what he hoped wasn't too much vigour he quickly used his left and then his right hand to grab the diploma before stepping back to exchange a bow with the principal. After having slowly closed the diploma, he folded it under his left hand before turning and walking away.

Feeling more relieved than he cared to admit he quickly made place for the people still left and walked together with them towards their seats, only to stop halfway to bow at the special guests. When they were all seated again, the principal held another speech, followed by the head of the PTA.

After that it was the cue of the new student president to hold her speech what she did with relish and more joy in her voice than Minoru was sure he could have managed in a whole year.

Surprisingly no further speeches followed and the graduates were finally free to stalk around to relieve memories or to simply converse with their former peers and family.

It also was his cue this time to leave the place as quickly as possible before Yura could make an appearance. While leaving the school grounds in a fast pace trying not to succumb to just high-tailing out of the danger zone, he replied casually to people calling out to him, without paying attention to the things he said as an excuse to leave without either giving away his second button, chattering with his friends, acquaintances, or random people, making photos and falling into the arms of his own family tearfully like some other people were doing.

When he was sure that nobody would be able to see him anymore, he started sprinting towards his place, using the shortcut he had found a few years ago out of coincidence. Unfortunately, Yura had found out that said 'shortcut' involved balancing precariously on walls, combined with jumping from small ledges and had forbidden him from using it ever again. Something he hadn't exactly listened to but since she didn't know he had been using it cheerfully even after her warning, she wouldn't think of looking for him in this route after all these years. Especially because she didn't think he had a reason to.

Like he knew her, she was still searching for him in his school, too proud to ask people until she was asked or really frustrated.

Ignoring the dirty look a cat graced him with when she had to leave her sunbathing place on the wall she had been laying on, he used the leverage he had from sprinting the whole time to jump from the wall on his small balcony, almost falling down because his hand was too slick with sweat after running so much to grab the smooth wood. Slowly, so as not to slip, he heaved himself up, feeling satisfied that he had only taken seven minutes, a new record.

He quickly closed the window, changed his clothing to casual outwear, took his backpack and a suitcase that held everything he needed or was really valuable -monetary or just concerning his emotions- and left the small flat he had lived in his whole life together with his mum without as much as a goodbye. After reaching the first floor, he only stopped to throw the keys to the flat together with a letter addressed to Yura into the mailbox of the landlord who had agreed beforehand to give the letter to her if she asked for him and continued walking without any hesitation straight to the train station where he entered the train, he had already bought the tickets for the day before, three minutes before the departure.

Considering the fact that the train was set to leave twenty minutes after the estimated time the graduation ceremony was supposed to end, Yura had probably already gotten wind of the fact that he had left after the ceremony and was following one of the many trails he had left into some random location, cursing all the while. The thought lightened his sober mood, making him relax for the first time that day, seeing as he was finally doing something productive instead of losing even more time than he already had. Not wanting anything to disturb his plan he shortly surveyed the occupants of the train, only to frown when he realized that the train was as good as empty only a handful elderly man and woman combined with a few teenagers probably skipping school and two or three adults filling the compartment not even to a third.

Should somebody ask the conductor they would be able to find out what train he had taken in an instant. Sighing, he put away the ticket that would bring him to his destination without any detours and instead took out the ticket to Aratama Town. It was situated only a few stations after this one but seeing as the town was big enough to have its own schools, he was sure that the station would be full of pre-teens and teenagers eagerly awaiting to enter the train.

Even the strictest conductor wouldn't be able to remember one black haired, brown eyed around twelve year old Japanese boy amongst dozens of other Japanese around that age with similar features if he paid attention to hide the suitcase and maybe backpack if possible.

Like he had expected no incident occurred between the times he had entered the train until it left the station. He absentmindedly checked his new mobile phone for the time and was unsurprised to see that the train had started moving exactly on time. The mobile phone he had only bought about one week before the graduation ceremony was slightly larger than his old one he had also left behind when he had left his home enclosed in the envelope he had instructed the landlord to give Yura. To be fair had it not been possible to track mobile phones he'd have gladly taken it with him but he couldn't risk Yura finding out where he was so that was out of question.

Nowadays you could download a program to track mobile phones using a search engine after all.

Seeing as he had to get used to his new mobile phone whether he wanted to or not, he randomly started to tap on icons, feeling less pleased by the mobile phone by the minute. It was absolutely void of games or anything interesting to spend your time with and he didn't have any access to the internet on it because he hadn't wanted to spend his money on something like that. Normally he wouldn't have been disturbed by that but knowing that he had nothing to do but to read a dictionary (one of the only things you could do on his phone for a prolonged amount of time) until he had reached Aratama Town was souring his mood.

Around twenty minutes later, Minoru was finally free to depart from the train after almost being squashed to death by a crowd consisting of people of all ages. They were all chattering loudly while paying absolutely no attention to their surroundings. That included elbowing, pushing and stepping on the feet of innocent bystanders that wanted to leave the train before it departed again.

"Honestly...", he wheezed. Looking around he could see even more students than he had expected, even subtracting the people that had just rushed into the train. Not to mention the families of said students still clustering around single people he identified to be graduates by the fact that they were wearing school uniforms with badges or still held the diploma to show off, smiling all the while. Good thing that he had taken off his school uniform considering that his school uniform would have stood out like a sore thumb. Without anything revealing his former affiliation he could easily pass as a family member of one of these happy graduates without any problems.

Thankful that his plan had started to show the fruits of his work, he quickly bought a ticket to Ukiyoe Town, his actual goal, after looking at the time table and waited until the train arrived to board it with the other passengers. As he had expected nobody bothered to pay any attention to him during the whole duration of the ride, making it easy for him to enjoy the moment of silence by using the dictionary to expand his vocabulary in English.

After around one hour add or take a few minutes he had to exit the train again when the people he was sitting with to pretend that he belonged with them left the train. Of course he could always have stayed but he didn't want to increase the percentage of somebody remembering him. So he ignored the slightly suspicious look the father of the family graced him with and followed them just to enter the train again with another cluster of people, making sure he entered a different compartment. Fortunately that was the last time he had to pull something extravagant to stay unnoticed because the family he had used to become part of the picture stayed behind when he left the train to enter Ukiyoe Town to continue their own voyage.

Making sure that he had everything before the train departed, he held onto his luggage with a little bit more power than strictly necessary and slowly left the train station of Ukiyoe Town. Remembering that he had to meet his new landlord he had already cleared everything with before arriving, he tried to navigate himself by using the picture on his mobile phone he had shot of the city plan. It thankfully wasn't quite as difficult as he had expected to and he found said building at a reasonable enough time.

He chimed after checking that it really was the right address and when he didn't hear anything, he used the time he had to reasonably wait until he could chime again by surveying the facade of the house. It looked more run down than his former place did and also looked about twenty years older, being purely made out of wood with creaky old stairs and a rusty staircase. Without his special circumstances he wouldn't ever have really considered staying here but he supposed when money was scarce a person would life anyplace that would give them a roof over the head. Minoru knew he could be happy that his mum had always valued saving money notwithstanding her normal carelessness considering everything else or his situation would be way direr than it was right now.

When nobody answered after ten minutes, he pressed the chime again, fervently hoping that the landlord wasn't unavailable today or he would have to stay awake the whole night wandering the streets. In consideration of the amount of missing reports being filled, he could surely say that that wouldn't be favourable.

Loud cursing could be heard before footsteps neared the door he was standing in front of, making him open up some space out of politeness before the door was opened with a bang and beady eyes glared up on him. The woman standing in front of him was surprisingly around 5 cm smaller than him, compared to the average Japanese woman which was around 152.4 cm there was a big difference in height, around 9.5 cm. She was also wearing a swimming suit for some reason that looked distressingly enough like an modern school swimsuit that was showing of her curves magnificently thus baring the fact that her skin had started to hang instead of being elastic to everyone.

"Gyaah! You pervert!", she screeched, threw a frog purse into his face and then slammed the door into his face, leaving him in an horrified state staring at the door after seeing an old woman show more skin than he ever wanted to see. Only a few minutes after Minoru had contemplated ringing the door again, the door was opened by the woman, leaving him to quickly put down his arm that had been awkwardly hovering over the doorbell.

"Seriously...", she shot him a dirty look. "Brat what are you waiting for?"

She stared at him for some seconds until he remembered the frog purse she had thrown at him and picked up said purse to hand it to her. With a nod she acknowledged said action only to proceed to stare at him again and he took it as his tip-off to state why he had bothered to disturb her in the first place.

"I am Saga Minoru, I have contacted you a few weeks prior to talk about-"

"Fine, fine. I remember. Give me your papers."

Deciding to just go with whatever he quickly handed her the papers, hoping that she wouldn't prod too much. The woman's face scrunched up while reading prompting him to speak up. "About those papers, I am sure that you must be confused why I am the one to-"

He stopped speaking when she just went into the house without saying anything. "What are you-? Tanaka-san?"

A few seconds later she came back shoving a contract into his face, looking unrepentant. "The contract."

"Wh- Excuse me?"

"Sign there, I don't need to read the papers to know they're probably all fake but seeing as you gave me back my purse I'll overlook it. Though, I'll say I don't know anything when the police comes to collect you as a runaway."

"I'm not a runaway. And these papers are-"

"Nonsense. Look boy, I said I don't care if you do drugs, become a prostitute or break the law in some other way as long as it doesn't bother the neighbours enough to bother _me_. That's the rule; don't bother me and we're fine. Included in that rule is that you have to pay the rent punctually if I don't have the rent when the day it's due is over you're out no matter the reason. Got it brat?"

"Understood."

"Then sign this and get out of my face."

He quickly scribbled his signature in the required field before it was already snatched out of his hand.

"Your keys. The room is situated on the second floor the third room", the keys were pressed into his hands before the door was slammed shut again and he was left alone to find his room.

Not knowing whether he should be happy or unhappy with the way the conversation had went, he decided that he would just think of it as a stroke of luck even if it was unfortunate that she had known that the papers were fake. He would have liked to ask her how she had come to the conclusion to stop that from happening again but that would have meant admitting to them being fake and even worse bothering her.

A glance at the papers told him nothing new than what he'd already known, they were good, they probably weren't perfect but they should have been enough to fool anyone who wasn't used to identifying such things and it wasn't like he had written anything unrealistic either. According to his papers he was still a twelve year old Japanese boy without any noteworthy records.

"'I don't need to read the papers to know they're probably all fake', huh?" Seemingly he had found somebody really interesting as his first connection in this town.

He found his room quite easily and like he had expected, the room looked even worse than the outside of the building. The door couldn't be opened without it screeching loud enough for Minoru to flinch just out of sheer volume, the floor creaked ominously under his weight, no bathing facilities were available, the wood of the surfaces belonging to the kitchen especially around the old fashioned sink was deformed because it had absorbed too much water, the table had one leg that was mended with tape and the toilet stubbornly refused to flush correctly. Not to forget there was also mold in the W.C.

Seemingly his shopping list had just grown marginally. A quick look to his mobile phone told him that it was 6:40 pm, he had arrived somewhere around six and had spent more than half an hour to check out his flat to find out what he would need. The most important thing for now was a futon to sleep in, even more important than groceries. Had he been able to he would have brought the one he had left at home- at his old place- but it was too bulky to go by unnoticed.

Not wanting to lose more time, he quickly left his room, taking only his backpack and his new acquired key along and locked the door behind him before walking around in the town to hunt down a cheap futon.

One hour and ten minutes later he felt like pulling out his hair when he hadn't found anything under the price of 12000 Yen. For a futon it wasn't even expensive but it was quite sadly over his budget if he wanted for the money to hold him over water for some time. It was already bad enough that the school uniform of Ukiyoe Middle School had turned out to be more expensive than expected.

Feeling exhausted he decided to at least get something to eat for tomorrow and continue his search for a futon tomorrow, even if it meant sleeping on the floor.

He quickly entered the nearest convenience store he could see before the shops closed and walked around searching for the least inexpensive instant meal and bento he could find until he stopped short in front of a futon set crammed in the back of the store. The price tag read 5000 Yen, less than half than the others. Unfortunately it was also out of the packaging, making him unsure whether it was just outside so that it could be presented better or because it had been already used. It didn't _look _used but he knew that that didn't mean anything. Opting to challenge his luck, he quickly went to the cash register to speak with the clerk.

"About that futon set in the back-"

"Ah, that", the middle aged man behind the counter rasped out thoughtfully, his voice sounding hoarse. "Interested?"

"Well, I have been wondering whether it's used, seeing as there is no description."

"And the price set you off, huh?", he smiled ruefully. "That futon was for the fiancée of my son."

"Was?"

"She went missing half a year ago, presumably dead. It's nothing to wonder about anymore, the rate of kidnapping and murder has been rapidly rising since around seven years ago and hasn't been slowing down since. It's been lying around in my house for that time but it never was used."

"And you want to get rid of it as quickly as possible."

"Exactly. If you want you can even have it for free. It has been lying around for a long time after all."

A futon meant for a probably dead fiancée and the man who would like nothing more than to forget it. Honestly, seemingly the things he had been hearing about eastern Japan were true.

"I'll take it."

A smile was send in his way but Minoru was sure that it hadn't been a happy one or even a self-satisfied one. It merely looked relieved, also a little bit thankful but mostly sad. The man vanished for a short time to bring him the futon while he put his purchases onto the counter. He didn't have to wait long before the futon set was set in front of him, the man had put it in an oversized plastic bag so that it would be easier to transport it, a thoughtful action Minoru thanked him for, before he paid for the rest of his purchases, the man staying true to his word of not wanting anything for his futon, and left the convenience store a little bit over 8 pm.

The walk to his new home was peaceful and he didn't end up seeing anything unusual even though he was on the outlook.

Immediately upon the arrival at his home, he put his table aside and placed his bag on the floor to make place to start putting a cover on the futon set he had brought with from Kyoto. Since it was routine to do that, it didn't take long until he was able to throw himself haphazardly down so that he could relax by closing his eyes and calming down for a second. He took a few deep breaths and tried to empty his head of the thoughts that had been racing through his head the whole day and instead to pay more attention to the surroundings, when he after some time became able to hear the birds outside and the neighbours around him, he deemed it a success and slowly started to stand up again, feeling a little bit reanimated. Because he didn't want to take everything along when he went to a public bath, he quickly emptied his backpack on the futon, swearing to deal with that mess later onward and only took a little bit money, a change of clothes and soap with him so that he would be able to buy the necessities in the bathhouse.

This time the streets were emptier when he left the house and he could see the people around him taking care not to walk to closely to a dark alley, some even changing the side they were walking on. A general sense of uneasiness had fallen over the public and the farer away from the main streets he got, the more obvious it became. Suspicious looks were send to fellow pedestrians, some people even going as far as to speed up whenever a car slowed down to park. There were also considerably less people than in Kyoto walking around, the danger warnings the televisions were spewing having deterred many people from walking around at night more than absolutely necessary.

It was a relief to see the sign of the bathhouse he had found on the internet before moving here in order not to have to search when he arrived. Said bathhouse was only ten minutes away from his flat, a reasonable distance, though Minoru was contemplating coming earlier the next time if possible. Entering the bathhouse was like entering another world, the people being way less tense than those walking outside, thinking that the building will protect them. A woman greeted him with "Welcome" and from then onwards it was smooth sailing.

When he left the bathhouse refreshed, it had already become completely dark. The only lights left were the street lights and the seldom car that took the side road. A quick look to the sky told Minoru that the moon was hidden behind clouds, the stars also invisible, making the sky purely black. No other people were around, the street deserted, the only sign that somebody was there the cold wind seeping into his clothes, sounding like whispering.

"_What? It's only a human child"_, he whipped his head around to look at woman hanging sideways through the wall with two round black orbs as eyes, her smile wide enough that her cheeks looked like they had been ripped open. Oh god, a yokai. The last time he had seen one was years ago but he couldn't fail here. Not here, not now. Not when he still hadn't found her.

"You, what's your name?" His throat felt dry when he asked her but he made sure to say it in an even voice. Showing fear was one of the deadliest things to do when dealing with yokai.

"_You can see me! You can see me!" _The yokai proclaimed in an excited high voice, her (?) body coming out into full view. He had thought that she had been halfway in the wall but that was wrong; she didn't have any legs anymore. Where formerly the legs should have been only bloody stumps could be seen.

"Do- Is there some way I can help you?" He had never dealt with a hurt yokai before or with yokai much at all but he was sure that her legs must hurt despite her aloof attitude.

"_Help me?"_, her eyes fixated onto his face before her mood suddenly turned around and she jumped on him, her pace almost too fast for him to evade despite the fact that she was currently missing her legs. _"Damn you! Give me your ikigomo!"_

_Ikigomo?_ He rolled to a side when her nails elongated and she tried to attack his fallen form, using the momentum to come to a standing position. Ignoring her screeches, he turned around and started to run away into a random direction, his heart rate speeding up drastically. Minoru was good at sports, always had been good at sports. It wasn't the sprint that accelerated his heart; he was scared out of his mind.

Why was every single one he had met attacking him? It was unnatural! He had to speak with them!

Without them he would never be able to accomplish why he had come here in the first place!

He stopped when he realized that he had no idea where he was, having lost the yokai already some time ago. Wherever he was, he had never been there. It was even more secluded than the street he had been before and he knew he would be in deep trouble should another yokai find him. The air still felt stale, almost like it was circling him. Was he being watched? He couldn't tell.

Could he breathe? He couldn't tell. He felt like he was being suffocated. His whole body was tense and when he saw red eyes glowing in an alley he knew he had to run if he didn't want to be killed. Right this instant.

Breaking into another sprint, Minoru tried to pay attention where he was running this time lest he run in a dead end or a trap he couldn't escape him.

"_That kid looks yummy."_

"_What is he doing here?"_

"_Maybe he is-"_

Damn, damn, damn.

"_An Onmyouji!"_

He was _so_ dead.

"_How dare he!"_

"_Kill him!"_

"_Revenge for my brethren!"_, a big black bird yokai appeared, almost cutting him in half with a spear had he not thrown himself painfully to a side the second time that day. His shoulder hitting he cold street painfully, closely followed by his head. Losing no time, the bird yokai, probably a Tengu yokai, tried to slash him a second time, this time managing to wound Minoru's shoulder. The cut wasn't all too deep but seemingly had hit something important as it was bleeding quite heavily, worsening the ringing in his head that hadn't stopped since his temple had befriended the floor.

Minoru was completely caught off guard when something hit his back head, causing him to hit the floor painfully, his wrist sounding like it was breaking when it clashed against the street roughly in the unsuccessful attempt to hold himself upright. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see fuzzy shapes closing onto him, their voices echoing loudly in his brain but making no sense.

He tried to stand up but was forcibly stopped by somebody stomping on his hurt wrist, forcing a choked gasp from his mouth and causing him to taste blood in his mouth. _Had he bitten his tongue? _Out of all places he couldn't die here.

"_-let's eat his ikigomo and hang up his corpse so that everyone will see!"_

"_Yeah!"_

"_That dirty humans-!"_

"_Because of omnyouji-!"_

"_That will show the Nura Clan!"_

He wouldn't die here. _"Hey,_ _you lot. You've been happily talking off your mouth, haven't you?"_

"_He's still moving!"_

Somehow he felt good. Everything was clearer than it had before. And he… wasn't scared anymore. What was there to be scared of when the yokai that had been the cause of his terror looked terrified just because he had stood up? He hadn't come here to be scared. He had come here for a reason.

The biggest yokai, the one that had attacked him at first before another had taken him from behind, quickly swung his weapon just for it to be stopped by Minoru in mid-air by grapping the weapon's wooden part.

"_Hey, hey, I still haven't finished speaking. You just said something about a Nura Clan." _The smaller yokai were already starting to flee while the Tengu he was dealing with right now was glaring at him while trying to steal the weapon back, despite the fact that his arms were shaking. Minoru's lips twitched unintentionally upwards into a dark smile that looked more than a smirk than anything. But he made sure to maintain eye contact when he said the last part._" Tell me more about it."_

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><p>Author's Note: Review.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2- Counting Raindrops

_He didn't want to be here. Rikuo stared at the stale wall, all of them white, wondering why they just couldn't turn around and leave. Was it his fault? Because he hadn't been a good boy? _

"_Okaa-san!" A friendly smile turned to him and she kneeled down to him to hear him better. She didn't _look _mad. But maybe if he tried? "I'm sorry."_

"_For what?"_

"_For…" Why was he apologising today? "Are you mad?"_

"_Of course not! Why? Did you forget something?"_

_No he didn't but…_

"_Yes!" Maybe they would go back if he answered positively. "I did."_

"_Sorry but we can't go back to retrieve it."_

_He wondered if that's how it felt to get broken hearted. Despite his swears to be strong, he couldn't stop the tears from welling up._

"_What's wrong?", she worriedly reached out one hand he slapped back with more force than he had wanted to. Rikuo just hadn't wanted to… His mum's face was shocked. No, no, no, she probably hated him now, then she would also leave him and he would be all alone._

_His fault, his fault alone._

_When she opened his mouth to speak, Rikuo panicked. He didn't want to get rejected._

"_I hate you!", he screamed and ran away._

_Rejecting people was easier._

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><p>He crinkled his brows and turned around in his bed when he felt sunlight hitting his cheeks. Only a few minutes later he cursed when he felt his back heating up uncomfortably, soon sure to become a sunburn and quickly opened his eyes just to close them right away again, berating himself for his stupidity of not closing the blinds, fervently hoping that his mum would just do him a favour and close them. When nobody seemed to answer to his silent prayer, he this time slowly opened his eyes a slit, almost wishing that he hadn't done so when he saw his surroundings, remembering yesterday's events.<p>

Paying attention not to distribute any weight onto his hurt wrist, he stood up from his futon, shivering a little bit when the cold air touched his clothing. To his misfortune it seemed that his new blanket was too warm, causing him to have sweated like a pig over the night. Feeling more than a little bit disgusted about his state –his sleeping yukata was clinging to his skin like it was trying to merge with him for long time basis- he went to sink and quickly threw water over his overheated face. Because his little flat didn't have a shower he was unable to take a quick shower, something he desired greatly after what happened yesterday anyway.

Despite his persistence he hadn't gotten much information from the Tengu he had spoken with yesterday (seemingly intimidating people could only get you so far) except the fact that the Nura Clan was seemingly a clan for traitors, was short of the ruin and that no yokai with any pride would ever be part of it. Mind you all of that hadn't been said as nicely as he had rephrased it but it had been the general gist. After that some death threats had been uttered in his direction before Minoru had hit the yokai for stupidity and the yokai had shouted some more death threats to save his pride before running away with his tail between his legs.

All in all not what he would say was a smooth conversation but Minoru was starting to think that this maybe was the only way for him to converse with them seeing as they were all trying to kill him off for some reason. While the first yokai he had met yesterday had seemingly been after his ikigomo like the first yokai he had ever met in his life, the others seemed to be merely seeking revenge or making a point. He hoped that they wouldn't spread the false rumour of him being an omnyouji, it was already difficult enough when they were only after his body, no need to add more fuel into the fire.

Well, after his little stunt of frightening the hell out of the yokai who had attacked him yesterday, it was probably already too late, meaning he would have to hide his features at night lest he get attacked again. Maybe he could even find a way to pass as a yokai? It would certainly make things easier.

Putting away these thoughts, he decided to at least look at his bandaged hand. The only thing he had done yesterday was confirming if it was actually broken and had just sloppily bandaged it when he had found out that it wasn't. He could have sought professional advice and help but unfortunately he had no resources to do so and it also had no need either.

He pursed his lips and slowly started to undo the bandages, placing his arm on the table, he had placed in the middle of the room, ignoring the fact that it was halfway over his bed, to support it. When it was finally laid bare, he was surprised to see that it was barely swollen anymore and only slightly tender when touched it, despite the fact that he hadn't bothered healing it yesterday because he had been too tired. Without any preamble, he quickly used his other hand and hovered slightly over his injury before a golden glow erupted and he could feel his wrist healing. That was one of the reasons he greatly disliked healing himself- having to deal with holding the flow of energy steady while feeling his skin or sometimes even bones righting themselves was one of the most unpleasant experiences he had made in his life, right next to almost being killed off by yokai.

It took only a few seconds before Minoru deemed his wrist ready and a few experimental movements solidified his assumption. A quick look to his rips and shoulder told him that these wounds were also barely worth the work of healing them but with a quick thought to infections, he also covered them.

With a sigh he stood up from his kneeling position and took the clothes he had changed into yesterday after bathing and made quick notes of the state they were in. They were dirty from him falling on the street yesterday and showed a few places where patching would be necessary. The worst part was his shirt with the considerably conspicuous cut on it. There was no way he'd be able to mend it in a way what wouldn't be totally obvious, making him decide to just get rid of it. If he wanted to stay in the shadows, it would only be a burden.

But the money…

Another searching look was send at it and he decided to just use it in the night when he was searching for yokai anyway. If he mended it good enough it wouldn't be visible in the night either way and he really didn't want to spend money just to lose his new shirt again.

Now to his other problem (namely the fact that he was feeling really gross), to be frank there was absolutely no way he would go to the public bathhouse to wash himself; he simply had no money for that. Seemingly throwing water from the sink onto himself would have to suffice.

Around twenty minutes later in which he had done everything to make himself look halfway presentable, he exited his house, clothed in the same clothing he had entered the town yesterday with. It didn't do much to make him feel more comfortable but at least he wasn't using new clothing while being unwashed which would sully the clothing for no reason- seeing as he was feeling gross either way.

Yesterday he hadn't had enough time to buy other necessities than the futon set; something he wanted to rectify as quickly as possible. Since he didn't plan on living from instant food, he had to buy dishes and fill his empty fridge. Not to forget he also had to buy a seat cushion (for himself) and toilet paper as well as soap used to wash ones hands with and not the one for the whole body. He racked his brain for other things he might need but couldn't think of anything else except a washing machine, something that was way over his financial possibilities. That meant he had to find a Laundromat , a thing he faintly remembered having done but had forgot to save in his mobile phone.

An eternity later, or maybe just three hours depending on the person, he had found everything he had wanted and also made himself familiar with many shops on the way so that he now at least had an inkling as to where he should go to get cheap food in Ukiyoe Town compared to Kyoto and had forever pissed of a salesman who would probably throw him out of the shop if he ever got to see Minoru again.

He had to say he was more than satisfied when he saw that it was only two o'clock, meaning that he could put away the stuff he had bought when he came home, cook and still have a good part of the afternoon and the evening free to explore Ukiyoe Town's spiritual places some more. Hopefully he could find one or two Tochigami who were nice enough to give him some information.

When he was home again it was already three thirty thanks to the fact that he had gotten lost on the way and then hadn't asked anyone for directions in order to force himself to remember the way next time. Despite being sure that that had been a success, he really wished he hadn't done that when the clock from his handy screamed at him the time.

Thinking that he would have at least a little bit time before night approached if he hurried, he quickly went to work to put away the stuff he had bought and to finally start unpacking his suitcase. He grimaced when he saw that he still hadn't put away the mess he had made the day before- when he had come home in the middle of the night after the fight, his whole body hurting, he hadn't felt up to it and even this morning he hadn't bothered, not only because he was a lazy person but also because it was Saturday and he still had to shop. Thus the only thing he had done was putting the futon to air outside.

_Whatever, now was as good as any time_. It took whole gruesomely two hours to stash away his luggage and to cook, not including the actual time to eat which took another ten minutes, before he could say he was ready to go- to the public bathhouse. It was just his luck that it was almost six o'clock which meant that it would be definitely dark when he left the bathhouse. And then there was the little issue of the yokai having seen him there before, so it was likely they would attack him again and this time with a bigger group.

_His life was too goddamn complicated for a twelve year old._

If Yura was here she would throw a shikigami into his face and tell him that her whole life had been this complicated. Well, considering it was her he was talking about she would probably drag him off to the Keikain compounds and demand that he get bodyguards before berating him for being stupid enough to go to Ukiyoe Town in the first place.

She had the nerves to say this despite wanting to go there for ages without feeling ashamed.

At least she could protect herself more sufficiently than he could, not that he was totally useless mind you, but he definitely didn't have the edge Yura had.

Knowing that waiting any more would just worsen the situation, he quickly got his backpack to throw in the stuff he thought he would need, before looking into his purse to be sure that he really had everything. A quick look told him that he'd need to rearrange how he dealt with receipts and the like sometime or he wouldn't find anything anymore but that would have to wait.

Another look at the clock told him he needed to run or he wouldn't even manage _entering _the bathing facilities before he was attacked. With a curse that might have sounded similar to goddamnit, he quickly left the flat complex after closing the door and started in another run.

The way to the bathhouse was unpleasant, he had to stop more often than he wanted because a traffic light was red always breaking his momentum in the process, not to mention the fact that many people didn't only not try to make place for him but went into his way with sadistic vigour like it was a game to annoy him as much as possible. Sometimes he really wished he knew said person just so that he'd been able to play a prank on them. After his backpack had thumped his back rhythmically for two minutes, he also had to sling his hands under the straps so that it wouldn't make raw cheese out of his back, bending his hands into a weird position in the meantime. The only light was the fact that one of the buildings told him it would rain soon.

Who knew that seeing a public bathhouse could be so relieving? He certainly hadn't had any former experience with it but the feeling that he would _very _intimately learn how happy the sight of a bathhouse could make one feel, felt suspiciously like dread.

One hour later he had accomplished all of his goals; namely washing himself and rearranging his purse, though it had been kind of awkward when one couple saw him quickly hiding away a piece of paper in his clothing. He wasn't quite sure that they had thought he was doing but the pitying look the woman send him had made him more uncomfortable than he would like to admit.

Unfortunately it wasn't raining yet when he left the bathhouse so the fact that he was wearing a rain coat thing that went to his knees was kind of attention catching and he was quite sure that he heard somebody saying something about 'chuuni'. Minoru had shut up the person by smiling brightly at them.

There was nothing quite as satisfying as seeing somebody turn red, embarrassed because they had been caught while gossiping.

This time the street wasn't empty, the early hour (for Kyoto) making people feel saver despite the fact that it was still dark. He quickly pulled his hood further down his face; trying to hide as much as possible and went into the alleyway he had seen the female yokai in before, his hand in the pocket of his rain coat, tightly grabbing his purse. The further away from the street he got, the deeper he went into places where no human was currently dwelling, the quicker his pace became. He didn't know whether it was excitement or adrenaline what was speeding up his pace or maybe the thought that he didn't have any time.

Maybe it was the fact that he felt energized.

Or maybe it was what he felt something. He couldn't describe it, never could but he was quite sure that somebody was fighting. A yokai against an omnyouji? Or yokai vs. yokai? It could have even been omnyouji vs. omnyouji and he wouldn't have been able to tell.

One thing was clear; he had to catch up to it. Not tomorrow not today but now. Before it was too late for everyone. He didn't consciously register when he had started running but the nearer he came the surer he became of the participants of the fight. Left like that there would be only one winner. If Minoru had anything to say today there wouldn't be one, at least not without any special circumstances. He doubted there were any.

He slowed down when he came closer to the disturbance, not wanting to be heard by either party, wishing dearly that he had learned how to hide his Ki. Despite all the efforts Minoru had put into it, especially in the last weeks, he had never managed hiding his Ki completely. While he wasn't leaking it as badly as before, he was still leaking thus attracting yokai like blood in the see did with whales.

As quietly as possible, he crept over to a building separating him and the fight, hid himself and took a look at the disturbance. Like he had expected it was a yokai and an omnyouji facing each other.

He couldn't see much from the yokai, expect the fact that it looked more humanoid than the ones he had met before but he knew the omnyouji alright. It was Ryuuji.

_Special circumstances my ass._

"Run, Gengen."

Damn.

A white paper that became a big white flash stopped the attack from reaching the seemingly female yokai.

"What? Onmyoujutsu?" It was probably the first time he had ever seen Ryuuji look so surprised and he used that to his advantage to run towards the yokai that was still sitting on the floor, seemingly unable to stand up also staring dumbly at him. When he felt a dark feeling from behind him, he quickly threw himself down, opting to listen to his instincts, only to see a tall, also in dark clothed omnyouji, land on the floor, electricity lightening up his hands. A shudder passed through him and he quickly threw up protective charms the same time the omnyouji tried to go for a second time, halfway breaching through the barriers, catching him a hold by his arms. For a moment he saw nothing but white before he felt his body go into shock, his ears suddenly completely numb for a second.

"Mamiru, stop!"

_Mamiru?_ Using the fact that Ryuuji seemed unwilling to attack a 'fellow omnyouji', he shook of the hand and quickly picked up the yokai girl who let out an undignified "Oomph!" when he put her over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and ran like his life depended on it.

"What? You, why are you an omnyouji saving- hua!", she quickly shut her mouth when he speed up even more, ignoring the protests of his legs and bit out a quick but sharp. "Shut up for a second, do you _want _to get caught?".

Minoru had never been so happy to get a person to shut up.

He tried his absolute best to run towards a busy area despite the fact that his vision became blurry from time to time just to become sharp again some colours suddenly standing out so much that he felt like puking. His body was shivering, causing him to have trouble to run straight, the dead weight making it even more difficult. To add insult to injury, his left ear was picking up things only muted like he was hearing through thick wool and his head felt like it had become a second heart, thumping loudly.

When he finally fell down, he would have liked to say it came unexpected and in a way it was; he had been feeling like he would fall down any second since a long, long time or maybe it wasn't so long? He had become unable to tell anymore again. He felt more than he heard the shocked gasp beneath him and somehow the thought _Oh, I must be squashing that yokai _came through his brain, causing him to try to roll around but for some reason he couldn't feel his limps anymore. And why were there spots in front of his eyes, was that the sky? Gold? He wasn't allowed to pass out here, not here, definitely not here what if they were found? He would at least survive but the yokai…

_He wasn't allowed to pass out. Not again._

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Well, seeing the amount of hits, I wanted to ask what I did wrong while writing the summary. It's one thing for nobody to leave behind a reviewfavorite/follow the story but normally you'd at least think that there would be more hits. Sooo... any ideas? You can PM me if you don't want to leave behind a review^^


	3. Chapter 3- Searching a Rabbit

"_See, isn't that cute?" A stuffed animal was in her arms, the rabbits red eyes looking out of proportions compared to the rest of its body._

"_No."_

_She blinked and looked at the ugly thing another time, probably trying to see what was wrong with it. "Why? The fur is really soft. Come on, touch it for a second."_

"_No", he stubbornly refused while taking a few steps backwards._

"_Why?"_

"_Because it looks like it will start to cry any second."_

* * *

><p>The first thing he realized was that he was warm, feeling nicely cocooned without the covers being too heavy. It had been a while since he had felt that comfortable. The air was fresh and smelt faintly familiar in a way he was unable to comprehend in his half-asleep state. He knew it was probably time to stand up seeing as he was hearing noises but he felt comfortable enough to just ignore them to try to bask in this moment of happiness a little bit more.<p>

"_Look, he's smiling."_

"_Maybe he's having a good dream?"_

"_What if he's dreaming of exterminating yokai?"_

"_Oh god, what are we going to do?!"_

"_Eat him while he is still asleep?"_

"_Are you stupid?! What if he wakes up?!"_

"_Erm… maybe you should be a little bit quieter…"_

"_Oh."_

"_Why is he here in the first place?"_

"_Exactly, exactly!"_

"_Supposedly he saved Yuki-Onna."_

"_Yuki-Onna-chan? From what?"_

"_Another omnyouji."_

"_Seriously!?"_

"_That's what she said herself."_

"_Maybe he drugged her…?"_

"_I say we should put him behind bars to be sure!"_

"_Ah, but we don't have anything like a torture chamber…"_

"_We don't need that!"_

"_Are you stupid I was talking about a jail-like thing!"_

"_We don't have that either…"_

"_Bars would probably do nothing against an omnyouji anyway…"_

"_Yeah there's that too…"_

A loud sigh could be heard before the yokai continued their conversation.

"_Are you sure he's still asleep?"_

"_Maybe?"_

"_If he is then he sleeps like a log…!"_

"_You were holding that conversation thinking he might be awake?!"_

"_We could have luck and he died in his sleep?"_

"_He just smiled a few minutes ago!"_

"_There goes that hope."_

"_Statistically speaking there is a chance he is _really _stupid and doesn't realize we are yokai?"_

"_We could as well dream that the last eight years were a dream and it won't come true."_

"_Ahhh…."_

"_He looks kind of weak."_

"_But he smells good."_

"_Really good I might add."_

"_Don't even go there he is still a guest."_

"_And he saved Yuki-Onna."_

"_You were the one who said we should eat him in the beginning!"_

"_I was scared and I didn't know he saved Yuki-Onna!"_

"_Guys, really chime down a bit…"_

"_He's still not moving…"_

"_Maybe he is really dead?"_

"_If you want I can go and check."_

"_No, I'll do it!"_

"_A little bite and we'll know whether he is awake right away."_

"_Oh, you mean that way."_

"_Of course being an omnyouji he might be pain resistant so maybe more people will be necessary?"_

Minoru decided that was his cue to stand up before they went further into a territory he wasn't comfortable with and quickly pulled the covers away, scaring all of the yokai in the process, one of them hitting against the ceiling while trying to hide from him.

"Unfortunately biting me won't be necessary."

"_Argh, he heard us!"_

"_Time to scram or we'll be eaten!"_

"_He'll eat us?"_

"_I don't want to end up as Sashimi!"_

"Hey, you guys." Ignoring him they went on with their –whatever they were doing- while making up ridiculous stories about how exactly he would prepare them, never mind the fact that it was actually supposed to be the _other way_ around.

Maybe there indeed were omnyouji going around eating yokai? "I said hey."

"_I don't want to be eaten as Takoyaki!"_

"Hey."

"_No we'll be prepared as Nabe!"_

"You big guy there! You aren't even an octopus so what are you so afraid for?", he sighed feeling for some reason like he was dealing with those annoying housewives those first thought upon seeing an pre-teen Japanese in their premises was that he was stealing underwear from them. Who would actually steal underwear from around forty year old woman?

"_It spoke!"_

Okay, that was just unnecessary on so many levels that he couldn't even… "Do you guys have an idea to with whom I have to speak to actually get things done?"

The yokai slowly looked at each other before glancing back at him. That went on before one of them who looked suspiciously enough like he might actually be Nattou, walked out of the group to stand bravely in front of him.

"I'm the feared Nattou Kozou!", the yokai took a close look at him before he opened his mouth seemingly wanting to continue but he didn't get a change before the door was forcibly opened by a man, with greenish hair and blue tattoos on his chest revealed by a too loosely bound yukata, who glared down on everyone in the room before taking extra time to glare him down with even more vigour.

"Tche. Who told you that you are ready to stand up?"

"Ready?"

"Lay down I don't have time for this."

"For what? Who are-"

He didn't have any time to react before he was thrown onto the futon and the man was looming over him. What, what, what?

"Let go!"

"Stop struggling while I am trying to open your yukata!"

Oh god he was going to get raped. With more strength than he thought he had, he head-butted the pervert and quickly used the loosened grip to crawl backwards away from the man, still sitting on his back.

"Shit my head!" The man glared at him as if he was at fault- he was the victim here! - and Minoru realized for the first time that day that he probably also was a yokai if his red eyes and di-coloured hair was anything to go by. "Stop making a fuss and let me treat you!"

"A fuss!" Minoru was pretty sure he was sputtering at that point, his face beat red. "Treated? There is no way I am going sit here let you rape me!"

"You thought I was going to?" The yokai suddenly exploded in laughter before coughing pitifully while Minoru was trying to put another hole into his head by glaring at him. "I wasn't going to rape you."

"Obviously", he snapped back, realizing at the same time that he was sounding like a prissy princess or maybe a cat whose tail was being trodden upon.

"I'm your doctor."

"You don't act like one if we exclude certain games." His remark caused the man in front of him to sigh and he was pretty sure that he saw a few yokai snicker though he wasn't sure who they were laughing at. An inkling told him they were probably laughing at him.

"Can you stop bitching for a second so that I can check your wounds?"

"I'm not bitching."

"Look… my name is Zen, the person who was unfortunate enough to be chosen to save your sorry ass from permanent brain damage through electro shock. I'm not too eager for this either but this is a command from the commander so let's just get it behind us already."

"Fine." It pissed him off to just agree but there was no way he was going to let the other be the bigger man. He had a pride to save goddamnit.

"Good, then follow my orders."

"I still don't see a reason for me to undress."

Seeing the glare Zen was sending him was telling him that this would take time.

One hour later in which Minoru had spent the whole time pestering Zen why he had to do that and what it was good for while Zen had done his absolute best not to snap at him, they were finally ready. Much to Zen's surprise, Minoru seemed to be healed without any damage left, almost like he had never gotten electrocuted.

During the time they had to forcibly spent together, Minoru had managed to somewhat befriend some of the smaller yokai who enjoyed boasting about their adventures while probably making sure that Zen never wanted to see his face again. The only thing he had to say for himself was that Zen from the beginning had come into the room with prejudices and an obvious dislike against him.

Teasing Minoru about the fact that he had become tomato red had made that feeling quite mutual, especially when the blush hadn't disappeared because he had become embarrassed over his blush, causing him to blush even more.

Awkward on all accounts. Sometimes (always) he really hated how easily he became red.

"There seems to be nothing abnormal", Zen shortly looked at his supplies before muttering quiet enough that Minoru would have almost missed it. "Seriously, what is his body made of?"

He raised an eyebrow but didn't inquire not wanting to let the yokai know that he could still hear him even when he was muttering very quietly. It could be an advantage that he could later use, especially when they were trying to backstab him. There had to be a reason they had brought him to one of their strongholds, maybe even _the _stronghold.

The door slowly opened to reveal a woman with long hair, also clothed in a kimono. Seemingly kimono were really a thing for yokai.

She was sitting in typical polite fashion before slightly bowing to him. "Excuse me for intruding but the commander wishes to speak with you. If possible I would like to escort you, omnyouji."

"Of course, Zen-_san _has already finished his examination _thoroughly_, haven't you?", he looked inquiringly over to Zen who shot him a dark look before stalking out of the room. Shooting the confused woman- probably- a smile he stood up and left the room. From what he could see the house he was in was big enough to be called a mansion. It was an old Japanese house without any signs of modernisation, except maybe the lamps. The garden was big but mostly grass with one or three trees placed artfully. Despite the fact that the house had an old feeling to it, nothing creaked or looked broken, it was an obviously well cared for house.

"This is a wonderful mansion." The yokai smiled at him, a tight smile that never reached her eyes but answered politely.

"Thanks. I've been living here since years but it has always been well maintained."

"I can see that. It… gives a homely feel." Another half-hearted smile was send in his way, causing Minoru to just leave the conversation at that. No matter how much he talked, he doubted he'd be able to convey the fact that he had meant what he had said. He supposed for most outsiders the house must have looked gloomy, maybe even frightening but Minoru felt that the house gave a definitely comforting vibe. A little bit nostalgic like all traditional houses.

That mansion even more so, maybe because so many yokai were there. It could be that because it was always lively, always filled with life so that lonely silences could never happen that it felt so wistful, almost like an old dream one couldn't recall. An old peaceful dream that you wished you could relieve once more, just once more but never were able to.

The long corridor was faintly familiar in a way that if Minoru concentrated he could almost see a small version of himself running through it eagerly, ignoring the amused male voice that told him to slow down a bit, –_wanting to get to Jii-chan because he had found a way to do the trick he showed him. Maybe now he would be able to actually join when they left…_

Minoru blinked and the vision was gone like it had never been there, he swallowed heavily feeling all of sudden slightly sick, the daydream having left a bad taste in his mouth. Thankfully the yokai walking in front of him hadn't realized that he had been out of it and thus didn't inquire.

"We're here." She told him before opening the door, leaving him to enter it alone when she walked away. A quick sweep of the surroundings told him that he hadn't been left quite as alone as she wanted him to believe, more than a dozen yokai shadowing him from behind. He had a feeling that not all of them had been ordered to surveillance him but were just there to stare.

With determination he entered the door, leaving his daydreams behind it. No, that was not quite right.

His _probable _daydreams.

A sakura petal followed him when he went inside.


	4. Chapter 4- Politics and the Like

_The bee was small, smaller than others he had seen before. When he had spotted her the first time he hadn't paid attention to it but to the weird movement he had thought she was making. He had only realized that she was missing a wing after approaching her cautiously. Had she been attacked by a hornet? If so was her hive still alright?_

"_You should stop that." She didn't react to his words and started another attempt at flying only to fall pitifully down again her loud humming not diminishing no matter how many times she tried. Did she realize that she only had one wing? Were bees capable of that thought process? _

"_Rikuo what are you doing?" His mother entered the room clothed in something else than a kimono for a change. Her hair was held together in a bun and she had a duster in her hand. "Is that a bee?"_

"_She can't fly anymore."_

_His mother closed on him, her brows furrowed. "You're right. It's missing a wing."_

_He leaned closer to the bee, studying her more intently. For humans it would be possible to reattach the arm if done shortly after the dismemberment but he didn't know whether the same counted for bees and he hadn't found the wing when he had searched. Should he take another look?_

"_We'll have to kill it."_

"_What?!" He quickly turned to his mother, his neck protesting against the treatment._

"_Like that there's no way it will survive."_

"_But! She's still trying!" A look to the bee told him that he had spoken the truth, the bee trying to take off only a few moments after he had uttered his disapproval only to fall onto the table painfully again._

"_The bee doesn't have the smarts to understand-"_

"_She obviously doesn't want to die!"_

"_It will only die painfully like this."_

"_We… we don't have the right to decide that. She should decide by herself whether to live her life to her last breath or whether to give up."_

_After a few seconds his mother sighed before turning around. "You take responsibility then."_

* * *

><p>It was a big room, empty save for one lone man sitting in the cushion in the front. The man looked to be elderly, his back head elongated in a weird way that outed him to be a yokai. Compared to the other yokai he had met before he looked the least human. He shortly hesitated before the man waved to the pillow a serious but friendly look on his face and he sat on the sitting pillow in front of him feeling slightly out of place in the room that looked like it should be host for many more yokai.<p>

After that only silence could be heard for a short time, the man in front of him drinking out of his sake cup. "Do you also want one?"

"No, thank you. I'm still underage."

He was shortly surveyed. "It must be hard to be an omnyouji. Being sent to this town at such a young age."

"It's nothing compared to the hardships you must have lived through."

"So humble." The man drank another time from his sake cup before placing it aside and fixating his stare on him. "Honestly, I would like to drink one time with an omnyouji again; they always know the best jokes."

Minoru hummed inexpressively.

"Unfortunately it seems unlikely that I'll be able to do that soon. You see there seems to have been some mistake and a few of our clan were attacked by onmyouji from the Keikain on our territory, fortunately nobody has been severely wounded but if that continues… We will have to answer in our way."

Feeling his poker face slip, he quickly tried to blank his features again. That was bad, no; it was only short of a catastrophe. No matter how you saw it this was a warning, a last warning or war would follow. Who would have thought that some yokai group seemingly had a half-assed truce with the Kekain? From the way they spoke he would have never thought that they would agree to such a thing.

Well, seeing as some were here now they didn't plan to uphold it or maybe they didn't remember anymore. The people here were yokai which meant that the truce could have been made decades if not centuries ago. As proud as the Kekain were it wouldn't wonder him if they had falsified the event in their textbooks so that they wouldn't be embarrassed by their dishonour which would mean that he couldn't even verify his claim if he went to them (something he didn't plan on doing because it would destroy his plan) but he couldn't leave it like that either.

It was obvious the commander was reaching out to them in order not to have to start a war; otherwise he would have just been left in front of the hospital. From the beginning there had been no other reason to bring him to their HQ of all places than to stop the omnyouji. Minoru _wouldn't_ shoulder the life's that would be lost during the fight. Not to mention that the yokai were likely to lose the fight; if he was right then the infamous Nura Clan the Tengu had spoken about laid indeed here.

The best course of action would be to tell them that he wasn't an omnyouji or to at least tell that he didn't have authority enough for this but he couldn't be sure he wouldn't be killed should he prove to be useless. He couldn't even be sure that this wasn't a hoax.

"I see." Minoru changed his posture from tense to relaxed before he slightly lifted his mouth into a smirk. "So this is the rumoured Nura Clan? It's smaller than I thought."

His conversation partner laughed before chucking down another cup of sake. "Well, I'm not the youngest anymore."

"And you don't want to pass on the commandership? The Bahamas are nice, you know."

"Oh, you've ever been there?"

A real smile played at his lips this time when he let out a slight huff. "I never had the chance but who knows in a few years?"

"Better do it earlier than later or you'll end up looking like me."

"At least I'll be a good looking old man." Another laugh followed his declaration; the old man looking genuinely amused enough for Minoru to calm down his heartrate a bit.

"Using lines like that you'll never be popular with girls. You have to be a little bit smoother for that."

"With sakura petals flowing in the wind and the like?"

"Don't forget the fight to death in front of her."

"Let me guess; a love confession before confronting the main boss?"

"And ripped clothing." This had to be probably the weirdest conversation he had ever had but he had to say he enjoyed himself. Speaking with the Nura Clan's commander was surprisingly comfortable and not awkward at all despite the fact that the theme was predestined to cause uncomfortable silences. "Why before confronting the enemy though?"

He couldn't place the look the man gave him while asking the question and he would be lying to say it didn't bother him. "Because it leaves a deeper impression."

After humming the man asked in a sober voice. "So I can think this matter as settled?"

"It might become more complicated."

"Complicated?"

"Give me some time. One week should be enough."

"That's impossible. I can't give you one week."

_Goddamnit._

"I have preparations to make; the geezers won't be easily persuaded."

He sighed before answering in a voice that left no room to discuss. "Three days. If I don't hear anything from you by the dawn of the fourth, we'll attack."

_Three days!? _That pretty much only left the option of speaking with the cause of the incident directly for him.

"Before giving my word I have a question."

"Go ahead."

"Did a Japanese woman around thirty with black hair visit you or did you at least hear anything?"

"Not anything particularly. She's a human I presume?"

"A fellow omnyouji. She went missing in January and I have reason to believe she would enter Ukiyoe Town."

"Sorry but I know nothing."

"I see…" The room felt too hot all of sudden. "If anything meets your ears please inform me."

"That will be no problem."

"Then I have to take my leave", he stood up slowly not wanting to seem too eager to leave. "I need my belongings back where may I find them?"

"I'll have Kejoro bring them to you."

"Do you have phones?"

"Of course, we _are _in the 21st century after all!"

"Fine, then I think it would be beneficial to exchange phone numbers just in case something arises."

"I like the way you think." A pause. "Karasu Tengu you have been listening right?"

"I'll ensure that he gets everything he needs." Minoru only saw a shadow kneeing in front of the paper walls before the yokai disappeared.

The way outside was uneventful, after a short goodbye he was given his stuff and exchanged phone numbers with the Nura Clan before he was accompanied to the gate and left on his own after being told were to go to get to the downtown area of Ukiyoe Town. On the whole way he saw neither air no hide of the yokai he had saved nor of Zen but was left in the devices of Kejoro who didn't seem any more inclined to start a heart to heart than to dance naked around in a house of omnyouji while waving around a flag that said 'I Heart Omnyouji'.

It was relieving to leave the premises of the Nura Clan HQ while at the same time lodging the knot in his throat even deeper.

At least the wind was pleasantly whipping against his clothing, cooling down his body a bit thus making thinking easier. To end this matter he had only one person he could confide in without making it end in an irreparable mess the Gordian knot would look cute next to. Depending on the amount of information the person held it could resolve the problem or end with him being tortured for information. The only consolation he had was that he probably wouldn't die seeing as he was on all accounts human and on friendly terms with Yura.

To add insult to injury he hadn't learnt anything new about her whereabouts, the reason why he had bothered coming to this town in the first place. And that after having been so hopeful that the Nura Clan knew something. Seemingly he would have to look into the opposite direction to gain information; he would have to research groups working against the Nura Clan- another thing he had made more dangerous for himself by having a bond with the hated clan. All joking aside his future and continued survival looked bleak and it was only Sunday. Not even three days had passed since his arrival in Ukiyoe Town which had been on Friday.

Suppressing a sigh, he entered his room. Nothing had changed in the time he had been gone but he still looked around in case somebody had broken into it (an easy feat) before opening his fridge in order to cook. To his dismay it had seemingly stopped working overnight as it wasn't even slightly cool anymore. He flinched when he realized that much of the stuff he had bought smelt funnily.

With determination he closed the fridge before exiting the room to go and have a talk with the owner. No way was he going to pay for this. His landlord had guaranteed him before had visited her over the internet that the fridge at least was in working order. A promise he was going to let her pay for by forcing her to pay either the repair service or a new fridge together with the transport costs to bring the new one into his room and to take away the old one. Oh and refund for the food stored in the fridge.

_And afterwards he would search Ryuuji._


	5. Chapter 5- Conversation Trouble

"_Mum?" He was lying on the floor, staring blankly at the white ceiling (why was the colour white so popular? He might start to hate it.) while listening to irregular footsteps. His mother had been walking around him without having stood still even once for around an hour. At first he had tried to help her out but when he had managed to smash a cup, the vase and total a chair, she had told him to stay put and touch absolutely nothing. He thought that it was unfair seeing as the cup and vase had been smashed in order to stop his mother from destroying all their plates at once and that she had been the cause of more destruction in the last ten minutes than he had been in thirty but he was powerless against the dictatorship his mother had over their little household._

_Honestly it was a wonder they still had and breakables._

_Another sound of breaking glass and he wished that he had been born before his mother so that he could order her to never go near the kitchen again. That included cooking, baking and cutting things. The only thing his mother could be trusted to do without breaking anything was the laundry._

_Nothing else not even cleaning the floor was a safe activity. If he had to name one miracle in his life it would be his mother still having gotten no severe injury via cutting._

_Despite his misgivings, he could see that his mother was trying her best (they _still _had plates!) to make it work out for both of them. To be frank she reminded him of a beehive, especially because she had been humming the whole time. It would have been more annoying if she was bad again but thankfully his mother was a decent singer._

_He scrunched up his face. No that was wrong. She didn't sing after all. She was more like a decent hum-er or something. Maybe boredom was turning his brain to mush…_

_Well, he had heard somewhere that humming was a good way to train one's voice so maybe his mother _could _sing and he just didn't know._

_Now if she only could learn how to work as well... The sound of something breaking reached his ears, prompting him to stand up. He had to get her away from the kitchen!_

"_Mum!"_

_She turned around to him, not looking at the dishes she was currently trying to place in the cupboard anymore._

"_Rikuo, I told you not to sta-!" Another plate fell out of her hands, causing Rikuo to jump frantically in hopes of catching _that _plate._

_With a crash it broke only centimeters away from his hands._

* * *

><p>The sky was starting to darken, only a small stripe of red still adoring the horizon. He was in a rural part of the town, houses that were a mix between Japanese and Western to his right and left. For conveniences sake he had decided to take another direction than the one the Nura Compound was in; it wouldn't do if some of them appeared.<p>

There weren't many ways to find Ryuuji and as he had no time he had decided on the easiest one known to mankind.

His footsteps were light on the pavement but he knew he might as well be throwing a ruckus and it wouldn't make a difference. He was leaking enough Ki to wake up the whole district or maybe even half of the town. The second the sun had set completely he would be a free for all buffet for yokai. And where yokai were, Ryuuji was bound to appear even if he had to knock out the town's human half population.

Shivering slightly when a cold breeze strained against his clothing, he sighed and dared another look at the now black sky. Like he had expected he could hear footprints all around him, some voices mixing in it and other noises he couldn't identify to belong to any known animal including humans. Seemingly they had caught the bait; now he only had to wait for Ryuuji to appear.

A roar from behind send him off running.

"_He's running!"_

"_Get him!"_

"_Run, run! I'll catch you! I'll catch you!"_

"_Don't interfere! He's my dinner!"_

The voices started to get louder and mix with each other, making it difficult to distinguish them. When he was at the end of the street he turned left just to whirl around where he was staying to take the other intersection after seeing a small group of yokai.

By now breathing was getting difficult, the air leaving his lungs almost immediately. Despite his confidence in his endurance he knew he wouldn't be able to keep his pace for long. In the end he was just a human with a high amount of Ki he didn't even know how to use correctly. He wasn't a yokai, not even an omnyouji but just a plain human. If Ryuuji didn't appear soon it could be very well be that he would be eaten.

A quick look behind him told him that the yokai were slowly starting to catch up. To his horror it seemed that the bait had been more effective than he had thought. More than two dozens of yokai were on his tail, their Youki together with his Ki attracting more and more newcomers. He didn't realize that this was around the time he had started to smile dementedly, his lips upturned in an almost perfect u- shape, until much later.

_He was so dead._

Deeming his experiment a failure, he quickly took a few random intersections, tuning down his Ki as much as he could. There was a chance they wouldn't find him just because they were looking for a much bigger amount of Ki; something he was placing his hopes on.

After a handful of intersections he was watching the last troop of yokai running by his hiding place and slowly leaned against the wall feeling burnt out. He stood only for a few seconds before his knees that were shaking with exhaustion gave out on him, making him land gracelessly on his butt.

The alley he had ended up in was small but easy to overlook, the only place somebody could hide being behind a trashcan which he was currently occupying. A few 'unspeakables' had been left behind, the stench hurting his nose but working in his favour. Sweat what had been pouring down his back during his run was slowly starting to become uncomfortably cold in the night air. Fortunately it was spring; in winter he would have been a shivering mess.

Despite the fact that he was alone in the alleyway, he didn't take off his rain coat but instead gripped the material to hold it closer against his body. It didn't warm him in the slightest so he resigned himself to walking home empty handed, exhausted, mentally exhausted and freezing. Slowly standing up, he walked a few steps before his knee buckled under him, leaving him to awkwardly fall down onto the dirty floor. Feeling too tired to stop his fall he resigned himself until he felt a cold shiver erupt on his skin. He managed to turn around slightly while falling, making him able to see a yokai behind him that was just swinging its large butcher knife, long black hair swinging behind it but otherwise looking more like a spider than a human.

His eyes widened and he quickly put up his hands in a feeble attempt to block it, knowing that the knife would go through his arms like butter.

_He was going to die._

The knife was almost in slow motion nearing his head but he couldn't do anything to save himself, his muscles reacting too slowly to his commands.

_He was going to die!_

Only a few centimeters were separating his body from the knife now when he heard a voice cut through the darkness, breaking the deadly silence that seemed to have befallen the alley without him even recognizing.

"Run, Gengen!"

A dark shape jumped onto the yokai, making them crash together against the wall. He heard screaming but didn't look, his eyes fixated on the person who had saved him, standing cheerily at the entrance of the alley. He had never been happy to see Ryuuji until today.

Contrary to Minoru who's whole body was shivering pathetically and whose breath and heartbeat were completely out of order, Ryuuji seemed as unfazed as always, not a single thing amiss with his clothing or hair that would indicate he had been anything than cool while saving Minoru.

"Ryuuji…-" For some reason speaking up seemed difficult, the words dying in his throat. "-kun. Thank you."

"Thank you?" The other neared his unmoving form before chopping his hand onto his head. "You useless brat, what- were- you– thinking?! Baiting yokai of all things."

"You saw that?" _And he didn't help him, that asshole?_

"I wouldn't have cared if Yura wouldn't throw a fit if I just let you die off. And _stop smiling._"

What was he talking about?

"You owe me something for not having told Hidemoto that you were the one to open the forbidden store room!"

Ryuuji made a derogatory noise that sounded much like 'I-should-have-left-you-to-die-off-because-then-there-would-be-no-witnesses-anymore' and 'Why-did-I-even-bother-to-save-this-pest? Yura-being-annoying-can't-be-worse-than-letting-him-live' at once.

"Where's that yokai?"

_Shit._ "That yokai? There were kind of a few dozen so I don-"

"Don't try to make yourself look any more stupid than you already are. Just managing to repress your Ki a little bit won't fool me."

"Why, you like her?"

The look of distaste would have been funny if it hadn't been unbearably offensive. "Now you even started to apply genders to _those things_? Hasn't being attacked taught you anything?"

"Well, if I haven't started to hate on every omnyouji just from meeting you, I won't start doing so with yokai."

"You're unsalvageable."

"I don't remember asking for salvation."

Ryuuji sighed. "Yura is worried."

Minoru felt an uncomfortable feeling in his gut like his stomach was trying to turn itself around while compressing itself at the same time. "I left a letter."

"A letter only consisting of telling her that you are fine, have no problems but suddenly decided to move without telling her the new address won't calm down Yura."

As much as he didn't want to admit it; Ryuuji was right. But Minoru had known from the beginning that his 'little stunt' would worry Yura. That said he couldn't tell her why he had come to Ukiyoe Town -nor Ryuuji for that matter.

"You haven't told her where I am."

"An interesting statement."

Feeling a weigh lift of his chest, his posture slumped a little bit more into himself despite his best efforts not to look weak in front of Yura's brother. "No, I'm sure. If you had she would be here with you."

Ryuuji didn't confirm or disagree with him but he hadn't expected him to.

"Where is that yokai?" A look to his side confirmed his suspicions. Gengen had encircled him from every direction, even the slightest movement causing a violent action. Up was out. Right, left, backward or forward too. "What, you have nothing to say?"

The 'water' slowly stated to creep forward in his direction, forcing him to quickly draw in his legs. Only milliseconds later Gengen covered the area.

"Don't you feel that's going a bit too far?" Despite using a tone that would suggest he was at ease- almost joking- Minoru was sure that Ryuuji could see that he was inwardly panicking but his expression didn't change.

"It's a result you could have prevented."

The shikigami was only a hair's breadth away from touching his body when he finally responded. It was time to finish what he had come here for. "Hey, do you know of the Nura Clan?"

_Depending on the amount of information the person held it could resolve the problem or end with him being tortured for information._

_Chance was Ryuuji didn't know what he was talking about._

_Minoru had never been good at games depending on luck._


End file.
