Chapter Text
He runs, but to where, he does not know—
The path winds down the hill into a mist so thick it seems to seize him by the throat, forcing the air out of him. Of course, perhaps it is meant to be that way, since this is not a place he should be—not anymore.
A branch lashes out at his face, drawing blood, as he stumbles and regains his balance. They had told him all those years ago, didn’t they, don’t go near that house, those ruins at the edge of the road. Don’t go near that boy. And when had he listened, truly?
He could hear those voices now, following him in the wind. It is no use trying to shake himself of them, he thinks, as he leaps over a rock, the sound of flowing water clearer than ever in his ear.
Then, a sharp crack.
“Aomine!”
Three days ago
“Aw, really?”
The path through the forest was worn down from years of travelers’ trampling, but it was still clearly not large enough for a carriage to pass through. Small it might be, but it was also the fastest path to the main road that would take them to the city. Them being the owners of the two arguing voices coming up the hill.
“I knew there was something funny about that old man…” The taller one of them kicked at a nearby pebble, watching it fly off into the undergrowth. He ran a hand through his dark blue hair, clearly annoyed. “We should head back there.”
“We’ve already been walking for hours, Daicchi,” the blond one whined, walking a few steps behind. “It’s going to be sundown soon, anyway.”
“Ryouta, you know that guy would be miles away with all of our money by the time we wake up tomorrow.”
“Not all of it!” Kise Ryouta pointed at his partner’s satchel, grinning. “You didn’t get robbed.”
“…” It was no use arguing with that face, Aomine Daiki knew. And Kise was right—the sun was ahead of them them now, sinking fast. They hadn’t made as much progress as they would’ve liked, but neither was one to plan ahead. Kyoto was still at least three weeks’ journey from where they were; turning back now would risk too much. He silently hoped it was not too much to ask for there to appear an inn up ahead, a cheap one.
It was then when Daiki felt a hand steal into his, Kise’s soft touch reassuring against his callouses. They had been on the road for the better part of the week, making their way slowly west towards the capital. For a pair of village boys who had never seen anything bigger than their local temple until now, the journey had already proven their naiveté in terms of worldly things. Most of all by the times they had run into trouble - which usually ended up in Daiki beating someone up, and then making a run for it as authorities were not too keen on these outsiders. They had gotten better at it over time, but well, here they were.
"Old man did say there'd be a village up ahead..."
Despite an initial reluctance to believe the words of someone who’d just run off with a large portion of their money, Daiki resigned himself to internal grumbles when he saw that the road was widening ahead of them. Soon it had a wide enough berth to take on an actual wagon, something that he was sure both of them wished they were sitting on at the moment.
Presently the forest cleared up before them, revealing rice paddies and wooden poles staked along the side of the road. A cluster of about twenty wooden houses, huddled tightly together, sat ahead of them. It was a tiny village, one of the smallest they've yet to come across. Daiki resigned himself to the fact that they would probably be sleeping in a barn again. He had no problem sleeping anywhere, but Kise would probably find excuse to whine at him again.
It wouldn’t be without precedent (the last inn they stayed at positively reeked of fish despite being a good distance from the coast, and Daiki wasn’t completely convinced they’d gotten rid of the smell on them yet) but anything was better than sleeping in a bush. Though at least the bushes wouldn’t ask them personal questions. He turned towards Kise. “Hey, do you think—“
“Mm?” He was unconsciously swinging his arm again, only stopping at the sound of Daiki’s voice.
“—We should stop doing this.” He let go somewhat unwillingly, as forms started to emerge from the buildings. Before they see us. Kise pouted a little, but straightened up and started working on his best smile. That was his greatest asset, Daiki thought, almost giving in to the thought of reaching up to brush a stray strand of hair away. But by that point they were already on the village borders. A woman and her children, or so Daiki assumed, came towards them somewhat warily. He was also going to assume lone pairs of young men, even if one of them did happen to be wearing the—admittedly borrowed—jōe of a priest, did not regularly pass through this village.
“Hey there,” Kise said, easygoing as always, to the small girl holding a wooden bucket. He bent down, showing blindingly white teeth as he spoke. “You wouldn’t know of an inn nearby, would you?”
The woman gestured towards the houses behind her, keeping her eyes on the two strangers. “No such luck for you two. Pilgrims?”
“Of sorts.” The little girl seemed transfixed, and Daiki reminded himself to punch Kise later for turning on his sparkle around children. He did not want them to remember two particular strangers walking down this road—they would be two strangers just like any other. He tugged at Kise’s sleeve. “We have money. We can sleep anywhere—“
Somehow, unlike most villagers they’d previously met, the woman’s eyes didn’t light up at the mention of money. Instead her eyes flitted to Daiki’s side, where a sword hung. “Sorry, there isn’t anywhere you can stay. Our houses are crowded enough as is.”
That at least was true, judging from the feeling Daiki got. The village was watching them, all through shuttered windows. He did not like it one bit, but there was little left for them to try.
“Say, not even if an esteemed priest were to bless your harvest?”
Kise snickered beside him, and Daiki took it as an opportunity to jab him in the side. The woman did not seem amused, but a pensive look had taken over her face. “Well, there is an abandoned temple half a ri down the road, but…”
“Wait,” Daiki cut in. “Abandoned? As in there might be—”
“Aominecchi, who cares if there are ghosts in it?” You’re supposed to be good at exorcising them after all, was the part Kise conveniently left out. He wrinkled his nose. “It beats sleeping in a bush.”
He had to concede. “You’re cleaning it up, then.”
Kise gave his shoulder a quick pat, then smiled at the woman serenely. “Thank you, miss!”
But she was already leading the children back inside, the little girl still throwing looks at them in wonder. The two looked at each other; Daiki shrugged, motioning for them to continue. There’s something wrong tugged at his mind, but that he did not voice. The sun was already on the horizon, flooding the land with reds and golds, and he held up a hand to shield his eyes from the last glare.
Once they walked past the wooden fence, Kise stepped closer to him, almost furtively. “They were whispering about us.”
“Mm?”
“Nevermind,” he said after a moment’s hesitation, footsteps quickening. “Let’s get out of here, this place is creepy.”
“And you still want to sleep in a haunted temple.”
Kise’s golden eyes narrowed. “It’s not like we have a choice. I’m not sleeping in a bush just because you’re scared of ghosts.”
“‘m not afraid,” Daiki muttered. Fortune had it that they’d run into noticeably fewer supernatural creatures than expected, and what had come at them had been fairly easy for him to dispatch. Boring as it were, maybe it was better, as Satsuki had warned him, to save the big guns until they’d safely reached the capital. Instinctively he brushed at the side of his robes, reassuring himself that what she’d given him was still there. Though, knowing himself, it would be a lie to say he there were things he didn’t want to try. “Even if there were, they’d run if they see me. You, however…”
“And would you save me then, onmyouji-sama?” Kise teased, but his voice was softer now, and Daiki took the opportunity to steal a hand into his again. “I can handle ghosts just fine.”
“Fine my ass,” Daiki snorted. “Learn to fight people better first, idiot.”
The last traces of sunlight disappeared as they saw the top of the temple peek up from the top of the gently sloping hill. Upon closer inspection it was not quite as run-down as he’d expected; the roof was still intact, as were most of the walls save the rotting hole in the southwest corner. Weeds grew tall around and between the broken torii and courtyard, the red paint chipped so badly that the place looked more haunted than it had any right to be. Aren’t places like these supposed to be warded from ghosts, anyhow? Daiki concentrated on the sealed doors, the shuttered windows, the way Kise’s fingers were tightening around his, their tired breathing silenced by the breeze. There were no strangers here but them.
Together they pried open the front doors, and a cloud of dust came billowing right into their faces. As he listened to Kise sneeze up a storm beside him, Daiki could smell the mold inside, dank but fortunately not overpowering. He could not see a single thing.
“Eeh, there should be somewhere in there we can lie on, right?” Kise wondered, his voice a tad nervous.
“Well, we aren’t going to—“ Something moved in the wind, and Daiki’s eyes flickered to the rusted torch-holder next to the doorframe, half a stick still stuck in it. “Hey, make some fire.”
“What?” Kise looked at him, then at the torch. “How am I supposed to make fire out of nothing?“
“Didn’t you have flint in your bag?” A minute later Kise was furiously searching through said bag, but the puppy-eyed look he threw at Daiki made him raise an eyebrow.
“…Um, I think it dropped out when that guy stole our money.”
“You're ridiculous.” He ran his fingers through his hair, sighing and way too tired to argue. “Hold on then, I’m not picking up after you if you fall.”
Maybe he was expecting ghosts to pop up, the floorboards to creak and crumble beneath his feet, for Kise to scream and cling to him for dear life. But none of that happened, and it was with relief when they managed to locate the door to the monks’ quarters on the other side of the room. By then the sky had cleared enough to allow soft moonlight to filter in through the cracks of the boarded windows, illuminating the outline of the room just enough for them to navigate.
Kise picked up a piece of cloth gingerly, watching it crumble into dust between his fingers. “I don’t like the feeling of this place.”
Daiki did not bother to tell him off again that he was the one wanting to stay here. Instead, he set his satchel down on one of the crude beds. “Stay here.”
He was out through the door again before Kise could say a word.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea for either of them to be left alone. This was the first time during this trip that they were staying in a place a ways from any semblance of civilization. And the village they passed through today…
“What was up with that, anyway?” He wondered out loud to the dark, empty hall. It was moments like these when he wished being an onmyouji involved something more exciting than predicting weather patterns, sitting through too many monotonous lectures about form and technique and only very occasional instances of actually exorcising demons under a watchful eye. If only his father knew what he could do outside of the classroom. Satsuki had stuffed a book into his belongings before they’d left, telling him to study them closely on the road, but those he hadn’t so much as touched yet. Perhaps if he’d spent more time on those instead of playing truant…well, it didn’t matter now, did it. Daiki glanced up at the empty altar; it was too dark to see those names of whatever kami or buddha this place used to hold. “Sorry ‘bout this.”
One, two, three. He slapped the ofuda onto the front door, their door, and then some, murmuring spells as he went. Daiki could hear Satsuki’s disapproving voice in the back of his head at the amount he was using. He waved that voice away,
When he returned to the room Daiki was surprised to see a small fire had been lit, in an oil lamp by the side of the room. Kise looked up at him, startled, his face melting into apology as he stood up quickly. “I, um.”
“You just wanted an excuse, didn’t you?” He grabbed Kise’s arm and sat him down, pushing their things aside. The bag, half-open, threatened to tip over, but Daiki swooped it up at the very last moment and set it on the table beside them. Kise buried his face into Daiki’s neck, and he could smell the slightest scent of incense in his hair. Lazily he swept a stray strand of blond from Kise’s face, the other hand reaching towards the small of his back. “Could’ve just said so.”
“Daiki…” Kise’s voice was soft as he leaned back, the flickering flame reflected strangely bright in his eyes. If Daiki hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought the blond was about to cry. “I want y—“
The sound of whinnying horses, though still a distance away, cut him off. They looked at each other, startled. Kise was the one to move first, finding a crack just big enough for him to look out of. Daiki followed, though the thundering of hooves, coming straight for the temple, rendered that unnecessary. Shadows sailed across the cracks of the wall as both of them sat up straight. Daiki reached over and extinguished the flame while Kise watched, frozen in place. “What was that?”
“I don’t know.” A loud bang came from the front of the temple; the doors had been kicked open. Voices, three or four of them, echoed throughout the entrance hall, and Daiki could see dim firelight from the cracks in the door. Kise stood up, scrabbling for something—the glint of metal inside his bag caught Daiki's eye, as his earlier words came hurling back into his face. He could hear everything, his own breathing, Kise's arms shaking, and then...
No.
Daiki grabbed at his katana, mouth set to a grim line. “Not ghosts, that’s for sure.”