本当のことを言え

Haru wanted to sleep, saying that he was tired and wanted to rest before the Daitengu were to meet.

Pai made sure he was comfortable, bringing a glass of water to put on the table by his bed if he got thirsty, and an extra blanket – more for comfort than risk of him getting cold. Hengen didn't feel temperature the way humans did, but she wasn't sure if that was the case for severely injured (but healing) Hengen.

He seemed to very much appreciate the blanket, at least.

For a second, as she stood by Haru's bed and watched him settle in to take a nap, she waited. She waited for him to say something, anything that would bring back the witty, humorous Haru she knew.

He said nothing. He only thanked her for the water and blanket before he closed his eyes, turning so that he was facing the window.

Pai left, her sandals slapping gently against the floor as she quietly closed the door behind her. She glanced down the halls and saw Kouta already at the corner of the long hallway. She turned the other way, to go to her own room.

And do what?

What could she do, alone in her room? Haru...he didn't say anything, when she thought he would. For some reason she couldn't fathom, that was the most disconcerting thing about all that had happened since he collapsed outside the gates of Ayashi House. He was always making light of situations, not to demean them but just to make everything seem less dark and dreary. Even if it was a poor choice of a joke, at least he said something.

Haru always had something to say. This time, he didn't. He said nothing. There was nothing he could say.

If he was so disheartened by their prospects of saving Shin, what could she do, besides twiddle her thumbs uselessly and stare at the forest that Shin was most likely in?

Pai stopped walking abruptly when a pain, like a sun flare blazing in her brain, right behind her eyes, made her wince and put a hand up to cover her eyes. She blinked, black smoke swirling in front of her, and she sees a pristine white room. Everything is white. Always white.

White like the world was before he betrayed us, she giggles. Do you think it's pretty?

Pai ignores her.

There are rows of sleek grey tables bolted to the white-tiled floor with matching chairs on either side of her. A white interactive board is at the front of the room, stuck to the wall. It's off. Screen dim, life dead.

Sitting in the chairs are figures, people, bobbing and moving as they shuffle about. She can't see them, their outlines hazy from the periphery of her vision. She doesn't bother to look at them.

She sits in a char in the middle of the rows. A man stands at the front of the room, blond-brown hair cut stylishly, the top rising up in a quiff young men seem to favour. The interactive board behind the man lights up.

Blue background. Thin, white squiggly lines spread out like a spider-web over the blue expanse. It's the blueprint of a building. She wonders, idly, which one it is, if she's been there before.

Stuck next to the blueprint on the board is a picture. A photograph she had seen the picture before. She recognized it with a sickening lurch of a speedboat wading through water, in front of a large ship with a nine-tailed fox painted in white on the massive hull of the ship. Above the fox is the name of the company that owns the ship.

She wishes this assignment didn't have to be about Kitsune. Pai blinked heavily at the wall opposite her, the visage vanishing for a moment before returning, reeling her in with a pounding headache at the base of her skull. Her lips twitched as she stares blankly at the blueprint. She's bored. She's tired. Her brain was roasting.

Chiasa's unnecessarily crazily joyous voice rings out sharply. "Look at this, look at this!" she walks behind the man and slams her hand against the board. Pai can barely see her, her face thrown in shadow from the harsh light of the interactive board. "That's what makes 'em so dangerous, y'know? They hide in plain sight, like snakes lying in wait, stirring if you disturb them."

And if you don't?

"Chiasa," the man grumbles warningly, giving her a side-long glance that speaks volumes.

Chiasa shoots him a distinctly irate glare, and sticks her tongue out at him before turning back to them. "Lesson number three, dogs. Do what you're told, even if you're already dying in the dirt like the dogs you are. No questions, no hesitation. Finish what you –"

Warmth dribbled down over her upper lip, startling her.

Lifting a hand, Pai wiped it under her nose and stared uncomprehendingly at the bright red mark across the white backdrop of the pale skin of her hand. Her lips pulled back when she tasted the strangely sweet yet coppery tang of her own blood on the tip of her tongue.

She bobbed forward instinctively, trying to keep her clothes unstained as she felt more trickle from her nose. She brought a hand up to her nose, eyes widening as she stared at her fingers.

Why am I bleeding?

She glanced up when she heard a wooden clacking on the floorboards. She quickly wiped the back of her hand against her nose, trying not to spread the blood over her face, staring for a shocked moment at all the red that seemed so out of place. She wiped her hands against the sides of her sweatpants, grateful that she had picked out the dark brown ones over the pale yellow she'd thought to wear today.

She stayed still for a few moments with her back braced against the wall, listening. The wooden clacking continues on for a little bit, drifting off further away. Pai breathed out a sigh of relief; it sounded different from Obaasan's cane. It was probably one of the Tsukumogami going about their business.

She touched a finger under her nose; the bleeding had stopped.

She swallowed as she quickly passed by the bathroom on the ground floor to check herself in the mirror so that there was no blood on her face. There wasn't, but she splashed water on her face anyway, scrubbing the drying red from her fingers and trying not to start panicking.

She was turning the corner into the hallways where the bedrooms were on the second floor, running through what she just saw, in her head, a – memory? A memory that came out of nowhere – when she managed to step back just in time to avoid stepping on one of the Tsukumogami of the house, a little Burabura. The paper lantern Yori Chiisai was glowing from an internal light and bobbing its way down the hall.

Pai pressed against the wall when six more Burabura shot past her, a few weaving after the first on the floor while others floated by her head. Their paper was coloured differently; some pink, others yellow, a few were green, and one was light blue.

She looked up and saw one of the pausing at each light bulb that lit up the hallways against the dark of a late winter afternoon on the mountain. One of the bulbs flickered as the Burabura touched it. She thought it was going to cut off, but the bulb stayed luminous. The Burabura remained around the bulb for a second longer before moving on.

She couldn't help smiling as she watched. The Burabura were adorable.

"Thank you for your work," she called up to it.

The Burabura that was checking the light bulbs to make sure they were working swivelled around, and though it had no eyes, she could tell it was looking at her. It had tree branch designs painted over the pretty pink surface of the paper, and even though the Burabura was a full two feet higher in the air than her, she could still make out the tree branches are done in the shape of a sakura tree.

It momentarily brightened, and she could just tell that it was happy she had acknowledged it. The Burabura floated down to where she stood, and she squinted against the bright light of its lantern. The Burabura quickly lowered its light to a warm glow before circling around her head twice, bobbing itself side to side as it went.

She wasn't sure how, but she thought she knew what it was trying to say.

Her smiles grew wider. It was so cute. "You're welcome."

The Burabura circled around her head one last time, and then hurried after its fellows and disappeared around the corner to continue on with its work.

The smile on her face faded once she was alone again. She lifted her wrist to her nose and touched the space above her lip, still paranoid that there was a speck of blood somewhere; her hand came away dry, with no more blood. Pai breathed a sigh of relief even as a knot of worry tightened in her stomach.

She was at her bedroom, hand already pulling open the door, when she stopped. She stared unseeingly at her fingers clasped around the handle of the door, and for a moment, she saw another hand superimposing over hers. Larger than her own hands, with long, slender fingers – what she imagined a pianist's fingers look like. calluses on the palms, around faint pink incisions that looked too deliberate, even though she couldn't see them clearly. White silk wrapped around the wrist, peeking from under the edge of his favourite long-sleeved black shirt to wear at home, the one he wore most often when he didn't favour his lightweight yukata.

"Whatever else happens, you must get Shin and his Mask back together, before it's too late and we have to step in."

She blinked, and the man's hand over hers disappeared. She stared unseeingly at her thinner wrist, and the hint of white peeping out from under the sleeve of her dark blue hoodie.

This white sash dint belong on her.

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, berating herself for her selfishness, her fear. I need to fix this. I can't run away just because I'm scared. Shin hadn't run away when she was in trouble. He'd flown straight into it, to help her.

It was her fault that this happened to him, that he was at the ruthless mercy of his Makashi with no way to control what he did. It was her fault that he might die at the hands of the Kamigami; even if they were the ones to kill him, his blood would be on her hands, even if no one came out and said it to her face.

Her libs wobbled as she pressed them tight. There has to be a way. There has to be a way I can do this.

She spun around and retraced her path, passing the door to the convalescence room. She paused briefly and quietly peered in to see the winged back of Haru sleeping peacefully. She closed the door and followed after where she saw Kouta go off to, rubbing under her nose to make sure that she wasn't bleeding any more.

She would think about why she got the nosebleed and that – that – memory? – later. Right now, she had more important things to do.

There had to be something she could do, and she couldn't do it alone. She had tried thinking of ways, paranoid that Konohana warned her about others knowing Shin's true name and using it for themselves, and then getting paranoid about Konohana telling her that at all, wondering if she was getting played by the Kamigami.

But she couldn't do this on her own. She needed to find Kouta and tell him what happened. Maybe he would know what to do, because she certainly did not.

She headed out into the open courtyard, where it was cold and grey, with the four pools at each corner of the courtyard sitting dark and still. It was snowing lightly, the snowflakes landing soundlessly on the white ground. Pai caught a glimpse of Kouta's long hair – now tied back in a swinging ponytail at his nape – before the gates of Ayashi House closed behind him. She hurriedly rushed down the stairs and went to the security house, rapping sharply on the door.

A few seconds later, Karasatengu opened the door. "Yes?"

"Can you please open the gates, Karasatengu-san?" she asked, trying not to wince at how winded she sounded.

He raised an eyebrow at her in a very clear, Are you serious right now, move. "Pai-san, you should know that now, of all times, is not when you can go out whenever you'd like."

She shook her head, wild anxiety beating through her chest. "No, no, that is not it! I need to talk to Kouta-sama, I saw him leave just a moment ago. Please, it is important."

Karasatengu eyed her sceptically for a moment before he nodded hesitantly and disappeared back inside the outhouse, closing the door firmly behind him. She walked back to the gate, sandals crunching on the snow and dead leaves still poking out through the white carpet blanketing the ground.

She darted past the once-again open gates quickly, and ahead she saw Kouta standing at the end of the path where it started sloping down to the city. He had his hands in his sweater pockets, his head tilted back as he looked up at the sky overhead. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was 16:38 PM. Shiori would be home soon from school.

"Kouta-sama!" she called out.

Kouta turned and leaned his shoulder against the tree he stood next to. His eyes were a sharp brightness against the white backdrop all around him. The frigid wind blew through the trees and ruffled up the loose strands of his hair. As she walked towards him, she was struck my the same sense of loneliness she felt when she walked away from Shin after he helped her collect kaki fruit for the pie she never got to make.

But, for some reason, she felt it less viscerally with Kouta than she did with Shin. Like, with Shin, even though she ignored it at the time, she'd had such a strong feeling of, I don't want to go and leave you alone right now, but with Kouta, she felt like there wasn't much to worry about.

She wished she'd stayed with Shin. Even if she came up with some stupid excuse on the spot and felt awkward and embarrassed, she wished she'd stayed with him.

"Pai," he said when she reached him. His brilliant eyes peered at her in curious concern. "What is it?"

She opened her mouth, expecting everything that happened at the shrine days earlier to spill out of her in a torrent of unintelligibly fast-paced words. She had kept quiet about it for only a few days, but she felt ready to explode from the pressure of it all.

When she was alone in her room and trying to fall asleep but unable to because of the worry gnawing at her, she would whisper to herself, I have Shin's Mask. I have Shin's Mask, even as she held it tight in her hands. It was the only way she knew to convince herself that this was all real, that she met a Kamigami in person, and that that deity told her the only way to save Shin was to force his Mask back on him by using his true name.

Something she was supposed to know, but didn't.

She had since taken to carrying Shin's Mask with her wherever she went, hidden in her pocket or by the overly long sleeves she favours. She thought she was going to go crazy with the irrational, paranoid fear that if she wasn't in contact with it at all times, someone would find it in her room, and take it. Whenever she talked to one of the Daitengu, she was anxious with guilt, keeping conversations short and leaving as soon as she could because she was scared that they could sense the Mask on her, somehow, and ask her why, why they sensed such a thing on her, a human.

What could she say then? She was already down the rabbit hole; it had been several days already. Why didn't she say anything before?

She had to say something, now.

"I need – I need to tell you something," she started haltingly. "It is important and – and I am sorry that I waited so long to tell you I just did not know when was the right time and it did not seem like there would ever be the right time because of everything that is happening right now – "

"Hey, hey," Kouta stepped in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, bending his knees slightly so that he was at eye-level with her. "Pai, slow down. Breathe, come on, with me."

She nodded shakily, drawing in a shuddering breath as she followed Kouta in his deep inhale. They slowly exhaled, repeating it a few times until Pai no longer felt like her heart was about to stab its way out of her chest with a piece of her rib. She looked down, squeezing her eyes shut; she was so out-of-sorts, so unbalanced with the conflicting emotions battling inside her.

Why was this so hard?

"Sorry. I am sorry." She said, holding back a heavy sigh. She looked up at him when he released her and took a step back. He didn't look mad.

He chuckled, a sad sound that was so out of place coming from him. "It's fine. You and Shiori have the same problem where you speak fast when you want to say something important." A cloud darkened his eyes for a moment before he shook his head and looked at her again. "What's wrong?"

She swallowed as she struggled to form the thoughts and pictured in her head into coherent sentences. She stared down at the snow-covered ground as she picked at the scab on her finger where she'd torn off a bit of the cuticle of her fingernail days earlier. She watched as a small bead of blood well up before she shook her head and looked up at Kouta again. He was watching her with an inscrutable look in his eye.

"The day I found Haru-san, after he collapsed outside the gates...I was coming back from the shrine. Konohana-hime's shrine, the one down there." She gestured down the hill, and immediately berated herself. He knows that, of course he knows, don't be stupid. There aren't any other shrines close by. "I went to pray because I thought that maybe if I prayed, they would help us to find Shin-san. I realize how foolish I was to think that –"

"Hey," he interrupted gently. "Don't beat yourself up about that. No human actually knows that Kamigami are more like us than they'll ever admit. It's not your fault you thought like that. They've been keeping up that charade for thousands of years."

And we were so desperate that we believed them, she added silently. "I went there to pray," she continued. "And when I was leaving...I do not know how to better explain it, but I met Konohana-hime. I met her."

Kouta blinked at her, then frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I was – I was leaving the shrine after I was done praying, and I heard this laugh, but there was no one there. I turned to go, but when I did she was just...there. She was standing right behind me."

His brow furrowed in a deeper frown as he watched her struggle to find the right words to explain what happened. "What did she want from you?"

"She did not want –" she paused. Was that really right, to say Konohana didn't want anything from her, even though it was what Pai asked for?

But then...what did Konohana want? She hadn't said anything, but from everything she was hearing about Kamigami, they don't seem like the type to do things for nothing. Konohana didn't say anything, but was there a specific reason she decided to help Pai, in whatever frustratingly ambiguous way it was?

She shook her head and continued, "She told me that Hoderi-dono retrieved Shin-san's Mask from the Oni that stole it. She said that – that I need to be the one who gives him his Mask, because I...because I know his true name, and I am the only one who will not abuse that knowledge."

Kouta's eyebrows inched upward with every word she said, and by the time she was done talking, his brows practically met his blond hairline. He stared at her with such a comically shocked look on his face that it would have been funny, if not for the dire situation that had rendered her incapable of so much as cracking a smile.

"Wait, let me get this straight," he said, bouncing on the balls of his feet as he took a step back and crossed his arms over his chest. "You're saying that Konohana-hime just appeared in front of you and gave you his Mask, the one that an Amanojaku stole. And that her son, another Kamigami, retrieved it for her. Then she told you that you are the only one who can get the Mask back on Shin because you know his true name?"

He got it at once, she thought derisively. I had to repeat it nine hundred times before it finally sank in.

She noded meekly. "Basically."

He frowned, still looking mighty confused. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

She started to answer, but her voice faltered, stuttering in her throat. What could she say? What reason was good enough for her to have kept this from him for so long already? The truth was, there was no good reason.

"I do not know, Kouta-sama. I want to say it is because of everything that happened, with Haru-san," she said in defeat, gesturing vaguely behind her to the house. "And helping Kanou-san to treat him, but..." she trailed off, looking down at her feet, unable to look him in the eye for the shame of it.

"What is it, then?" Kouta didn't sound angry, just – curious. Curious about why she waited to tell him all this time, rather than the anger she thought she would have been faced with. "Come on, Pai. You can tell me the truth."

She swallowed thickly. Why wasn't he angry with her? Why wasn't he more....just more?

"I – I think I was scared. Konohana-hime, she told me that the reason I – the reason she thinks I am the only one who can use Shin-san's true name to make him wear his Mask again is because I do not want to control him." She looked up at him quickly, shaking her head. "I don't – I do not want that, I just want to help him. But I do not know how am I supposed to do that because I have to use his true name but Kouta-sama, I do not know it. I'm – I am just human, and she said others would want to use his true name for their own benefit, to control him, if they know it, but I do not know why she thinks I am different, why she thinks I even know his true name at all."

Her eyes shot up to Kouta's when he, unbelievably, laughed. He actually tipped his head back and laughed before he finally quietened, looking at him with a dry smirk.

"Let me guess," Kouta said, the odd, empty smirk on his lips discomfiting her. "She told you that if even I know his true name, I'll be tempted to exploit it and use it against his will. Is that what she said?"

She blinked, thrown off by his laughing. "More or less."

Kouta clicked his tongue. "Tch. Unbelievable. This is a prime example of Kamigami setting themselves up as perfection whilst simultaneously degrading every other being in this world."

"I do not get it."

"She didn't lie to you, exactly. One of the things Kamigami can't do is tell an outright lie. But she did conveniently forget to mention one import detail; Hengen cannot use the true name of another without their express permission. I could know the name of Shin's True Ayakashi, but I won't be able to so much as order Shin to buy me a beer without him allowing me to use his true name in the first place, and – Pai, no Hengen ever does that, under any circumstance."

For a moment, she didn't know how to react. She was stunned into silence and could only blink owlishly at Kouta as she tried to comprehend what he meant. When she spoke, it was with choking surprise colouring her voice.

"Konohana-hime lied to me?" About something as important as this?

"I'm pretty sure she thinks she was telling you the truth. Just the edited version of it. Only what she thinks you need to know."

Why – that sounds familiar. Why does that sound familiar?

"She didn't lie by omission in one thing, though." Kouta continued. "I think that she was right to say that only you should know his true name."

"Why?"

"Because humans aren't as limited as we are when it comes to our true names. If a human finds out our name, they can use it or abuse it the way they want, even without our permission to do so. That's why it's so dangerous for a human to know the true name of any Hengen. But I know you," he smiled reassuringly at her. "I doubt there's anyone more suited to know Shin's true name and not seek to use it for yourself."

I won't, but why do you trust me so?

She had to force her voice to work around the cotton ball in her throat. "But – but how can I help if I do not even know it?"

He shrugged. "Right now, I'd suggest you take some time to calm down. It may seem like nothing, but it's not a gift to know the true name of a Hengen. It's a burden."

She gave him a curious look. "How?"

Kouta regarded her in silence for a few moments, his eyes flicking between hers as if he was trying to judge if she should know whatever he meant by that. She waited patiently for him.

Kouta glanced back out toward the city. "There's a lot of different situations where it can be dangerous to know our true name. For example, we can't use the true name of another without that permission, but that won't stop some Hengen from manipulating and coercing the one human who can."

Pai stared at him, hearing in his words the echo of the reasons why he had hesitated to let her stay in Ayashi House when she was first found. No one knew who she was besides Shiori, her brother, and Obaasan. No one knew where she had been for the three years she was missing. No one knew if her amnesia was real. No one knew what were the mysterious circumstances behind the apparent amnesia of everyone that used to know the Momozono's outside of Shiori and her family.

No one knew anything about Momozono Pai. In a world such as the Ayakashi's, knowledge was power, just as much as the physical strength they wielded. How could they know if Pai was a spy for another Clan or not?

Oh, she thought shakily, the implications pressing down on her like physical weights. If she knew Shin's true name, and another Hengen or Clan found out about it – though none of them should know about her existence at all – then who was to say they wouldn't try to use her to control one of the most powerful Daitengu?

Who was to say she would be able to resist them? Her, a weak human. She didn't even know the Onihitokuchi was after her until she woke up in the warehouse.

"You need to decide if you're willing to carry that burden." Kouta cocked his head to the side, looking at her. "Will you?"

She dropped her eyes down to the ground, scuffing her foot on the dead leaves. Her eyebrows twitched in a frown as she stared at the ground, thinking over her (limited) options. She blinked slowly, tiredly, as she felt herself enter that peculiar headspace she had no name for that she often found herself in on a near daily basis doing the most mundane things, when she knew where she was and what she was doing and what was going on, but it all seemed so...far away. Like it was not exactly real.

After a few silent moments, she raised her head to find Kouta still watching her. "I want to help Shin-san."

Kouta watched her intently for moments longer, as if he was looking for any hint of hesitation, any ounce of her that was unwilling to carry the burden he wasn't sure she could.

Pai didn't look away.

Kouta frowned a little as he watched her, then quickly looked away, out to the city. "Take some time for yourself," he eventually said. "Maybe then you'll remember something. Konohana-hime said you know his name. It could be something simple, easily forgettable. There are no rules when it comes to a Hengen's true name. You might realize you've known it all along."

She cocked her head to the side in confusion, pursing her lips. "You believe her?"

"Kamigami are masters of deception, but they don't lie. If she went out of her way to get Shin's Mask to you, and believes that you know his true name, then I think maybe she's right. In that regard, at least, I can believe her."

"But – but I –"

Kouta's lips twitched in a vague smile. "This is the name of his True Ayakashi we're talking about. However it is you found it, it's not like there's going to be a glowing neon arrow pointing to it with the words 'here lies Hayashi Shin's true name, use wisely'."

She smiled faintly at his wry attempt to make her smile. "But Kouta-sama, do you really think I can do this? What if something goes wrong, what if I do something wrong again –"

"Pai-chan." He took a step forward and put his hands on her shoulders again, looking into her eyes with a little smile at the corners of his lips. Surprisingly, the smile seemed to reach his eyes, mooning them and settling her frazzled nerves. "I know you, and I trust you. Shin does too. If Konohana-hime also trusted you enough to give you Shin's Mask, and if you can figure out what his true name is, then I know you can do it."

Pai looked up into his eyes for a moment longer before her gaze slid away, guilt wrenching at her stomach as she stared unseeingly at the snow-laden branch a foot beside Kouta. A bird, a little brown finch with its feathers all ruffled up from keeping the wet, cold weather off itself, landed on the end of the branch, shaking it so much so that the snow fell to land in a heavy clump by the knotted base of the tree's gnarled roots.

"I feel like you are more confident in me that I am in myself," she mumbled.

Kouta chuckled, leaning back. "I feel that way too. If you're not going to do it, I guess it's up to the people who love you to do it for you."

She felt a prickling sensation in her eyes and knew that if she didn't look away from the kindness she could so clearly see in Kouta's eyes, she would start crying. So she did just that; she shoved her cold hands in the opposite sleeves of her haori and turned, walking over to the tree Kouta had been standing next to.

She picked up a twig that is lying on the ground. While she was bent over, she surreptitiously wiped her burning eyes against the soft fabric of her haori before standing and turning to face Kouta again, twirling the twig in her hands.

"Thank you very much, Kouta-sama." She said. She was glad to hear that her voice didn't quaver as much as her heart was.

He frowned, as if he didn't quite understand what she was thanking him for. "For what?"

Her eyes drifted down to the ground, letting go of the twig and putting her hands in her opposite sleeves again. "For believing in me. Even though I think you are a bit too confident in my ability to do this."

Kouta smiled again, the frown melting away. "If you won't be, someone has to." He nodded at her. "Do you have it? Shin's Mask."

She took her hands out of her haori sleeves and pushed the right sleeve up to reveal the nondescript band of silk wrapped loosely around her wrist. She untied it and held it out to him, expecting him to take it from her since it would be safer with him than her.

Instead, Kouta hastily took a step back from her.

She watched in surprised confusion as a flash of fright zipped past his eyes before he smiled at her, trying to cover up his nervousness. "Ah, no, I think it's better if you hold on to it."

What?

"What? Really? Kouta-sama – are you all right?"

"Hm." He folded his arms over his chest as he leaned back on the balls of his feet, warily watching the Mask that she folded neatly and held tight in her hand. He looked like he thought the sash would turn into a snake and lunge at him. "It's not a good idea for Hengen to touch another's Mask. Especially not when our True Ayakashi are opposing forces."

"What do you mean?"

"I am a Hogo-Sha no Ayakashi, a guardian, if you will. Shin's is Kaosu no Ayakashi. He is the literal embodiment of chaos, directly opposing mine."

"So, if you touch Shin-san's Mask...?"

"The residual aura that's left on it from twenty-seven years of keeping his True Ayakashi under leash could incapacitate me. Shin is a powerful Tengu, and his True Ayakashi isn't a docile one. That's why Hengen never try to attach each other by using our Masks. We never know what kind their True Ayakashi is, and if we'll be able to handle that.

"Oh." She croaked. "That's – I did not know. I am sorry. But...how did the Amanojaku steal his Mask?"

He frowned. "Oni are different. What affects us, doesn't them. The same goes the other way round. They can touch Masks belonging to Hengen without it affecting them, while we cannot. Something that works on them doesn't on us..." he looked up at the trees thoughtfully before bringing his gaze back down to her. "Most Oni are equipped with poisonous liquids that they use to incapacitate those they hunt. That poison works on each other, and their prey, but it doesn't affect Ayakashi."

"But it does to humans," she muttered, remembering the sickening lurch of her stomach when the Onihitokuchi temporarily paralysed her, the pounding headache when she woke up at the warehouse hours later, and the scar on the back of her neck she wasn't sure fade away. A reminder of everything that happened, imprinted on her skin.

After a moment of silence in which she debated on whether or not she should return to the house, Kouta said, "You'll need to come to the meeting."

Startled, she could only stare at Kouta. "What?"

"The meeting with the Daitengu. You need to be there."

Who. "But I am human."

"So?"

"It is going to be a meeting of the Daitengu."

The growing smirk on Kouta's face spoke of his amusement. "And?"

"Kouta-sama, I am human."

"What you are," he corrected. "Is a member of this family. This is going to be a meeting about saving Shin's life, and a Kamigami has given you a way to do that. You need to be there. I have a plan to get Shin back, and it's an admittedly crazy one, but it won't work if we can't get his Mask on him. His True Ayakashi will fight us every step of the way to stop us. We need you, Pai."

She was about to argue with him. If she didn't feel comfortable being around just him, lugging around this weight of guilt that was slowly chewing her up, she doubted she would be able to focus past that guilt and pay any attention to what the Daitengu talked about.

But when he said 'we need you', she shut her mouth and stared at him. Her eyes jumped from each intense yellow-gold iris to the other as she tried to see a cruel joke in them, hear a playful tone in his voice.

Neither was there. He was utterly straight-faced.

He was dead serious about this.

Her eyes dropped down, staring as she wiggled her toes inside her socks, curling them. Her voice was quiet, hushed, when she finally answered.

"Okay. I...I will be there."