死神

She turned back to the window, and shrieked when she saw not only her own image looking back at her from the glass of the window, but the very faint and hazy reflection of a woman with eyes blacker than midnight and a sly smile curling her crimson lips staring back. Her face was right next to Pai.

She whirled around. There was no one beside her.

Her heart thundered in her chest as she brought her gaze back to the window, but saw nothing there. There was no second face. She focused all her attention on listening hard to everything around her, but all she heard was the force of the gale outside the house and the creaking wooden boards of the walls that remained standing stoically against the battering of the wind.

But when the voice called again, she knew she wasn't imagining things.

How come it's taking you so long? It called out petulantly.

She scrambled to her feet and stood with her breath shooting out of her in shivering gasps as she stared at the eyes of her frightened reflection. She took a hesitant step toward the window, eyes un-focusing as she watched herself moving warily closer, and closer. She racked her brains trying to think of any kind of Yori Chiisai that could possibly cross over the magic boundary of Ayashi House and somehow cause her hallucinations.

Or maybe it wasn't that – maybe it was the Amanojaku. They were known for being able to influence people, especially humans, into doing things they never would. Maybe it was making her imagine things, hallucinate impossibilities where she was seeing faces in window reflections.

She stifled a scream when her reflection warped into something inconceivable.

Her face dissolved into screaming agony, black seeping into the white of her hair like oil spilling over snow, her hands raising up to scratch and claw at her eyes as her head snapped back. she could almost hear the nerve-shattering scream that had her physically lifting her hands to her ears as she continued to watch the reflection with her eyes wide.

It was like watching something out of a horror movie. She saw herself screaming in pain, tears of blood dripping down her darkened eyes, before jerking to the left. Another face, the woman from before, seemed to tear herself out from Pai's neck, silent laughter echoed in the crazed smirk of her blood-red lips.

Pai turned and crossed the room quickly to her door. She flung it open and raced down the corridor to the bathroom. When she got there, she lifted her gaze up to stare at the row of seven mirrors. She stared back at herself. She was relieved to find no one else was there. She gulped as she stared at her largely dilated pupils in the mirror.

What's happening to me?

She shook her head and turned the tap on, cupped her hands under the running water and splashed it on her face. The shock of cold jarred her senses into full wakefulness more than smashing the frozen snow against her face to wipe away the blood had.

She looked back at herself in the mirror, water clinging to her eyelashes and dripping over the planes of her cheeks and down her jawline to land on the cold stone surface of the sink. Her bottom lip trembled, and her eyes were scared.

Terrified. She was terrified.

She hated seeing that look in her eyes. Being scared meant being weak, and weakness was never a good thing. It reminded her too much of how helpless she felt whenever she attempted to remember what happened to her before she came to Ayashi House after she went missing.

You're never going to figure it out on your own, you know. You need us.

She jerked upright when the voice spoke again, her eyes wide as saucers when she saw the woman staring back at her instead of her own face in the mirror. She saw her clearly now, the reflected image of the woman in the mirror unhindered by the haze of the white gale. Her heart stilled in her chest, body freezing as though it had been touched by the hand of an ice god. A torrent of clashing emotions waged war for attention in her heart, so painful that she felt as though she could cry from it.

Fear, relief, sadness, joy, sorrow...they all crashed into her so overwhelmingly that she stumbled back a step as she stared at the woman standing in the mirror.

"Mi – " her heart ached with such longing as she lifted a hand toward the reflection in the mirror. "Mitti."

She drew in a sharp breath that made her feel like her throat was coated in ice, and she thought she was going to scream, but the sound never made it past its origin deep in her chest. Instead, her throat suddenly constricted, as if someone's iron fist was crushing her windpipe. She stumbled, her hands to her neck as she struggled to breathe in, gasping and expanding her lungs as big as she could but never being able to get enough oxygen into her system.

Do not scream.

Her back hit the door to one of the shower cubicles. Knees weak and chest burning from the lack of oxygen, she slid down the door and landed with a thump on the cold wooden floor as her hands loosened around her neck.

Black spots danced in front of her eyes, and she thought she was going to pass out. A white-hot flame torched her lungs, setting her body on fire. Her muscles shook with the effort to breathe. The walls of her throat were collapsing, falling in and blocking her airways.

Pai's eyes grew ever wider the closer she reached to the horrific realization that no matter how hard she tried, no matter how she scrabbled at her neck and gasped and choked, she simply could not breathe. She could hear the choked sounds she made as she gasped, but even that was muted behind the thundering rush of blood to her head.

Then, just as suddenly as it came, the suffocating band around her throat disappeared.

When the Chimei Yoki was talking to you through it last week. She gave you the clue to his true name.

"The – you mean Shii-chan?" Pai frowned. Did she mean her phone when she said 'gadget'?

Yes.

"How would she even know Shin-san's true name?"

She does not. She unwittingly gave you one piece of the puzzle. We have the other. It is you who must put it together and learn it.

"Tell me."

"How the – how do you know so much about me?"

The confusion in the woman was evident even before Kuniumi spoke again. It bothered Pai that she could feel that so instinctively. What did it mean? Why did it feel like she was so attuned to the every thought and emotion of this unknown, strange woman?

We know many things. Kuniumi replied. So, so many things. Sometimes we know too much. Sometimes we do not know enough.

As Daitengu, Shin is strong. His Mask barely keeps him in check, but at least it does. His Makashi is strong too, but in another way – find his true name. Kuniumi pressed.

"I'm looking." she snapped. Finally, she came to an abrupt stop when she found the message.

He's going to be drawn to the Torimaku because they are twisting it to something opposite of what his Makashi is, Kuniumi murmured as Pai read the message.

死ん

Shi. Death.

Shin froze, his hand fisted in the collar of Yuu's kimono and one katana blade kissing his throat. A thin line of red trailed down from where the sharpened edge of the katana pressed just hard enough into his neck to make him bleed. If she had been a second too late, Yuu would have died.

The Daitengu was practically unconscious by this point. The tip of Yuu's tachi dragged on the ground as he held it limply in his hand. Half his face was covered in the blood dripping down from a gash on his temple, and what skin wasn't bloodied up was purple and blue with blossoming bruises and tiny scrapes decorating his face, neck, and arms.

His eyes were half-closed, as if he had resigned himself to his fate to die at the hands of Shin. When he heard her voice they widened as his shocked gaze fell on her. They were red, but traces of his brown were fading in, as if his Makashi was dwindling away.

"Pai-chan – what're you – "

He didn't get any further than that. Shin drew his arm back, twisting his wrist around and bringing the hilt of his katana crashing down on Yuu's head. Pai yelped when it made contact with a sickening thud, her hands darting up to cover her mouth in a too-late attempt to keep the sound in. Shin released him and Yuu slumped to the ground, knocked out cold. For a moment he simply looked down at the unconscious figure of Yuu lying at his feet before he straightened his spine, raised his head and looked right at her.

In the silence within the Torimaku, she thought she could have heard a pin drop if not for the blood rushing to her head, the thumping of her heart beating so hard in her chest, and the rustle of her pyjamas as she took an involuntary step back. Her breath was knocked out of her when she met the blaze of Shin's red eyes.

He was so angry; it was a punch to her stomach when she thought of how that anger was directed at her. Perhaps he already knew what she was planning to do now that she knew his true name. Maybe he was going to kill her before she could do any –

"You..." Shin's lips pulled back over his teeth. She had to force herself to remember that this wasn't Shin, but Shinigami – his Makashi. He replaced his katanas in dual sheathes strapped to his back as he turned to look at her fully. His body was lithe and strong, she could tell just by looking at him. It was more like she was facing a black panther than the man whose darkest aspect had been given a body to roam freely in. "Where did you get that name?"

"I – "

He didn't give her a chance to go any further than that. In the next instant, she was thrown back against the wall of the force-field with Shin's hand wrapped around her throat, squeezing. The Torimaku, despite it being so hot when she passed through it a few minutes ago, was now like a wall of ice at her back that burned in its frigid touch. A second later he pressed her back into the wall and lifted her higher, so that her feet were clear of the ground. Her airways closed and her chest stung as she tried to breathe, but couldn't.

He was strangling her.

Shin's hand was big enough to easily wrap around her throat. It was warm as he pressed just a little tighter that black stars danced in front of her eyes. Her throat ached, screamed as she struggled to breath, meekly scrabbling at Shin's hand with her short nails in a weak attempt to make him stop. Panic blossomed like a black flower in the pit of her stomach, and she felt a low buzzing in the joints of her wrists as her hands began to shake again.

I can't breathe I can't breathe I can't breathe –

"Not that name." He growled, glowering darkly at her. "My name."

Your job is to give Shin his Mask. The memory of Konohana's gentle voice drifted in, simultaneously calming and shaking up her nerves, and the paralyzing fear when Konohana had stopped her from being able to move so much as an inch. Whatever else happens, even if your own life is at risk, you must get Shin and his Mask back together, before it's too late and we have to step in.

Her voice was hoarse and gruff when she spoke, and it hurt more than she could say to do it. But speak she did, for there was nothing else she could do.

"Clues," she managed throatily. "I – I had clues."

"What clues?" he asked bluntly.

"Your name. Shin's name," she corrected. She knew his name, so what point was there in hiding how she'd found it? She wasn't about to reveal that it was Kuniumi who had led her to it. "You share the kanji for death."

He narrowed his eyes at her. "That is a stretch."

"I was desperate." She shot back. "You ki – why did you kill the Nue?"

One eyebrow lifted at her question. She prayed that he wouldn't get so quickly bored with her. Please just humour me. At least until she found a way to make him wear the Mask again.

"That is what you want to know?"

She nodded, choosing not to speak if she absolutely did not need to. Her mind continued to think frantically about how to get the Mask on him.

Should I just attack him with it? But I'm not strong enough. He'll kill me before I can make a move, she thought, remembering the speed with which he'd moved when attacking Yuu. He was so fast; he was almost an unseen blur.

"I wanted to."

She stared at him blankly, thoughts screeching to a halt. "You what?"

He smirked. "I," he enunciated, as if she were an imbecile. "Wanted to."

"That – that's it?"

"Must there be a reason to everything?" he asked her snidely.

"You had no other reason for killing them?" she asked him, disbelief colouring her gravelly voice. "You just – you killed five men. You ended their lives."

He cocked his head to the side, in that way that was so like Shin. He was entirely unaffected at the stunned accusation in her voice. "I kill because I want to."

She shook her head, refusing to believe that. Maybe killing came as easily to Shinigami as breathing did, but she didn't think that was the only reason why he killed the Nue. The way Kouta questioned Haru after their fight – no, the questions Kouta had asked – they were too specific. Those questions gave rise to the idea that he killed those Nue for a reason. There was something beneath the want to kill that drove Shinigami to murder them.

Besides, Shinigami wasn't Ayakashi Satsugai. Ayakashi Satsugai killed indiscriminately. They didn't do it for any reason other than to kill, simply because they could. He – and the few others like him – killed for a reason. That much she knew, thanks to Kuniumi.

"That isn't true."

He lifted a brow, amused by her stubborn refusal to believe him. "Why shouldn't it be?"

"If you do it because you want to, why haven't you killed me yet?"

"Maybe you entertain me," he answered drily, studying her with those eyes. "Maybe I want to keep you."

"Excuse me?" the surprise had her speaking before she even realized it, and she snapped her mouth shut. Despite the silence, her eyes lit up with a flare of anger. The hell do you mean keep me? I'm not a thing!

He smirked at the look in her eyes. He'd seen it through Shin sometimes, and he wanted to draw it, to see how bright it burned, how much destruction it could bring.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?" he asked instead of answering. He leaned forward, hands on either side of her as he caged her in. His eyes were glowing again. She could feel the heat from his body as he moved inch by inch closer. Her heart flickered with something. She wasn't sure it was fear. "I almost killed Haru. He only escaped by luck."

That's not true, she thought, remembering when Haru said he'd seen a bit of blue in the eyes of Shinigami. Shin stopped you from doing it, didn't he? He's there, fighting you every step of the way, isn't he?

Her attention snapped back to the present, eyes solely focused on his as she pressed herself back against the wall. He was close, too close, closing her in with his arms bracketing her on either side, the heat of his lean body warming her cold one. She could feel the stir of his breath on her face.

Shinigami lifted a hand, and she kept still as he trailed the tips of his fingers up her from knee, to her hip. A flame was lit at his fingertip, igniting, tracing up a trail of fire along her body. "I killed the Nue. I ripped them apart with these hands." His hand went higher up to her shoulder before resting lightly on her pulse at the side of her neck. She could feel every thump, as if the beat of her heart was rising up to meet him. His hand wrapped loosely around her neck, the warmth flowing in together with the heat of the pain from being strangled twice in a single day. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Pity those who would think to stop him, and those who would think to cross him, Kuniumi whispered, her voice so quiet and coming from such a far place that Pai could barely catch wind of her words through the burning haze Shinigami was lighting up in her. Do not let the fear of death paralyze you as it has before.

She didn't know how to answer. She didn't know why she wasn't more afraid of being around him. She'd been afraid of the Onihitokuchi. She'd been afraid of Konohana. Kuniumi was right – she froze when faced with death. She was certain that if she hadn't had the gun with her in the warehouse, allowed to feel ever so slightly braver because of it, she would have never made it out alive. The Oni would have killed her long before Shin found her. With Konohana, she hadn't even been able to move an inch. If Konohana wanted to kill her there'd have been nothing Pai could have done to stop it.

Nothing at all.

As she thought about it, she realized why she was scared when facing both the Onihitokuchi and Konohana, but wasn't now. With both, she'd been terrified that she would die. The idea of it was more real than anything else in those moments. She'd been scared of the beings that could deliver her to death.

Shinigami was a Makashi, an Ayakashi, but at the same time he was part death god. If anything, she should have been petrified now, more so than with either the Oni or Konohana. From Kuniumi's impossibly brief explanation, Shinigami was literally a physical manifestation of death.

But she wasn't afraid.

I'm not afraid, she slowly realized. Because you aren't going to kill me.

"You tell me," she answered quietly, looking back right into his eyes unflinchingly. "Why? Why should I fear you?"

Shinigami frowned, not expecting that. He released her and sat back as he continued to watch her like she was a fascinating lab specimen. "I can see why Shin likes you. You're not as weak as I thought."

Pai couldn't believe it when she felt a warm glow fill her chest at his words. Of all things to be thinking about, what Shin thought of her should have been the last thing on her mind right now. That Shinigami could see it was even more...

"I – "

The world tilted at a sickening angle. Large black holes flickered on and off in front of her and she closed her eyes tight as a wave of nauseous dizziness swept through her. Her stomach roiled sharply and she thought she was going to vomit. Her chest squeezed tight as a pain like a knife being plunged through her body ripped through her, and she doubled over, cradling her arms around her stomach.

She coughed, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as she felt bile rising up from the back of her throat. When she drew it back she could only stare at the blood splattered over her trembling white palm. It was the colour of dark roses at midnight. Pai looked up when she heard a low chuckle.

Shinigami was watching her. He was laughing at her.

"So surprised. You don't know, do you?" he asked, curiosity tingeing his words as a smirk played about his lips.

"Know what?" she asked.

"Kanou didn't tell you?"

She frowned. "Tell me what?"

The smile on his face widened to a grin, a shade of the manic Shinigami that fought Yuu returning. His every word was slow and punctuated in a way that made it clear he was mocking her. "You. Are. Dying."

Let us out, let us out, we'll stop him from killing you.

"You're lying." She said to distract Shinigami, eyes still on the ground as her mind whirled in confusion. "Kanou-san would have told me something like that."

What will you do?

What do you want us to do? We'll do anything, oh...anything at all.

"I don't lie." Shinigami looked at her with his unsettling eyes. His voice was unflinchingly hard, like diamond hewn from the rock-face of a tall and imposing mountain.

"Kanou-san would have told me something like that." She repeated firmly. There was no way Kanou would have kept something like that from her. Her voice shook as the magnitude of what he was saying struck her. "He would have told me."

"True. If he knew, if he could tell."

She looked up at Shinigami. He was watching her with that look in her eye that made her feel like he knew exactly what was going on in her mind. It was dizzying, confused, to see someone else looking back at her with Shin's face – to know that it was Shin she was looking at.

Hold him down long enough for me to get the Mask on him. Pai replied to Kuniumi, praying that her thought would reach Kuniumi. She didn't know how to speak to her without using her voice.

At the same time she said to him, "Then how do you know?"

"You know what I am. You know my name." He replied. Again, that familiar tilt of the head. "How do you think I know?"

Kuniumi, please.

Hah, she sighed. The tension in her muscles ebbed out as she felt a tingle of warmth start up in her stomach. We thought you'd never ask.

This time, it was different.