Disclaimer: I don't own Noragami or any of its characters.
Title: Rivers Are Our Roads
Summary: Ebisu is newly reincarnated and already, much is needed to be done.
Characters: Ebisu, Okuninushi, Iwani, Kunimi, Yato, Bishamon and mentions of others
Rating: K+
Warnings: Potentially disturbing imagery
Author's Note: Spoilers up to chapter 35. I had to admit that I originally didn't think too much for Ebisu but once chapter 35 came out (and later was animated), I fell for him. And little Ebisu was simply adorable and I loved every one of his interactions with Yato. I hope we get to see more of them in the future.

Okuninushi supposed he could have asked for a better place for Ebisu to reincarnate at. The sea was bright and blue, still fresh from the morning air. Seagulls called above in the skies, wavering between the clouds. The people in the town were beginning to stir and waken to start another day. The temple began to hum with the appearance of early risers.

It frankly made him want to throw up in disgust at how perfect and peaceful it was.

This would be the first time he would be the first to meet a newly reincarnated Ebisu. It had previously the job of Iwani or another one of Ebisu's shinki to come gather their master but since all of them were either dead, missing or detained, it fell on Okuninushi to do so.

And there he was, standing and gazing out at the sea, entranced by the beauty and wonder of it. Okuninushi had not seen Ebisu look so happy in a long time.

The child, sensing he was no longer alone, turned towards him and for a moment, he thought Ebisu recognized him. " You are ... Okuninushi, the god of building nations, farming and business. I'm very happy that you have come to greet me. I hope that we could become friends."

The boy's smile could have rivalled the sun and it was all Okuninushi could do was to force a smile and pat Ebisu on the head.

~.~.~

Ebisu cheerfully held his new friend's hand, excited that Okuninushi was going to bring him home.

Home sounded like a delightful place to be. He wondered what kind of home his previous incarnation chose to live in. Okuninushi was vague about what it looked like so Ebisu brightly imagined a large house filled with lots of Shinki friends, perhaps close to the sea so he could wake up every morning watching the sunlight dance over the waves.

His dream was abruptly shattered when he and Okuninushi arrived at a ransacked house, broken glass and wood spilled over the courtyard. Trees were uprooted and smashed against the walls. He flinched at the foul and heavy scent of blood and rotting bodies of the ayakashi.

Okuninushi muttered and cursed under his breath. All Ebisu could catch was " ... those damn sentinels -" before another voice cried out.

" Y-young master!"

A group of bedraggled and dishevelled spirits raced towards them. Their clothing was torn and bloodied, as if they had fought a terrible battle. Ebisu hesitated, one hand remaining on the hem of Okuninushi's sleeve.

They stopped before them, staring only at him, making him squirm uncomfortably. Many of them began to weep and their hands clenched with despair and heads bowed in mourning. One threw himself at Ebisu's feet.

" Forgive me, young master!" he begged, shoulders shaking with mortification as he pressed his head so low to the floor as if he could fall through it. " I – I betrayed you. Please! Forgive me!"

Ebisu didn't understand. This person had betrayed his past incarnation? He wished he knew what to say. He didn't know him or any of the others. Perhaps they were his shinki? Many of them had more than one name he noticed on their arms, making them strays. Was his past self the kind of person to take in strays? Okuninushi remained silent, as if letting him decide.

So he chose to reach out and touched the man's face, patting away the tears. " I forgive you," he said, smiling gently, the words tasting strangely out of place. " I'm sure my past incarnation would do the same."

It only made the man cry harder, leaving Ebisu feeling confused.

~.~.~

The rest of the day was filled with activity. Ebisu assisted the rest of the shinki (his shinki) with cleaning the house and bringing some semblance of normality back into place. They insisted that he didn't need to do it but Ebisu wanted to see the rest of his house and all the rooms.

To his delight, Okuninushi decided to stay, saying he had to talk to Kunimi, who was apparently one of Ebisu's main shinki aside from Iwani. They conversed in one of the business rooms and the other shinki did their best to keep Ebisu busy and far away from said business room.

To his discomfort, other guests soon arrived. The heavens wanted the Ebisu to proclaim his allegiance and loyalty without delay.

" Do you bastards have to do this now?" Okuninushi growled. " For god's sake, Ebisu just reincarnated."

" All the more for things to run smoothly," they had replied, infuriatingly calm. " We do not want a repeat of the past, do we?"

So Ebisu did not have much choice in agreeing to heaven's demands. So once he found Iwani, his previous head shinki, he would have to exile him in exchange of the rest of the Mi clan to avoid punishment.

The sentinels also pressed him for answers that he did not have or understood, drilling question after question. When Okuninushi finally had enough, he ordered them to leave or else the sentinels would have their heads roll.

It made Ebisu wonder what kind of horrible person he was to have heaven issue divine punishment on him.

~.~.~

The next day, Okuninushi took him to meet someone. " You owe these people your thanks," he remarked. " Your previous incarnation gave us a bit of a scare."

He said it casually without any harshness or severity and yet again, Ebisu wondered what kind of trouble he had done to make others worry for him.

And that was how he met Bishamon, the goddess of war, and Tenjin, the god of academics, as well as Iwani, his previous incarnation's head shinki, who was hidden away from heaven with the help of Bishamon. He politely bowed and thanked them for helping him in his past life. They smiled the same kind of smile that Okuninushi was fond of using, the kind where they smiled with their lips yet their eyes remained sad.

There was another person he was supposed to thank but Bishamon said he was still resting and they shouldn't disturb him for now.

In the corner of the room, Okuninushi, Tenjin and Bishamon was quietly discussing something, their voices too soft for Ebisu to catch. So he rocked on his heels, the motion swinging on Iwani's hand that he held at the same time, trying to be as patient as he could as Kunimi and Bishamon's shinki stood in the hallways as silent sentries.

But as most curious little boys often did, he observed and pointed out things that adults found uncomfortable. " What happened to you?" he asked, pointing to a girl who was sitting in a wheelchair, her legs swathed in bandages.

The girl glanced at the other shinki. One young male shinki with glasses subtly shook his head. " I – err was in a fight alongside Bishamon-sama and I was injured by one of our enemies protecting her."

" Wow! You must be really strong!" Ebisu's eyes shone like gems. " Kunimi has one bandage here." He tapped his forehead. " Where did you get yours, Kunimi?" he suddenly asked.

" Mine?" Kunimi coughed uneasily.

" I bet you must have gotten it from protecting me." The boy innocently smiled. " I must have been in danger and you came to help me."

There was no answer that Kunimi could properly give. Iwani simply looked pained while Bishamon's shinki shifted uncomfortably.

At that moment, loud excited voices drifted from upstairs, two boys and one girl. " He's awake now," Bishamon sighed.

" Come, Ebisu." Okuninushi beckoned him over. " There is one more person you need to meet."

~.~.~

" That one's gone through a lot," Okuninushi gruffly said as he lead Ebisu away after Yato's furious outburst. " Best to meet him on a better day."

" Was Yato-san mad at me?" Ebisu looked back at the closed door. " Did my past incarnation do something to him?"

" Don't worry about it," Bishamon answered after a brief pause. " That idiot is always a pain even on his good days."

But the thought of a despondent Yato would not leave Ebisu. It gnawed at him and made him wonder what he could do to help Yato. Perhaps he and Yato were once friends in his past life? He didn't remember Yato and Okuninushi and the others were reluctant to say if they were friends. He wondered if this was due to his natural instinct as a god or if his past incarnation was nudging him forward to do something to cheer Yato up.

Either way, he was determined to make sure that Yato wasn't sad anymore.

~.~.~

Like so many times before, Iwani never failed to muse on the delights of youth as he watched Ebisu cautiously extend a hand to touch Bishamon's lion shinki, tentatively brushing the lion's thick mane and giggling when the lion wiggled his ears.

This wasn't a first, where Ebisu developed a fondness for all living things. So many things remained the same and yet, so many things changed.

" Would you miss me, Iwani?"

Each incarnation of his master was a sharp reminder of his own failures. This latest one, all the more so. Bishamon recounted Ebisu's death, how he laid there bleeding and sobbing and it burned his very soul to not realize how afraid his master was.

How could he had missed it?

" Look, Iwani!" Ebisu called for him and he looked up to see the child sitting on top of the lion. He gave a small smile and waved back.

The same mistake must not be made with this one.

" I would. After all, there is only one Ebisu that I serve."

~.~.~

Kunimi inhaled the familiar scent of fried rice and sizzling meat as he and Ebisu walked into the Olive Tavern. Ebisu insisted on returning here to eat since Yato had brought him a few days ago.

The old woman was beaming brightly once she saw them. " Welcome again!" She waved them over to a table. " It's been a while since I've seen you," she directed at Kunimi with a mischievous smile. " I remember how the four of you were soaking wet and left puddles all over the floor."

He blinked. It was rare for humans to remember them, their memories fading away after a short time. " You remember me?"

" Of course! How could I forget such handsome young men coming to see me? What about your other friends? Will they be coming too?"

Tatsumi. Utami. Both died in the underworld, sacrificed to give their master a chance at escape. It ached his heart to think how their sacrifice was mostly in vain. " I'm afraid they have other commitments," he muttered.

" That's a shame. What about the boy's father? He came here at least once a week to eat a hamburger steak. Like father like son, hmm?"

He glanced at Ebisu who was happily coloring on a piece of paper. He lowered his voice. " His father ... passed away. Not too long ago."

The old woman gasped, making sounds of distress. " Poor child." She watched him swinging his tiny feet over the chair. " Who is looking after him? His mother?"

He shuddered at the thought of Ebisu's mother. " She does not care for him."

" But he has you." It was a statement, not a question.

Kunimi had not thought of it much. He was not a simple shinki but now a guide post and it was his duty to protect and counsel Ebisu to the best of his ability. His duties were no longer of that of a servant but also of a parent.

He found that he didn't mind it.

" Yes. He has me."

~.~.~

" He refused to tell us what is wrong," Kunimi had explained patiently as Yato irritably rubbed his eyes being woken at two in the morning. " All he said is that he had to see you first."

Ebisu looked pale in the dim light of Kofuku's kitchen, eyes slightly reddened and mouth pinched tightly. Kunimi excused himself to go to the pantry to collect a teapot and cups in the guise of providing privacy. He sighed. " All right, Baby Ebi. What's going on?"

The boy fidgeted uneasily, listlessly playing with a loose button on his pyjamas. " I had a dream," he mumbled. " About a woman."

" Dreaming about girls already huh, you naughty boy."

" No. It wasn't that." (he was somewhat annoyed that this Ebisu inherited his predecessor's lack of humor) " She was made of white bones, bugs crawling in and out of her skin, with long black hair that was tangling and choking me."

Yato froze. Nightmares about Izanami and the underworld had plagued him for the first few nights. He could only imagine what her own child thought of her. " What happened next?" he asked, his voice dropping to a whisper.

" I couldn't break free and she was going to kill me." Ebisu shivered. " Then you appeared. You told her that you would take my place. Then I woke up."

Everyone, including Ebisu himself, had told him that Ebisu didn't have any memories of his past life and yet here Ebisu was, recounting a memory, if slightly skewed, of their journey to the underworld.

Yato had desperately hoped that the old Ebisu would resurface at some point but seeing this Ebisu frightened and traumatized by things he didn't remember or understand made him swallow that hope. " It's just a dream," he said instead. " Nothing more."

Ebisu hesitated before blurting out, " Could – could I stay here with you tonight?"

Yato would have pegged himself as the last person anyone would turn to comfort for. He wasn't even sure if Ebisu should be turning to him when he was the one whose father lead to Ebisu's death. But he wasn't the kind of person to send a kid home after a nightmare.

" Just this once," he grumbled and couldn't muster up the annoyance to block out Ebisu's delighted shout or unravel Ebisu's arms around his waist.

~.~.~

Ebisu thought he was the luckiest boy in the world.

He had an older brother Yato and a big sister Bishamon. He had a father in Kunimi and a grandfather in Iwani. Okuninushi was considered a grumpy uncle and he was surrounded by several amiable shinki for friends.

At least once a week, he went to the Olive Tavern and was doted on by the old woman who worked there. She often sent him home with extra hamburger steaks. She became something of a mother and grandmother to him.

They were replanting the trees in the courtyard and he requested for more ponds and fountains to be added. He had a second home at Bishamon's house where he could play with the rest of the children shinki and get rides from Kuraha. And he could always visit Yato at Kofuku's house and she and her shinki Daikoku were fond of him and frequently gave him lots of treats.

There was still heavens' sentinels who visited him and made many demands that he hurriedly complied and agreed with to keep the peace. There were still many questions and Ebisu was still learning fully about his role as a god of fortune.

But that was all right. He was learning how to live life to the fullest first.