A/N:

In light of a long missed interaction scenes between the Day and Night Rikuo in canon-storyline, here I try to make something to celebrate the occasions!

Aa~hh… I hope there'll be more of them, but judging from the intense atmosphere, Riku-chan would be very lucky if he got any screen time at all~~… Yoru Rikuo is seriously hogging all the canon!screen time now, ne…? o_O!

I can't promise anything about regular updates. You'll just have to be patient and see where this will be going.

Disclaimer:

You did read the summary, yes? (ArchEyebrow) o_O!

I have no wish to incur someone wrath about some Wishes... Or worse, have it granted with a terrible price as a deal… -_-U…

Soo…. Nope. Don't own. All I have is my creative mind and what you don't see in canon of any fandom that might be dragged along in this fic~…

Summary:

Semi-AU. ANGST. "Be careful of what you Wish for. You wouldn't know whom might heard it. Because maybe, the price they'd ask for… Wasn't something you're prepared to give them for."

Timeline: After Yoru Rikuo saved Zen of the Poisoned Bird Sect.

Warning:

-. Yura's arrival might be held back for several days than canon.

-. Liberal use of any fandoms of my own fancy.

-. Use of any OCs when it was needed to serve their purposes.

Chapitre 1 The Seed of Doubt

"See you later, minna!" said a young teen in a hurry while leaving a nondescript albeit in a decent size mansion behind. Said boy had an average height built for someone his age, with dual tones of golden brown on the upper parts and the dark chocolate brown on the down side of the hair. His hazel eyes were half hidden by the spectacles he wore.

"They're at it again… Seriously, why did Karasu Tengu harping about something that I don't understand at all! Me, a youkai? Ridiculous!" muttered by the twelve years old Nura Rikuo, heir and only candidate of the Third generations from the First Nurarihyon Legacy.

The dual haired boy had been feeling irritated since morning come, and getting a headache the size of his mansion was. Really. Not. Helping. At all. 'Come to think about it, what did he do last night that would result getting so miserable in this bright early morning? Honestly!'

'Why didn't I remember anything after I decided to go after Zen-kun last night?' puzzled the boy contemplatively while still raced around purposely.

'Then again… I think this isn't the first time something like this happened to me.' thought the quarter youkai bemusedly. 'Because there's also that one instance when that accident from 4 year ago happened.' here the young man eyes narrowed slightly.

'What the hell happened to me? These blackout periods shouldn't be a good indication, right? Am I losing myself?' The little spark of uneasiness grew within his chaotic mind. A little spark that might lead to doubt, and given enough time would likely festered to no good for him.

But thinking about his blackout periods only reminded him about the strange festive atmosphere in his home this morning that only serve to put a displeasure frown on his face. 'Why did many of them gave such hopeful look towards me? And Karasu Tengu even saying something about me and Sandaime in a single sentence didn't help either…' thought the boy darkly.

"How many times did I have to tell them that I don't intended to take that position at all before they started to believe me? Heck, using such convenience story to spread was wrong! I am a human! Always was, and always will be, no matter how much they might want otherwise!" said the teenager rather forcefully; earning some strange look from the other pedestrians around him who happened to heard him.

Oh, if only he knew…

Later that day, after school… (After Kiyotsugu was convinced by Tsurara that there's no youkai in the old school building)

"Ugh… Everyone! Our first challenge in searching for the truth of youkai existence might have been not successful yesterday. But don't worry! We will surely prevailed this time!" said Kiyotsugu, -the boy with dark curly hair and self-proclaimed youkai expert of his school club- imperiously. "Now, our chosen target will be…"

"Aaarrgghh! Not again, Kiyotsugu-kun!" complained Maki Saori, the blonde haired girl loudly. "Haven't you had done enough? I know that you wanted to prove your theory so bad, but don't you think you're going about it the wrong way?" inquired the girl rather passionately.

"Huh? What do you mean about that, Maki-san?" asked Kiyotsugu puzzlingly.

"See, you said that present days youkai are rather reluctant to show their face because they have a hard time blending into the modern times scenery, right?" Maki whispered theatrically.

"Unn… I did, didn't I?" pondered the boy quietly. His mind started to stir in contemplation wonder.

"Then why would the youkai let them be seen now just because there's a bunch of human-children wanted to search for them?" pounced the girl rather quickly. "Don't you think it would make more sense if they would hide themselves deeper if there's people who insisted to search them rather persistently?" here, the blonde haired girl's eyes flashed an unknown glint that disappear as quickly as they had come.

"Gasp! Of course!" the curly haired boy's eyes widened in realization. "Maki-san! You're right! Why didn't I realized this sooner! This would explain many unsuccessful expeditions to search them!" crowed the teen.

"See! Now that you had realized that, there's only one way to go, right?" said the girl patiently. An almost unnoticeable smirk flashed in her face before settled in a kind smile directed to the rather preoccupied boy before her. 'Hook, line, and sinker! Ha!' crowed the girl in her mind triumphantly.

Maki's Internal Monologue

'Now hopefully, he would stopped with his wild ideas in searching youkai! Hmph! Once in a while in the summer night might be fun, but to go every day? Give me a break! As if we didn't have anything we wanted to do elsewhere than traipsing around blindly chasing around something that wasn't willing to be found!' thought the girl's viciously. She was rather annoyed with Kiyotsugu's insistence to search for Them.

'After what happened four years ago, I would have been either a thoroughly typical blond-idiot, OR a delusional girl hoping against hope that it was only a dream that was induced by stress after that incident. And I am Neither.' scoffed the long haired girl internally.

'No, there's no doubt that their kind exist. But Kiyotsugu seems to forget One. Important. Thing. That They are dangerous!' the girl's eyes narrowed slightly almost unnoticed by anyone at this thought.

'I _am_ grateful for that long haired youkai who seemed to be the other youkai's leader for saving us. But that doesn't change the fact that they clearly have power that beyond human capability at their hands! There should have been a very good reason of why all the legend and myth about their kind from our ancestor time depicted them as dangerous and usually tacked with a flee on sight order!' contemplated the girl while gritting her teeth.

'I'm not saying that all youkai must be evil because there are some of them that likes to help human-kind like that Zashikiwarashi legend, but we should have still be cautious to not actively rousing their interest towards us! Who knows, maybe the real reason that youkai leader was there that day was because the other ugly youkai had dared challenging his authority in his own territory and he came to exterminate them. Him saving our lives was just an added bonus from the whole debacle. That would have been made more sense rather than thinking that he was there specifically for us, right?' pondered the girl objectively.

'No… The right course of action would have been to let them be and perished any thought to try to found Them. We've been very lucky at that time. We might not be so lucky for the second time.' determined the young blond girl fervently. 'Now if only Kiyotsugu would understand…' thought the long haired girl grimly.

Unfortunately for the poor girl, her hope had to be blown out in the form of a determined boy out for a cause…

Meanwhile with Kiyotsugu's realm of mind…

The self-proclaimed youkai expert teenager was in a quandary. The reason of why he decided to drag everyone to a youkai expedition was because he wanted to meet the one that had saved them 4 years ago. He wanted to thank properly to him, because it was only right to do so, right?

That's why he was dragging Maki-san, Torii-san, Ienaga-kun, and Shiima-kun along. After all, they were there along with him. They're the only survivors of that night. Without that youkai, they wouldn't be here right now.

As for Nura-kun… Well… Nura-kun's case was a little bit different, though. He wanted to do something for what he did to that boy all those years ago.

Four years ago, Nura-kun was the only one among his age-mates who believed in youkai's existence, if not the only one. Four years ago, he never stops at any time to belittle the boy's believe. Four years ago, he was absolutely sure that everything that dual-brown haired boy said was little more than a rubbish talk. Yet… It was four years ago that everything he believed come crashing down around him because of that Incident. Now though…

Nura-kun has changed. Sometime around the four years time between now and then, that energetic, prideful boy in his memories that always become the center of attention gradually become nothing more than a mere shadow of his previous self. And he can't help but think that some of that was because of his doing.

It feels… Wrong, to say the least. The Nura-kun of four years ago before the Incident was an easy-going, bright and bubbly happy child. And despite having a prankster tendency a mile wide streak that more often than not making the entire faculty elementary teacher stressed out with an exasperated fondness, none ever hate the boy.

That was because, despite all that mayhem and chaos he had created in his elementary years, none of his pranks was harmful or hurtful for any of its intended target. Sometimes he even made himself a target just to make everyone smiled. And now that same boy had been reduced to be something that doesn't really suit himself, to be honest.

Nura-kun was a kind hearted boy before. But the way he acts now was beyond what was a normal behavior that it seemed painfully faked. What had happened to that boy who can charm almost anyone and always been the center of attention without trying?

He might not know the whys, but what he did know was that Nura-kun had stopped talking about youkai four years ago. He just suddenly looks defeated one day. Like he had been told that it's the end of the world. Not even after the death of his father that Nura-kun looked so stricken like that time. And that's when he started acting like a servant boy out to do anyone's chores if only they told him to do it.

Never had he tried to attract more attention than what was needed like he used to be. He even seemed prefer to fades in the background now days. Odds that such a popular boy had become such an almost footnote in class if not because of his eagerness in "helping" his class-mates to do their class-duty chores.

It's like he had just suddenly lost the thing that make him shines without trying in front of everyone, and it was replaced with something that made him just... There. An afterthought that might or might not be noticed depend on when he wanted it. But that's just silly, right?

He didn't like what he had seen. Nura-kun belongs to the spotlight. He didn't know why, but he knows that if anyone deserves that place, Nura-kun should have. And he would like to see the boy shine once again.

He had considered many things to draw out the boy to the way he used to be. But since he didn't really have been that close to Nura-kun, it would have been improper of him to force himself in his life. Even Ienaga-kun which is admittedly the closest to him during all these years is baffled with Nura-kun change of characters. It was only after the first day of school he had decided to do this.

He had had a doubt about doing this kind of things before. But any doubt he might have was thrown away after he saw what was transpired yesterday. Nura-kun seemed more alive than all of these past years. It seems by making this kind of trip, Nura-kun might be reminded of his past self. The self that had been forcefully restrained either consciously or not. A bad habit created by his own consciousness.

'Hah! I really am a genius! It seems my guess that Nura-kun really likes all this supernatural stuff was spot on! Why else would he been looked so down when no one share his passion! Alright then! I will continue this kind of adventure with him and the others. Who knows? Maybe one day I might even meet the Commander once more one day. But for now, Nura-kun is my priority. Yosh! I will call this mission: "Operation Bring Back the Old Nura-kun"!'

Poor… Poor… Gullible little fools…

But then again… Irony is one of the colors of life, ne?

A/N:

Don't you think it is highly ironic that the reason Kiyotsugu wanted to gallivanting around was Rikuo himself? XD! And that unconsciously, Riku-chan could assert his base Fear to be unnoticed by anyone~… ^_~*

Foods for thoughts!

Aa~hhh… This chapter wasn't supposed to stop here, yanno? But since there's this person whom always nagging for this to be posted already -and you know who you are, dear (sarcasms)-

Well, you just have to be satisfied with this now, minna. Nothing important happened, yet. Then again… This is a cut-out version of the prologue after all…

And let's see how much I can challenge myself to use most of those minor-main charas to weave my tales! But don't get too used with it, since I rather wish to only play with them when the situation calls for it.

Read & Review, please!