Note: Thanks for the reviews lol Yes, Yato is stupid with his stupid plans ;_; And yeah, I did mark it as tragedy for a reason X) That tends to make people nervous because I almost only do it when someone dies and I'm not one of those authors afraid to kill off characters XD I'm sure that's really reassuring to hear, ha ha. Sorry X) But at least this time I can offer more bittersweet than hard tragedy.

Rebound

Bright sunlight streamed through the window when he opened his eyes. He blinked once, twice, and turned in a slow circle to peer curiously around the room. Futons stretched across the wooden floorboards, and a lamp was jammed in the corner on a small table. There was something perched on the windowsill, and curiosity got the best of him.

He stretched up, the tip of his tongue peeking out from between his lips as he strained on his tiptoes. The sleeve of his robe slid down his arm, but finally his small, grasping fingers touched rough wood and prodded the object halfway off the ledge until it was close enough to grab. He dropped his heels back to the floor with a huff and studied his prize.

It was like a tiny house, painted and decorated with a red gate and a little yellow crown. Cute. A name was scratched on the front, and he tilted his head as he considered it. There were probably a couple different ways it could be read, but the one his mind whispered back at him was Yato. That felt right.

Muffled voices filtered into the room from somewhere outside, and his face lit up. He liked people. Or, he thought he did.

He clutched the little house to his chest because it was his and made his heart feel warm, and scurried across the room to reach up and push the door open. There were stairs outside, and he began climbing down them to find the people. He quickly abandoned his first instinct to go recklessly charging down when he nearly toppled right off and went crashing down headfirst, and instead took a slower and more cautious approach, one step at a time. The voices were louder without the door blocking them, and they floated up the staircase as he hobbled down.

"I still can't believe… I never knew any of that. Kind of makes me feel bad for harassing him about it so much."

"I don't think he really told anyone. Even we didn't know that much, really. He didn't like to talk about it."

"What are we supposed to do now? I can't believe he's…"

"Why couldn't he have just waited? Maybe we could have…found another way."

"He's so stupid! I hate him, I hate– I–I miss him already. It's not fair. I was supposed to protect him and I couldn't–couldn't–"

"You can't protect your master from everything. It's not your fault."

"He made his choices, for better or for worse. He saved us and got rid of the sorcerer. He's a hero, really, but…"

"…I miss him already. I can't believe he's really gone."

"Exactly."

He clumped down a few more steps, bare feet quiet aside from the creaking of an old step, and the downstairs came into view. There were lots of people crammed into the room, so many that he didn't know where to start. But they all looked sad and sounded sad and said sad words, and that was…sad.

"Why is everyone so sad?" he asked, hugging the little house tighter and eyeing the gathering uncertainly. He didn't understand the situation, but shone a child's logic on all the words he'd overheard. "If he saved you, don't you think it was because he must have liked you and wanted you to be happy?"

Every head whipped around. Eyes widened and mouths parted in shock. He wondered why they all looked like they'd just seen a ghost.

"Y-Yato…?" stammered a boy with teary amber eyes and a mop of unruly blond hair.

"That's me!" Yato said brightly. He hopped down the last few steps with great enthusiasm, feet thudding loudly on each one, and bounced over to the blond-haired boy, who he decided he liked already. There was something warm and comforting about him. Yato showed him the little house proudly. "Look, I found it! It has my name on it!"

The boy gaped like a fish, mouth working soundlessly and eyes round.

"I can't believe it…" said an old, gray-haired man. "He actually reincarnated? How…?"

Yato tilted his head to survey the sea of stunned faces. "Reincarnated?"

A girl whose hair was the brightest pink he'd ever seen stepped forward. "It means that you already lived before and were a great god, and because you're still needed, you were born to live another life after you died. Your previous incarnation died saving us from a dangerous sorcerer, but…" Her eyes were filled with tears and her lips trembled, but she gave him a watery smile. "Welcome back, Yato-chan."

"Oh," he said. "You were talking about me. The other me."

He still didn't understand, exactly, but the idea of dying to live a new life did not seem too foreign to him. Like a fact woven into the fabric of his being, something fundamental to what he was.

"That's right." She bent down and offered him her hand. He shifted the little house to one hand and gingerly slipped his small fingers into her palm. "My name is Kofuku. I'm a goddess of poverty, and I was friends with your previous incarnation for a long time."

"Really?" He brightened. "Good. We can be friends again! Your hair is very pink. Is it really natural? Can I touch it?"

Kofuku laughed, and he caught a hint of a bright, bubbly smile beneath the tears. "Go ahead, Yato-chan. Yes, it's natural. Perks of being a god, huh?"

Yato tugged gently at one of the pink curls, fascinated by the color. "You have a nice smile. You should smile more," he decided.

"You're right." She wiped the back of her wrist across her eyes. The sadness still lurked in her eyes, but it didn't look quite as bleak when she was smiling. "You have a nice smile too. We will definitely be friends again."

"I'm Daikoku," a large, dark-haired man said, stepping up beside Kofuku. His cheeks were damp too. "I'm Kofuku's shinki. I knew your previous incarnation for a long time too."

Yato ducked behind the blond boy's leg, feeling safer with his free hand fisted in the fabric of his pants, and peered around it warily. Daikoku was big and stern and had a rugged, slightly scary look to him. Yato felt better with the comforting presence of the blond boy as a secure base, a security blanket.

"Oh, don't mind Daikoku!" Kofuku said with a laugh. "He looks scary, but he's really very nice. And he loves kids!"

Daikoku's shoulders slumped a little and he worried his lip between his teeth. Yato studied him some more. He did look a bit intimidating, but there was a softness in his eyes and kind lines carved into his face.

"You look scary," Yato informed him gravely. "But I think I like you."

"Um, thanks?" Daikoku said. "I think?" Yato offered him a smile, and he seemed to relax. "Don't worry, I'll win you over with food. I'm the one who feeds everyone around here."

"Ooh, that sounds nice! I want to learn how to make food too!"

Daikoku nearly coughed up a lung. "That's a first…"

"You really…" The blond boy's voice was strained and cracking and desperate, and Yato tilted his head back to blink up at him. "You really don't remember anything? You don't remember me?"

Yato considered it. He knew things, and he knew that he didn't know things, but he didn't think he could say that he remembered anything beyond the past few minutes. He couldn't say it really bothered him, either. His little piece of the world made sense, and he could learn about the rest with time. He didn't know why he knew the things he knew and why he didn't know the things he didn't, but it felt normal to him. That was the way things were. Maybe these people were awakening a slight curiosity about who he had been before and who they were to him, but right now it felt like a polite interest in a passing dream.

"Nope!"

The other boy's lips trembled, and something in Yato's chest clenched painfully. Maybe there had been some kind of ache there the whole time, but now it was amplified and it had something to do with the boy. Yato released his safe haven to rub at his chest absently.

"Memories aren't passed between incarnations," a blonde-haired lady said quietly from the other side of the room. "You know that."

Yato was instantly distracted by a flash of purple.

"You have a tail!" he gasped in awe, bounding over to the brown-haired girl with the purple tail. "Like a cat!"

Her eyes were rimmed with red, but she sniffed and swiped a hand across her eyes and gave him a wobbly smile. "Sort of. I had an accident and now my soul slips out of my body sometimes. That's the cord that keeps me connected to my body.

"My name's Hiyori. I'm human, one of your believers. We're… We're friends."

"That's nice." Yato smiled and held up the little house to her on a whim. Like he felt safe with the blond boy, he felt like Hiyori was the kind of person who would like this. "Would you hold this for me?"

She choked out a watery laugh, her eyes filling with tears again, and took it. "Do you know what this is?"

"It looks like a little house."

"It's a shrine." She ran her thumb along the base and smiled down at him. "It means that you weren't forgotten, that someone still needs you and cares about you. It's…it's a very great honor for a god."

"It's cute," Yato said. "I like it. What kind of god was I, then, that I'm still needed?"

"You're…" She swallowed hard and bent down to touch his face, running her fingers gently across his skin like he might disappear at any moment and she had to make sure he was still there. "You're a god of everything, really. I've seen you grant just about every kind of wish a person could ask for. You're a god of war, a delivery god, and… You're my god of fortune."

Yato considered that. He didn't know anything about his past self, not really, but it sounded nice that someone had cared about him and he was still needed and could grant all kinds of wishes to make people happy. And being a god of fortune sounded good too. He could be all of that again, he was sure of it.

"Okay," he said, trusting her judgment. "Don't worry, I'll grant all your wishes! Don't you think you should have pointy ears?"

She stared at him, taken aback. "Uh… What?"

"To go with the tail!"

She laughed despite herself, and Yato smiled. She seemed nice, especially when she was a little happier instead of sad. He thought she should be happy.

Her tail flicked back and forth, and he jumped at it. She whipped it up above his head and was saying something about cords, but he just laughed and stood on his tiptoes to reach for it. After a moment, she smiled a little and waved it about for him to follow.

It was fun, but he gradually became half-aware of a hushed conversation taking place in the background.

"At least he still wants to be called Yato," Kofuku murmured. "I don't think I could get used to calling Yato-chan anything else."

"He did say that he was surrendering the life and name the sorcerer gave him," mused the brown-haired man next to the blonde lady. "I wonder… He gave up 'Yaboku' and his past life because they were bound to the sorcerer, so now he's left with 'Yato' and his new life. The name and life he got from other people instead. From us, maybe.

"But it's still surprising that he reincarnated at all. We'll have to make sure he gets enough worshippers so that he doesn't fade again. Is it just Hiyori or…? It's a bit of a precarious position, even more so because we don't know how precarious."

"We'll figure it out," the blonde lady said sharply. "He's not going to disappear, not after all this."

"Of course."

"It is a little strange, though," said a black-haired woman beside the old man. "I know he could be a bit silly and goofy, but I wasn't expecting…"

"It's not what he was like back when I first knew him either," the brown-haired man mumbled. "I thought his playful side developed later and he started off as, you know…"

The blonde lady shook her head. "A reincarnation is a reset. Some things will change, but core characteristics stay pretty much the same. It's how a god is raised that affects what becomes of their natural inclinations. So this… This is probably what he was like as a child, before his father messed him up."

Kofuku sniffled. "That's actually…really sad."

Yato abandoned Hiyori's tail and regarded the blonde lady curiously. "Father?"

She froze, an almost panicked look flitting across her face. "Uh… Don't worry about that now."

He shrugged it off and bounced across the room to bend and grab a fistful of golden hair from where it curled just above the floor.

"Your hair is so long!" he said in wonder as he watched it spill through his fingers. "Did it take a really long time to grow it that long? Does it take a long time to brush it? Do you get lots of knots? Have you ever thought about using it to make a really long rope? I bet you could braid it together and make a braid-rope and use it to climb out a window!"

The blonde lady stared at him silently, mouth half-open, but then coughed out a laugh. "It's always been long, it does take a while to brush, it actually doesn't get many knots, and I've never made a rope out of it but that sounds like a fun idea." She leaned down to regard him at his eye level. Her eyes were a glimmering lavender hue that fascinated him. "I'm Bishamon, one of the strongest war gods. It's nice to meet you, Yato."

Yato's mouth pinched into a frown. He got better, friendlier vibes from Kofuku and Daikoku and Hiyori. Bishamon seemed nice enough, but…

"You don't like me, do you?"

"Wh-what?"

Yato sniffled and scrubbed at the tears welling in his eyes. "Why don't you like me?"

"He's awfully perceptive," someone muttered.

Bishamon flapped her hands in panicky motions. "Of course I like you!" she said quickly, her voice rising in pitch. "I mean, I had some problems with your previous incarnation, but we worked it out. Really, we were, uh…"

"Friends?" Yato suggested in a small voice.

"Uh… Buddies, yeah. Drink– Uh, buddies. We had, uh…mutual respect? We…" She bit her lip, eyes dimming a little, and said in a quieter voice, "We cared. We had each other's backs when it counted and fought our wars together. So yeah, I like you, really."

Yato sniffed one last time. "I like you too. You have pretty eyes." She spluttered incoherently, and his mouth formed an 'o' of wonder. "And now your face turned all red! Wow, can you do it again? Can you turn it other colors? It can be purple like your eyes!"

Her mouth worked soundlessly and the flush darkened on her cheeks. The brown-haired man beside her laughed. When she shot a glare at him, he tried and failed to contain it. Instead, it sounded like he was choking on it.

Yato noticed the name printed in red on the back of his hand and moved closer to frown at it. "Kazu?"

"Oh." The man stopped laughing and bit his lip. He pushed the strange contraption on his nose further up towards his eyes. "Yes, my name is Kazuma. I was friends with your previous incarnation for centuries and owed him a great debt. I'm Vee–Bishamon's shinki. Her lead hafuri and exemplar, actually, just like Yu–"

"What's that?" Yato interrupted, pointing to the contraption.

Kazuma broke off and blinked at him. "Oh, uh… Those are my glasses. My eyesight isn't very good, so they help improve my vision."

"Can I see?"

"Uh… Sure."

Kazuma pulled the glasses off his nose and held them down to Yato, who wrapped his fingers around the straight shafts and examined the lenses curiously. He touched the glass and giggled when a fingerprint stayed imprinted on the surface. He put them on, but they were so big that they slid all the way down his nose and he had to push them up again.

The whole world changed when he looked through the lenses. There was a big blurry spot where his fingerprint was, but that was the least of the trouble. The floor seemed to warp and bend beneath his feet, and everything went out of focus. He looked around, and the hazy seesawing motion made his head spin.

"Whoa," he mumbled, taking a few unsteady steps. This was easier said than done when the floor was never quite where he thought it should be. "How can you walk around like this? Everything is so weird! You must be like a superhero to be able to see like that! Wow, you're so cool!"

A tall smudge of black and brown off to the right that was probably Kazuma laughed. "It doesn't look like that for me. It corrects my vision so that I see the world the same way you do. It just looks strange to you because it's forcing corrections to your vision that you don't need."

"It's still really cool!"

Yato tottered around in unsteady circles and half-listened to all the grown-ups talking quietly to each other.

"What are we supposed to do now?" the blond boy was asking, his voice so raw it was bleeding. "He was stupid and annoying, but he was–he was like a–a father… He was family. Now he's just a kid and he doesn't remember anything. He doesn't even remember me. I don't–don't–"

"You're his guidepost," Daikoku said, voice firm but sympathetic. "Now it's your turn to raise him. He's vulnerable, and it's your job to protect and guide him. He wanted to be a god of fortune, right? Guide him on that path again and help him build a following and start over."

"He taught you a lot of things, didn't he?" Kofuku asked gently. "So now make sure you teach him. He was there when you needed him, took care of you in his own way, protected you and built a family with you, gave you a place to belong. Now it's your turn to be all of that for him. It's…it's much too soon, but…" Her voice wavered and was thick with tears again. "It will be hard, but we'll help you as much as we can, okay?"

"You still are family," Hiyori added. It sounded like she was crying again too. "I always…was always worried that I would be the one to forget… I can't believe he's the one…" She sucked in a shaky breath. "But even if he doesn't remember, we can still build new memories with him, right? He's not–he's not the same, but… You can still see pieces of him, right? Like how he's trying to cheer everyone up and is a little goofy and is still relying on you to protect him and gave his shrine back to me and… He isn't–isn't the same, but we can love him anyway."

"It's just not fair," the boy whispered, his voice cracking.

Something tightened in Yato's chest, something sharp and aching, and he instinctively turned toward the yellow and green blob on the other side of the room. He took a step forward, but the floor tilted beneath his feet and then rose to meet him as he toppled over. The room swirled about him hazily as he pushed himself to a sitting position.

"Are you alright?" Kazuma asked in alarm.

Yato opened his mouth to say he was fine, but the distorted perception of the world was starting to make him dizzy and his tongue felt funny. A gray and black blur stooped over in front of him to pull the glasses off his face and hand them back to Kazuma. Yato blinked a few times until his vision came back into focus. The old man with the wrinkly face and gray hair offered him a hand.

"Why don't we give Kazuma back his glasses before you get a headache?" he said with a halfhearted smile as he pulled Yato to his feet. "I'm Tenjin, god of learning. We've worked together on occasion over the years."

Yato studied his weathered face critically. "Why are you so old?"

Tenjin's face froze in a mask of disbelief. "Excuse me?"

"Well, Kofuku and Bishamon are also gods, so they must be really old too. But they look all young and pretty, so why do you look so old?"

Bishamon cackled merrily, some of the grief and tension melting from her face. "He's got you there!"

Tenjin scowled. "Little brat."

The black-haired woman beside him laughed. "I guess he hasn't changed that much after all."

Yato frowned at her, Tenjin forgotten. She felt…not familiar, exactly, but something close. He lifted his hand to his chest. There was a name written on his heart that ached with a pain not his own, but this woman with the bright green eyes made him feel like there was an empty place there beside it.

"Do you not have a name?" he asked in concern. That seemed sad. "It feels like you lost it."

She sucked in a breath. Tenjin started in surprise, and a strange air settled over the room.

"I thought he wasn't supposed to remember anything," the blond-haired boy said sharply.

"He can't." Bishamon sounded thoughtful. "But… I guess for a god truly in tune with their shinki, it might be possible to feel one's absence or at least the inability to name them again, even if they don't understand why."

"I always thought he didn't let himself get too attached to his shinki," Kazuma murmured, "but maybe he sometimes cared more than he let on."

The black-haired woman gave Yato a shaky smile, and a clear film of tears glimmered in her eyes. "My name is Mayu, and I'm Tenjin's shinki. But… Yes, I was your shinki once and had a different name that you gave me."

"Oh, really?" Yato asked with interest, blinking up at her with wide eyes. "Why did you leave? Was I a good master? Did we have fun?"

"Uh…" Mayu's gaze darted about nervously, like she wasn't sure how to answer the question, but then her wobbly smile returned. "We didn't always get along and it turned out that we worked better with other people, but… But you had a big heart, and I'm…I'm honored that I had the opportunity to be your shinki, even if only for a little while."

"Shin…ki…?" Yato twisted around to look at the blond boy again as something finally occurred to him.

The other name, the one that was still inked across his heart…

He traipsed back across the room and stared up at the boy solemnly. The boy's amber eyes were bright with apprehension as he stared back. A name written in red was peeking out from beneath his shirt on his collarbone, and it matched the name bound with Yato's life.

"Yuki…?" Yato read.

The boy's face crumpled, and the agony seared bright like wildfire that sizzled along all of Yato's nerves. Yato bit his lip, wondering what he had done wrong.

"Yeah," his shinki whispered, rallying a bit. "I'm your hafuri and your guidepost. I…I'm going to…take care of you. I'll help you become a great god again and… Yeah. I–I'll always be here for you…okay?"

"Okay! You're my guidepost and I trust you, so I'm sure it'll be fine!" Pain pulled Yato's heartstrings tight again, and he pressed his fist to his chest with a frown.

"I'm hurting you. I–I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's probably better to share it than keep it all bottled in," Yato reasoned. "Don't you think?"

The boy's face twisted into a funny expression again, the tears bright in his eyes but refusing to fall. "Yeah… That's what you always used to tell me."

"I must've been pretty smart, then!"

"Yeah… I guess you really were, even if it didn't always seem like it."

Yato shifted back and forth on his heels. He was making his shinki sad, and he wasn't sure why. He didn't understand why it seemed like every word was a landmine waiting to explode. He bet his new friend had a nice smile too, if only he could stop crying. Until then, Yato would smile for the both of them.

So he smiled and held his arms up expectantly. His shinki hesitated and chewed on his lip, but then reached down to pick Yato up and settle him on his hip. Yato reached up to pat the heap of blond curls on his head.

"Don't be sad, Yukine."

Yukine started, his whole body shuddering, and stared down with wide eyes. "How did you know…?"

Everyone was staring at Yato with those surprised expressions again, but he wasn't quite sure why.

"I feel it here," he said, pointing to his chest before fisting his hands in Yukine's shirt again. It seemed obvious to him. "It's going to be okay. I'll make you happy!"

A strange, choked sound ripped out of the depths of Yukine's lungs as his entire face crumpled again. He dissolved into loud, heaving sobs that shook his entire body and left rivers of tears gushing down his cheeks. He wrapped the tiny god in a hug so tight that Yato felt like his bones might break like glass, as if afraid he might slip away and disappear.

It hurt and the pain was squeezing his chest like a vise again, but Yato stayed quiet and nestled into Yukine's embrace and waited.

"You've a-always made me h-happy," Yukine choked out, folding over on Yato and holding him ever tighter. Hiyori inched closer. She still held the shrine in one hand, but patted Yukine's back gently with the other. "We're f-family, okay? You were—a-are—amazing and wonderful and a–a really g-good god. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. You are–you are special and important, and we will a-always love you just the way you are.

"I-I'm going to make sure you're happy. We're going to do it–do it right. You're going to be happy this time. You're going to have lots of friends and–and a family that really cares about you. I'm going to p-protect you so that you can be h-happy this time. I p-promise."

He was still shaking all over until Yato felt like a leaf caught in a windstorm, and now Hiyori had dissolved into tears too and there was a chorus of sniffles from around the room. Yato closed his eyes and listened to the sound of Yukine's heartbeat in his chest.

"That's nice," he murmured. "Everyone should be happy, don't you think?"

"Y-yeah." Yukine sniffed loudly and relaxed his grip slightly. "That's a good dream. Sounds like a real god of fortune, huh?"

Yato straightened a little and tilted his head back. "Mhm. I bet you have a nice smile too, right?" Yukine huffed out a watery laugh and liberated one hand to swipe it across his eyes. The corners of his lips turned upward into a wobbly sort of smile. Yato smiled back and then at Hiyori, who was crying as she huddled into Yukine's side. "You too, Hiyori. I think it's probably easier to be happy if you can at least smile, right?"

She hugged the shrine to her chest and offered him a watery smile of her own. "You're very smart already," she said with a sniffle. "That's right. We'll be happy again. Together."

Yato nodded to himself and turned his gaze back on Yukine. A strange sort of calm solemnity settled over him, and for a brief moment he felt the weight of centuries pressing down on his small shoulders. A faraway whisper with words he couldn't quite make out, a lost lifetime that he couldn't remember, a hazy smear like the world seen through a pair of not-right glasses.

"I'm not going to be the same, and neither are you," he said solemnly. "And that's okay."

Yukine's eyes, still glassy with unshed tears, went wide again, and his lips parted in a surprised 'o'. "Y-Yato?"

Hiyori's hands went white around the shrine. Someone sucked in a sharp breath. Someone else whispered something, low and urgent.

The moment passed and the hazy press of time vanished into the ether once more, leaving Yato with his handful of fresh minutes.

"Ooh, can we look outside?" he asked, tugging at Yukine's shirt in excitement and pointing towards the front door.

There was a long pause before Yukine shook his head sharply. "Y-yeah. No problem."

He carried Yato across the room and pushed the door open. A street ran past, lined with colorful buildings. The tops of other buildings and houses and leafy trees peeked out from between the gaps on streets beyond. The sky was a clear blue, with gauzy wisps of clouds ambling across it leisurely and small silhouettes of birds wheeling high above. The sun cast the street in dancing light and dappled shadows and bathed everything in a comfortable warmth.

All sorts of people walked up and down the street, filling the air with the sunny burble of their melding voices. Small children like him bouncing about, holding parents' hands and chattering excitedly. Women laughing and ducking into stores. Men rushing off to some unknown destination. Many of them wore smiles, and it made Yato smile too.

Hiyori peered out the doorway behind them, his shrine still held in her hands. All his new-old friends drifted closer behind him. Yukine tightened his arms around Yato, who flung his arms around the shinki's neck in response and snuggled closer despite his excitement.

"It's so pretty!" Yato gushed, his eyes sparkling as they drank in every last detail.

And he fell in love with the world then, just like that.

Note: There's nothing more tragically adorable than baby Yato ;_; It's so bittersweet x.x

Usually reincarnation fics are from Yukine's POV for obvious reasons (and that's how I'd usually do it too—and poor Yukine's angst is killing me, man), but it was interesting to do it a little differently once. And I blame Ebisu, because that's where I stole half the ideas from. That scene in the diner with him asking if all gods want to make people happy and talking about he fell in love with the world and watching Yato's reaction was just heartbreaking, tbh.

Also, there seems to be a couple schools of thought on what Yato's reincarnation would be like, namely how much of his nature is determined by the wish he was created from (i.e., cull the herd) and how much is just his bubbly default. My personal opinion leans towards less of a natural inclination towards calamity, although I wouldn't say it might not have some effect (he seemed fine enough with killing right from the get-go and knew the wish his father wanted granted without really needing to be told). The flashbacks of him as a kid show him to be extremely impressionable and eager to please, and the killing was his way of doing what his father wanted and trying to make him happy and proud. But then he also tried to make Sakura happy, and that was what gave her an opening to teach him right from wrong. So like Ebisu said, maybe Yato really did just want to make everyone happy, it's just that he was raised by someone who demanded killing for it and totally warped his worldview. If he was raised by someone else, I don't think he would have been nearly the same. Like, if he'd grown up with Sakura from the get-go? He would've dropped the killing real fast if he ever started it, and he would have learned more conventional ways to bring joy to others. And to be honest, that's one of the most tragic things about Noragami itself to me, seeing how horribly Yato was manipulated and how things could have been so much different.

Anyway, I have so many other headcanons and extensions and AUs for this verse, but this is the official end. Sorry X) I like bittersweet endings a little too much, even when they break my heart.