Disclaimer: All the series and characters here belong to their respective owners (not mine). Luna only owns the plot of this story

Warning: LOTS of conversation and characters (you might get confused in the middle), AU, shounen ai, language, etc…

Beta: mittens_220 (LJ) or pika318 (ff net), thanks a lot for another wonderful beta, dear~! XD

A/N: Phew… sorry for the very long wait. I got unnaturally busy in Monday… *sighs* Okay, so here's the next chapter. Thanks for reading and reviewing the previous one. Now, ENJOY! XD

Chapter 12: Runion! New Alliance, Formed?

Yura stared at Matoba's visible eye with a serious look on her face. "Please let those guys go," she said, trying to act polite.

Matoba was staring at her with a small smile. "Welcome to the Haraiya gathering, Hidemoto 28th, Keikain Yura, I presume?" he said, not bothering to let Natsume who was still trapped in his arms go and to let Rikuo free from his string trap either.

"I'm glad that we were invited, so please don't make us regret our decision to join you by hurting one of our own," Yura said, still serious, while maintaining her professional expression.

"One of our own?" Matoba tilted his head aside, acting oblivious.

"Let go of me and Rikuo-kun!" Natsume shouted again, suddenly struggling harder than before. It seemed he surprised Matoba a little bit as he succeeded in getting away before the light brown haired boy ran to Rikuo again to help him escape from the strings.

"Oh, he's getting stronger…" Matoba said, blinking slightly as he looked at his hand.

"Undo the sealing Jutsu, Matoba Seiji-san," Yura asked again politely, but still gravely with a hint of warning in her tone, so Matoba sighed deeply in response.

"Understood," Matoba said before he chanted for a while. Gradually, the strings on Rikuo's body loosened.

"Oh…!" Rikuo was finally free from the tangled strings and jumped down on the ground safely, while Natsume was fussing over him a little bit, seeming to be worried if he was injured.

Yura sighed slightly in relief that her friend seemed to be okay, so she faced Matoba Seiji again. "Excuse our rudeness for being late in introducing our family formally," she said, bowing slightly before looking up again. "Keikain Family is here to attend the Onmyouji Gathering."

"Such a fine mannered young lady you are. I'm flattered that we finally met. It's kind of hard to socialize in our line of work, after all…" Matoba smiled nicely, being too friendly all of sudden.

"I understand. Thank you for the compliment," Yura smiled back. "I have to apologize because our family is so big such that I can't bring all of them to this meeting. But I came together with the finest Onmyouji our family have ever had," she continued before she stepped away to let some more people come forward.

"I'm Keikain Ryuuji, nice to see you, Matoba-san," Ryuuji spoke first from the four people that came with Yura. The rather short, black haired man smiled with his usual selling smile that could fool anyone who's meeting him for the first time.

"Keikain Mamiru," Mamiru spoke soon after Ryuuji introduced himself, his tone flat and even as always. The brownish red haired boy nodded slightly at Matoba in greeting.

The other two, unfortunately decided to stay hidden behind the veil. They wore long gray coats with hoods to hide their faces and they didn't seem too inclined to introduce themselves. One was a little bigger and taller than all of the people there, and the other was smaller and more slender.

Matoba seemed to expect that the two would speak soon, so Yura intervened. "Those two are special. Please don't mind them," she said.

"It's not like we are here to know each other," Matoba said, shrugging. "I'm more interested in the fact that you, Onmyoyji of all the Haraiya, befriended a youkai like that one," he pointed at Rikuo with his thumb, looking rather curious.

"I'm sure there are a lot of rumors going around in the youkai world at this moment. I kind of expected that at least you, Matoba-san, would know. But, it seems that that's not the case," Yura said, once again turning serious. "Can we go inside and start the meeting? There's a serious reason why we decided to attend this gathering. I'd like to share some important information with you and the other Jujutsushi."

Matoba seemed to understand the urgency in her tone, so he nodded. "Understood," he said, agreeing. "But please make sure that the youkai is on your constant watch. Who knows what he will encounter here if he's let loose by himself… especially if he's a free youkai," he chuckled before he turned around and walked back inside the old mansion. His masked shikigami dutifully followed him.

After that, Yura let go a long relieved sigh that their confrontation didn't have to turn into Jutsu exchange. It would be bad to antagonize the host after all.

"Yura-san!" Rikuo then called and ran towards her as she turned to face him.

"Nura-kun!" Yura smiled as she called back and they hugged for a moment, before Ryuuji suddenly grabbed her collar and yanked her back.

"Jeez, how long do you guys have to hug each other? It's embarrassing," Ryuuji scowled slightly.

"Ow…! Isn't it okay? I thought he was dead when he went missing!" Yura protested to her brother in annoyance while struggling to release herself from his clutches. Was that the way to treat the Head of the family? Her brother was as rude as always!

"Sorry… I'm just very glad that finally I met some familiar faces…! I could hug you too, Ryuuji-san," Rikuo said, grinning sheepishly.

"No thanks. Sheesh, why do you always run into some kind of trouble wherever you go?" Ryuuji huffed as he put his sister down again.

"Hey, I resent that. It's not like I'm looking for trouble on purpose, you know," Rikuo pouted at him.

"W-waka…"

One of the hooded figures stepped up and slowly spoke. Rikuo immediately turned to face those people and he seemed to recognize the voice. "Tsu…rara?" he whispered back, eyes widening slightly.

The veil was undone and the face of a Yuki Onna, Oikawa Tsurara appeared behind it. "Rikuo-samaaaaa!" She immediately ran to him and hugged him while crying.

"Waka…!" Now the other hooded person with the big tall body undid his veil and Aotabo's face appeared from there.

"Aotabo…!" Rikuo almost cried in relief as he found another one of most familiar faces he had known. The 'degenerate priest wearing a blue robe' moved closer to him and hugged him as well, together with Yuki Onna in his arms.

"Thank god…! Thank god you are okay…!" both the man and woman cried slightly, totally relieved seeing their master's face and Rikuo smiled ruefully at them.

"Moron…! That's my line…!" Rikuo hugged them back tightly. He seemed to be so moved by it such that it was a miracle he hadn't started crying.

Yura smiled slightly seeing their reunion. "It's good to see them smiling at least," she said, sighing in relief again.

"Not knowing their master's condition had taken its toll to their sanity. They almost succumbed to their wild youkai instinct. It's good that we brought them here, or else…" Ryuuji agreed. "Thanks to Natori, we knew where Rikuo is. But if we could find him, then there's a great chance that Seimei could do the same. We have to act quickly and recruit all the Haraiya here to join our army. We don't want them to meet Seimei first or we'd lose them to him," he spoke seriously.

"Yeah," Yura nodded, getting extra serious as well. Mamiru didn't say anything, but he seemed to understand the situation as he nodded surely.

"Um, excuse me…"

The voice surprised Yura a little bit as she turned to face the one that greeted her and her family. She was immediately met with a pair of clear honey colored eyes which looked almost like Rikuo, only a shade lighter.

"Oh… you are…?" Yura looked at Natsume curiously.

"Ah, I'm…" but before the light brown haired boy said anything, Rikuo beat him to it.

"Natsume-kun!" Rikuo said, rushing to his direction now, his subordinates tailing closely behind him. "Natsume-kun! Look! It's my family! They're okay!" he said, smiling happily.

"Nura-kun? Is he your friend?" Yura asked the chocolate haired boy slightly.

"Yeah," Rikuo nodded excitedly. "He's Natsume Takashi. He found and saved me when I was attacked by some pursuer," he said.

"He saved you?" Yura widened her eyes. Tsurara and Aotabo gaped in shock. Ryuuji looked at Rikuo as if he had grown a pair of extra arms on his forehead.

"It's not like that," Natsume quickly shook his head. "Sensei repelled the pursuer. I stayed behind to make sure that Rikuo… Yoru-san didn't act recklessly in injured state," he explained.

"True, the brat here and his alter ego were quite stubborn, so it was a troublesome job," a fat piggy-cat suddenly jumped on Natsume's arms as the boy hurriedly caught and hugged him. "You all should thank my generosity," Nyanko huffed at that.

…

…

"What an ugly creature," Ryuuji commented slightly with patronizing look. "What is this? Some kind of Bakeneko?"

"What did you say?" Nyanko hissed at the dark haired man in annoyance.

"Niichan!" Yura scolded her brother for being so rude while Rikuo almost laughed at that. Natsume's sweat dropped and Tsurara and Aotabo looked at them ridiculously.

Mamiru just sighed even though he was still expressionless as always.

~Natsume x Nuramago~

Natori had a feeling that he was officially forgotten when the people around him chattered and introduced themselves to each other. The ¼ youkai kid even reunited with his friends. Well, it wasn't like he was annoyed at that fact. But he would appreciate it if they remembered him.

"Um…" Now Natori had to do something so they'd notice him.

"Hmm? Oh, isn't that Natori?" Ryuuji was the first to notice him, finally.

"Ryuuji-kun," Natori nodded to him. "I'm glad the Keikain Family could make it," he said, smiling slightly.

"Yeah, thanks to you we could locate Rikuo," Ryuuji nodded. "By the way… you haven't met my sister, right? Yura," the younger boy then pulled his sister closer to him and introduced her to Natori.

"Nice to meet you, Natori-san. I've watched some of your dramas," Yura smiled slightly at him, nodding.

"Thank you," Natori smiled his actor smile at her.

"Um… I hate to interrupt, but shouldn't we go inside? I'm sure a lot of people are waiting for Keikain Family to show up…" Natsume said slowly, raising his hand.

"Right… we're here for one and only one purpose…" Aotabo said, turning serious all of sudden.

"Yes. We have to pull all of them to our side," Tsurara said surely and the others nodded in unison before they entered the old mansion as well.

~Natsume x Nuramago~

"AS I expected about this place… Nothing really changed that much…" Natsume said, looking around the men and the women who were accompanied by their shiki. They were speaking in undertone about the latest gossips in youkai world, but apparently, they hadn't yet known about the Nue invasion.

A hushed voice interrupted the conversation in the main hall as Keikain Family stepped inside. All of eyes immediately focused on the new group that entered the meeting room.

"Hey, isn't that…?"

"Keikain Clan…!"

"Why on earth are people from Kyoto here…?"

Whisper after whisper seemed to surround the party, but both Yura and Ryuuji didn't seem to be bothered. Mamiru didn't even seem to care with his constant expressionless state. Rikuo appeared to be alerted, along with Yuki Onna and Aotabo.

Natsume had heard from Nyanko that both Yuki Onna and Aotabo were strong youkai that could pose as humans. He wasn't that worried that they would be found out, but he was actually surprised that those youkai were so fond of Rikuo. Of course, Rikuo was their master, but still… their love for the boy seemed to run very deep. He wondered if there was a reason for it.

But now wasn't the time for that. Natsume needed to focus so he wouldn't be a burden to everyone.

"It's okay, Natsume," Natori said, taping Natsume's tense shoulder slightly, surprising the younger boy a little. "I'll protect you," he said softly and kindly, making Natsume blush slightly.

"Huh, even without your help, I can protect Natsume just fine," Nyanko scoffed as Natori glared at the fat cat, seeming to be irked.

Rikuo seemed to hear their conversation, so he reached his hand to grab Natsume's while smiling at him. "It's okay. Everything will go smoothly. I believe that," he said surely, certainly that Natsume couldn't help believing his words as well.

"Yeah…" Natsume nodded, feeling encouraged and convinced now.

Short time later, before any of the Haraiya in the room had a chance to greet the Keikains, Matoba showed up on the second floor. Everyone went into alerted silence the moment he showed himself.

"Welcome to our annual Haraiya Gathering," Matoba said welcoming his guests. "I'm sorry that I couldn't show up last year. But this year, it seems there is something big that has happened in youkai world. We got a special guest from the Demon Capital Kyoto," he continued, glancing conspicuously at Yura's group.

"Nice to see you, everyone in Haraiya's business," Yura nodded politely at everyone in the room as they once again set their focus on her. "My name is Keikain Yura, Hidemoto 28th. I'm the current head of Keikain Clan," she introduced herself and everyone murmured in shock hearing that. Well, no one could blame them. Yura looked and was still very young after all.

"I know it's strange that we suddenly showed up in your closed party, but we have a serious and urgent matter we'd like to share and discuss with all of you. Please let us speak out our mind," she asked them before she looked up at Matoba, asking silent permission if she could continue.

Matoba nodded lightly at that.

"Then, I let one of my trusted friends to inform you about the matter," Yura said and stepped aside to let Rikuo take her place.

"Thank you for allowing us to speak," Rikuo said before he sat down formally in front of them. "It's an honor for me to see you all. I'm the current head of Nura Clan, the Third Supreme Commander of Hyakki Yako in Central Japan, Nura Rikuo," he said and everyone went into grave silence before…

"WHAAAAAAAAAT!" they shouted in shock at that.

"The Supreme Commander of Central Japan's Hyakki Yako…!"

"Hyakki Yako, he said…?"

"Isn't that Demon's Parade…?"

"This teenager…?"

One disbelieving voice after another was whispered and thrown into conversation while they all stared at Rikuo with wide eyes. They seemed to be very shocked at that, more than the fact that Keikain's head was a teenage girl.

"I understand that all of you can't believe because of what you see right now, but I'm telling the truth. I'm not human… not exactly. I inherited ¼ youkai blood directly from Nurarihyon, the First Supreme Commander, Master of All Spirits. I can show you the proof if you want me to," Rikuo said seriously before he called for his other half to show himself.

Your time, Yoru….

"Leave everything to me…" Yoru answered the call immediately, because he had been itching to come out since awhile ago… especially after Rikuo was harassed by that Matoba guy. He was so going to kick that guy's ass after they finished their business with him.

Everyone gasped in total shock as Rikuo's appearance changed into Yoru and they all saw the 'youkai' part of the teenager's boy with scandalized look.

"He is really a youkai!"

"No way! I can't feel his youki at all just a moment ago!"

"He's an A class youkai! He doesn't lie about who he is!"

There was instant uproar as all the Haraiya prepared their shiki and jutsu to fight if Yoru started to attack, but luckily, Ryuuji was there to intervene before Yuki Onna and Aotabo started to attack as well to defend their master.

"SILENCE!" the dark haired man shouted very loudly, surprising everyone into stillness. "He's not your enemy. He came here with us," he said, looking at them sharply as they slowly backed down.

"Thank you, Ryuuji," Yoru said and Ryuuji just huffed while muttering something like 'Troublesome' or something like that.

"I know this is very unusual for a youkai to come and ask for a help from humans… from Haraiya or Onmyouji because we have such bad history since the beginning, but what I'm going to tell you now involve both human and youkai and we are in a great danger to be annihilated by our mutual enemy," Yoru said, explaining seriously.

"What is he talking about?" one of the Haraiya asked.

"I'm sure some of you must have heard something… the thing that's happening in youkai circle at this moment… outside this village," Yoru said.

Some of the shikigami flinched fearfully and their masters seemed to be alerted by their subordinates' strange behavior. Yoru focused his gaze on those shikigami. "You did hear something, right? You just can't talk about it freely… some of you have been nailed by Nue's kotodama…!"

"Let me cleanse them," Ryuuji said before he called his purifying Shikigami and started to envelope the room in some kind of water barrier.

Those Shikigami hissed and went berserk the moment the barrier was up.

"What's going on!" Natsume asked in alert as there was a sudden clash and fight that broke in the room, between Ryuuji's Gengen and those infected Shikigami.

"Wha—? I can't control my Shiki!" the Haraiya, masters of those Shikigami went into panic as their contract was broken one-sidedly by their own Shikigami and they started to go crazy.

Luckily all the berserkers were able to be contained by Gengen's water body, but Ryuuji seemed to be at his limit. "Mamiru, the cleansing spell!" he ordered.

"Yes," Mamiru responded calmly before he chanted. "Come to me, King of Lightning!" There was a flash of lightning and it struck down at the water that trapped those berserkers and something came out of them, screeching like the sound of hell.

"Be gone, evil spirits."

Those black smoke-like creatures were annihilated instantly and the berserker went limp, losing their consciousness.

There was a very long shocked silence in the room after that.

"What… was that just now…!" As they had begun to recover from the shock, one of the Haraiya asked again, still looking like he had just seen an alien from Mars instead of a Jorei.

"They are Aradama. One form of Nue's 'mind control' techniques," Yura said, totally serious.

"It's not… kotodama?" Yoru asked, surprised as well.

"No, it's much more sinister than that, Nura-kun. Seimei and his Gokadoin Clan have developed another way to give them absolute obedience from both youkai and humans. They stuck those Aradama inside the target bodies, and let those evil spirits corrupt them to make them do whatever those bastards want." Yura gritted her teeth.

"Wait, wait! Hold on a second! What's with this Nue and Aradama and everything? Please explain to us more clearly and from the beginning!"

Sounds of protests started to come forward that even Matoba had to say something. "Silence!" All of them instantly went rigid at the horrified tone their host had used. Matoba looked paler than usual as he narrowed his eyes at the Keikains. "Let us hear the complete explanation, Onmyouji." Matoba said and Yura nodded at his request.

"We will explain. Please don't interrupt us until we are finished," Yura said seriously and they all sat to hear the complete story of Nue's birth, the war with Hagoromo Gitsune, the whole fiasco that had happened involving Nura Clan and Keikain Clan and even the information about Abe no Seimei and his Gokadoin Clan.

"Immortal… Onmyouji Family…!"

"Abe no Seimei's reincarnation… and his descendants…!"

After they heard all of it, almost all kinds of expressions painted those Haraiya faces. Some looked very horrified; some very shocked, some absolutely flabbergasted, some terrified, some petrified, some revolted, alarmed and some even went blank from too much shock while the others were in denial.

"Wiping all youkai and humans who oppose them…!"

They were immediately faced by the possibility of the world ending. This was obviously too much to digest in one night.

"Why… haven't we heard anything if it has been happening since three years ago…?" One who actually believed, but was still in shock, asked with total pale, frightened face.

"We were trying not to create panic, both in the human and youkai world, but… it seems we already lost that confidence. We need to fight together to defeat Nue's superior strength," Yura said, looking completely desperate. Yoru set the same expression.

"Please, lend us your power to defeat Nue and his army…!" Yoru asked, bowing his head slightly.

"But… what can we actually do if the situation is already that dire?" Matoba asked, looking slightly angry and mortified at the same time.

"We're creating an army to cleanse the Aradama and stopping this 'Purification' thing that Seimei and Gokadoin Family has been trying to do. Come to our base if you want to know the details of what we can do," Ryuuji spoke, convincing them.

"Is this village is also in danger then?" Another person asked, looking very worried.

"I've been asking the youkai and the local deities that reside in this village. They will help us create a barrier that can hide this village from Seimei and Gokadoin's radar," Yoru said surely. "I will never let this village be destroyed by that monster as well…!"

Some Haraiya looked a little bit mystified by the seriousness and the determination Yoru showed them, but some seemed to believe in his words. They were still confused though… because Yoru seemed to be very inclined to protect both the youkai and humans from Nue.

"I can't believe a youkai like that exists…" One of the Haraiya whispered.

"Maybe it's because he's a mix-blood… He did say he inherited ¼ youkai blood, right? Then the rest of him is human, right?"

"That actually makes sense…"

The chatter continued for awhile as Ryuuji and Yura tried to answer all the rising questions from the Haraiya. Yoru also answered some questions regarding the mix-breed thing and the fact that Abe no Seimei or Nue was also a mix-breed since half of his blood was also human. There was also a question if their struggle to defeat Nue all three years had produced any fruits.

But all Yoru could do was tell them the horror of what Seimei and his cronies had done, how much casualties they suffered and how desperate he and his friends and family had fought.

Even so, Tsurara said that they had one last hope… the one thing that Nue didn't have and couldn't defeat.

"It's love."

There was a very long pregnant silence after that and they seemed to be dumbfounded by the girl's answer when all they asked if there was any weakness Nue had.

"Nue doesn't have 'love' in his heart. That's his weakness…"

"Love is the oldest 'spell' that can save the world. We're creating it right now… the power of 'love'. It's hidden in one of our own and the moment the power is unleashed, Nue will surely be destroyed," Ryuuji explained more.

"Is it going to work?" One of the Haraiya asked doubtfully.

"That's why… please believe that it will work," Yoru said, looking down slightly. "Believe in the love of humans and youkai… believe in us, so we can and we will absolutely win against Nue," he looked up, staring at their eyes with his enticing deep crimson eyes.

Somehow, everyone seemed to be spell-bound by his looks and in the corner of their heart, there was that tiny belief that they wanted to trust this youkai… wanted to send their hope and pray to him that they would win, no matter how absurd it might sound.

"Love…" Matoba said, closing his eyes, looking slightly rueful. "How can we still believe in love… when the majority of our kind was abused by it in the first place…?"

Natsume seemed to hear that and he kind of understood what Matoba was saying.

"Even so… even so… there are important people we need to protect… for our own sake… so we can't lose hope," Yura said, gritting her teeth.

"We can't lose our last and final hope…!"

Our hope of love… that will save this world from destruction…!

End of Chapter 12

Tbc…

A/N: Sorry for the long wait! Still trying to quell the need to draw more (man, drawing is totally addicting! XD), that's why the writing is kind of unproductive lately, eheheh…. Now, what do you think of this chapter? Interesting? I actually want to put some fan services in here, but the need to move the plot quickly interrupted that idea T_T. Well, after everything is done then, finally the next chapter will be filled with more fluffs and romance! XD Please wait for it, okay?