A/N: To explain some of his actions in this chapter, I honestly imagine that Mizuki pre-Yonomori's death was even more naive than we see him the current him as. After all, prior to her death, he had little reason to leave the shrine beyond the meetings between the gods and whenever she would help the humans. As for helping the humans... Yonomori was a river goddess, I doubt she ever had to actually travel into the yonder or fight spirits beyond water yokai. So... yeah, that's why he's portrayed as he is in this chapter.

As they walked into the village, Mizuki found himself sneaking glances at Akitora, something that was rather easy to do since she'd positioned herself a few feet ahead of himself for the majority of the short trip.

He'd noted it before, but every part of her screamed of an untamed feline. Even now, with her yokai features hidden from view, the simple way she carried herself spoke of her nature. There was a certain air to her step, the slightest hint in her posture, that was indicative of a cat who'd been denied something interesting. As it was, he could have easily pictured her ears pressed against the top of her head and her tail drooping against the ground if they'd been visible.

Akitora was pouting and making no attempt to hide it.

As a result, he made no attempt to hide his faint amusement at the sight. It would seem she didn't like the idea of having to seem human to any onlookers, even if it meant gaining the ingredients needed for Mizuki's sake.

"So, what do we need?"

Her voice startling him from his thoughts, Mizuki's mind instantly flicked over the needed items as he rattled them off. She furrowed her brow in response, her sulking becoming that much more evident as the list sunk in.

"That much?" she complained.

His lips twisted up even further.

"We haven't received offerings for quite some time," he admitted. "We're running low on many things."

Her response was a small, grumbling noise beneath her breath as she crossed her arms over her chest. Within a moment, however, her eyes had flickered away from him, studying the village with just as furrowed a brow as she'd responded to his list with only moments ago. Mizuki cocked his head curiously as he attempted to figure out what she found so intriguing, but dismissed it as he spotted the first shop that they would need to stop at. Pointing out as much to her, he took off in its direction.

Akitora trailed behind him silently, her gaze only flicking to him for seconds to make sure hadn't lost him before focusing on the village once more, settling on the darker parts of the walkways between houses, the shadows cast by the buildings and the market stands, then to the empty air.

Something was off.

"They carry many of the things we need here," Mizuki commented happily, plucking some green thing Akitora didn't recognize from a stand outside the shop. "We may only have one or two stops after this."

She simply nodded, one alley in particular drawing her attention. As she studied it with a narrowed gaze, her fingers absently tapped against her side. As it was, she was only dragged back to attention when a startled cry and Mizuki grabbing her by the arm pulled her back to the present. Within seconds he'd dropped the item in his hand back on the cart and dragged her to the closest alley and away from startled villagers.

"What?" she questioned irritably.

"Your appearance."

Akitora blinked a few times, then raised one hand to her head in an almost self-conscious gesture. Without realizing it, she'd released her "human" appearance. She'd been far too focused on the village itself and had redirected her power in preparation of a fight without any real thought to the action.

"It's the miasma," Akitora said in response to the questioning look on his face. "Haven't you noticed how thick it is, here?"

Mizuki furrowed his brow, turning from her to face the way they'd just come. Within seconds he'd gone tense, picking up on the darkness to the air that he hadn't noticed previously. It wasn't a natural occurrence- for it to be this thick there had to be a portal to the yonder nearby. Where there was a portal to the yonder, there were yokai. As he'd noted upon first meeting Akitora, yokai meant trouble for his lady in her current state.

She'd get better, he was certain. Yonomori was powerful. It was only a matter of time. Until then, however...

"What do you wan--"

He was cut off as panicked voice filled the air.

"Taka! Where... where did... Taka? Taka, this is not funny! Where'd you go? Taka!"

With a narrowed gaze, Akitora pulled her hand away from Mizuki's grip. In seconds she'd stepped out of the ally, her yokai features fading with each step she took. Once she had a clear view of the street, she easily located the woman, a young lady with her black hair swept back in a ponytail at the base of her neck. She looked only seconds from bursting into tears as she frantically questioned the owner of the shop that Akitora and Mizuki had been standing at only moments before.

"He.. he's only four," the woman emphasized. "His full name is Kazutaka, but we just call him Taka. H-he's got black hair, brown eyes... under half my size in a pretty yutaka... he... he's never been in the village on his own... he knows not to go wandering off...he was here, just seconds ago! I turned my eyes away... I can't... I can't..."

"The yokai?"

Startled, Akitora glanced over her shoulder to where Mizuki stood, a rather serious expression on his typically cheerful face. She looked back to the woman, pursing her lips before slowly nodding.

"Most likely. It's become more common for children to simply... go missing nowadays. It used to be that the yokai would tear apart the village, or simply slaughter a household. Now, the weak ones... well... they'll drag the human into the yonder. After all, a human child can hardly fight back. It gives them plenty of time to enjoy themselves before their meal."

Mizuki paled at the thought. With a shrug- being far too familiar with such events to be bothered by them any longer- she started across the street towards ally that had first caught her attention. Mizuki followed behind her as she surveyed it for a few moments. Beyond the darkness, the strangest thing about the area was the water-logged earth.

"Couldn't we simply walk through the veil?" Mizuki wondered aloud.

She nodded, turning her gaze back to the shadows lurking in the ally.

"We could, but it'd be difficult to find them that way. Better to find the portal that the yokai made."

Not waiting to see his opinion on the matter, she plunged into the darkness the moment she found the tear between the worlds. Instantly, reality shifted around her, the bright colors of the human realm fading into the blacks, blues, and other shades of the yokai forest. Mizuki eyed the tear in reality a bit uneasily himself, having rarely ventured into the Yonder.

After all, most of his duties as a god's familiar related to the divine realm, not the demonic.

The sounds of the woman's panicking back in the street and his own uneasiness regarding Yonomori's safety with a hostile yokai in the area pushed all of these thoughts away, however, and he plunged into the darkness. When the yokai world settled around him the first thing Mizuki saw was the startling appearance that Akitora had assumed.

Gone was the human girl, and gone was the nekomata that she'd pretended to be. In their place was the goddess that he'd heard stories about.

The girl's snowy ears now held a single, black stripe cutting through the color. Multiple pitch black stripes had replaced the single one that enclosed her tail and the fingernails she tapped against her chin were sharp enough that he could easily picture them cutting through flesh with no trouble. The final, physical feature happened to be the identical, double stripes starting on each of her cheeks and curling down to the base of her neck.

Beyond that was the feeling to the air around her. He'd noted before that she felt like a wild cat... it was as if that air had been cloaked before, as it had suddenly grown a dozen times stronger.

Akitora really was a tiger, a tiger who'd just been given a prey to hunt.

"Are you ready?"

He mutely nodded, simply watching as the girl spun on a heel and started through the dark, shadowy forest. Silence coated the air between them- Mizuki getting the distinct feeling that speaking at this moment would be a bad idea. Her ears would twitch occasionally, followed by a flick of her tail. This would usually be followed by her abruptly changing directions. The only reasoning he could come up with was that perhaps she was tracking her prey like an actual animal- following their scent. As far as Mizuki could tell, there was no other rhyme nor reason to her actions.

The further they trekked into the forest, the softer the soil became beneath their feet. The once firm ground faded into wet, swamp-like earth. The freezing temperature of the drops of water that soon began falling from the sky sparked a scowl on Akitora's lips, even Mizuki frowning slightly as the soft earth beneath their feet caused mud to ooze up around the soles of his sandals.

Needless to say, neither of them were in pleasant moods when she eventually stopped, her brow furrowing as she spun in a slow circle.

"... I lost it."

It took Mizuki a moment to realize what she meant. If she'd truly been following the scent, the wetlands would have no trouble disrupting that. Just as he was about to open his mouth and suggest that they retrace their steps, however, she muttered a few words under her breath, eyes studying the ground a short distance back the way they'd come. Instantly, Mizuki stepped out of the way so she could take off in a different direction than the one they'd been walking.

Following that, she lost the trail a few more times. Each time, they would spread out before locating the water-logged tracks in the muddy earth. Mizuki couldn't help the faint amusement that would occasionally appear when she'd get a slight pout if he found the tracks before she did. It appeared that even in a situation like this, Akitora preferred to be the best.

Eventually, the trail completely stopped as a wooden path raised from the swampy woods. Akitora signaled silently for him to stop. He did, his eyes easily picking out the small shack built only a dozen feet further into the forest. They both studied the building for a few minutes as if to pick out the best way to enter it.

It was during that time that the duo picked up on the sobbing.

It wasn't quiet- far from it really. The fact wouldn't have come as much of a surprise if they'd put any real thought into the matter. Toddlers rarely tried to stifle their cries.

Without waiting to see if Mizuki was ready, Akitora darted forward the moment the sound completely registered in her thoughts. Each step echoed through swampland, the wet slap of her wooden sandals against the soaked boards leading up to the house leaving no element of surprise to her approach. Perhaps that was why the moment that the woman reached the cabin, she simply raised one foot and slammed it against the the door, tearing the thing from it's hinges.

If she'd taken the moment to put together all of the details they'd come across, the sight that met her eyes wouldn't have been as surprising as it was.

Knelt before the sobbing, soaked child was a woman. Her extremely long, black hair hung in straggly, wet locks that blocked her entire face from view. At that moment, she wasn't touching the child, instead she had one of her hands held millimeters from her hidden face. Her pink tongue- abnormally long- peaked between locks of hair as it licked the pale skin of her palm, lapping droplets of water from the surface that seemed to be replaced the moment they disappeared. Brushing the wet fabric of the dress covering her knees was a black bag. It laid crumpled between the girl and the child, but from the state Taka was in- soaked to the bone- Akitora held little doubt that only a short time prior he'd been inside it.

The yokai was an ame-onna.

Within seconds of Akitora's flashy entrance, the ame-onna simply raised the hand not pressed her tongue and flicked it with seemingly little care about the intruder. Following the action, Akitora was sent skidding back from the entrance as two, long ropes of water surged from the swamp and wrapped around her waist from behind. She swiped at the water- her sharp claws doing little good- as it suddenly dragged her over the side of the boards.

It only took her a second to realize that contrary to appearances, the ground beneath the house was nonexistent. As she thrashed out, hands searching for the boards she'd been standing upon only moments ago, Akitora found her feet kicking uselessly through nothing but water.

One thing became strikingly clear to her the moment that her hands found the bottom of the boards, claws digging uselessly into the firm surface above her head.

Her lungs burned.

The feeling of solid water wrapping around her once again filled her senses as despite herself, her mouth burst open. Water surged in, replacing air as harsh coughs ripped through her frame. Within seconds, however, her soaked frame was deposited back onto the dock. A familiar, white-haired figure was at her side within seconds, his hand patting her back as she spat out water, the harsh coughs still ripping through her body.

"....M-mizuki?"

He offered a humorless smile.

"Water god's familiar, remember?"

The second she'd managed to recover, the girl was on her feet. Despite the situation, Mizuki had to hold back the urge to laugh. Being soaked from head-to-toe gave Akitora a rather uncharacteristic, childish look, despite still being in her natural form. As if she could read his thoughts, she pursed her lips. Without another word, she started for the doorway again, cracking her knuckles as she did.

"Is that any way to greet a goddess?"

Within seconds of the question, Akitora had crossed the room, seizing the ane-onna by the front of her gown. When she began to raise a hand again- most likely to move the water- Mizuki clamped down on his control of the water surrounding the house. Rather certain that the toddler was best off not seeing Akitora's revenge for the little... swamp incident, he instantly slipped into the house and pulled Taka into his arms. 

As Mizuki focused on calming the child, one thought became clear to him. He'd learned at least one thing from this entire situation. 

Ticking Akitora off was something that would be best avoided.

A/N: So, the original plan was a showdown~ Buuuut, I have a big fight planned soon, so I thought I'd pull something like they did in the manga/anime with how the first baddie was defeated easily! So, here you go, the long-overdue update!