- near the end of season 1 -

Yato dug through the boulders, searching for anything - the color of her shirt, her shoe -anything to help him find her.

She's here, somewhere, underneath all of these rocks. She's cold, she's alone, and she may or may not remember me. In fact, she probably can't even remember herself. That's why I need to find her...

The hard blue eyes that Rabo wanted so much to see turned their intensity against the wreckage as Yato searched for Hiyori.

Please...please...please let me find you...

Then he saw it, a lock of her beautiful hair, the first thing he'd noticed about her as he'd passed her on the street, looking for His Majesty the cat. Even then, he'd noticed something different about her. When she'd looked at him, she'd seen him, even though he was used to blending in. She'd seen him and attempted to save his life.

Now it was his turn to save hers.

He ripped the last boulder away, revealing Hiyori, who'd been trapped beneath the rocks.

Please...please...please...Yato couldn't speak for fear that he'd panic and scare Yukine, so he just reached out, tentatively at first, barely touching her hair, but then he knelt beside her and attempted to lift her into his lap.

Her eyes flickered as she moaned, and he immediately paused. From across the clearing, Rabo started laughing.

"See, Yato? Gods of calamity like you and I have no place loving another. All we touch is cut down to die. The girl you are holding in her arms has had her spine crushed. Do you know how long frail humans can survive with an injury like that?" Rabo's mouth curved into a vengeful smile. "Not long at all. Humans are so...frail, especially girls like that."

But Yato wasn't listening to Rabo. He was imagining Hiyori, waving the "tail" that connected her soul to her body like she had inherited an extra limb. He remembered her lying to protect Yukine when he'd stolen a skateboard. He remembered her constant smile, the optimism that had held the three of them together. He remembered her refusing to leave them, how she'd called them "friends."

But now her spinal cord was severed. She was so broken that he couldn't even lift her into his lap without causing her extreme agony.

As if to reinforce that fact, he gently set her back down, memorizing the lines of her face because he knew that he would never see her again.

"It's my fault," he whispered, tears falling down his face. Tears - what a human thing. He hadn't cried in...forever. There had been nothing - nobody - to cry over. "If I hadn't walked in the middle of the street that day...if you hadn't been hit by the bus...if I hadn't dragged you into all of this..."

"Then she'd still be alive, living as happily as an ignorant human can," Rabo added unhelpfully, and Yukine came up behind Yato.

"Is she..." he began, but when he saw her still form, he became quiet, tears forming in his eyes. "Yato?"

Yato couldn't respond. He wanted to say, "She's going to survive no matter what! Don't even say things like that, Yukine!" but even he didn't believe in the words. He watched Hiyori, growing paler by the minute, as the life drained out of her. Yukine sat down beside him and reached out, holding Hiyori's hand. Despite his tears, he put on a face of bravery.

"If she wakes up, she won't want to see us looking all upset," he said, squeezing her hand and clenching his jaw as he remembered all Hiyori had done for him. How many hours did she spend searching the streets when I ran away? How many times did she lie for me? What about her kindness? She made me cookies one night...and I just threw them to the ground...

Despite his resolution to stay strong, Yukine began crying harder, and Yato finally spoke.

"Hiyori," he whispered. Just one word. "Hiyori."

With a flicker, her beautiful eyes opened, first landing on Yato, then towards Yukine, and back to Yato.

"I'm so glad...I could...be friends with you both," she whispered, the words seeming to come with more and more effort. "Live...well." She smiled at the two of them, and then she was gone.