Thanks, disclaimers and warnings in Part 1.

Part 4: Untitled bit written years ago and never posted

The last time Ryoukan saw his grandfather at the orphanage was fairly unremarkable. The old man's visits were infrequent and unpredictable, and Ryoukan didn't know it was the last time until much later, when he counted the seasons and realised that he hadn't seen his grandfather for over a year.

The first thing Tanaka says to Hasumi when they meet again in the courtyard of their hostel after the term break is, "Isn't it a lovely day?" It isn't. It's damp and drippy, and Hasumi suspects his cupboard of fomenting mildew behind his back.

The second, third and fourth things Tanaka says, to Yamada's acute and cringing embarrassment, and too fast for Hasumi to think of a response to any of them: "Everybody needs someone to love and who loves them back. Do you have a girlfriend, Hasumi? You really should get one, it will be good for you, you don't go out enough and the world is beautiful."

The fifth thing he says: "You look like hell."

The sixth thing he says, before Hasumi can protest: "Miki-chan is the most wonderful girl in the world, and I am the luckiest man alive, because she is going out with me." This part makes Yamada look faintly pained, due no doubt to the humiliation of being seen in close proximity to the idiot Tanaka is making of himself.

Satisfied with his announcement, Tanaka floats off happily towards the cafeteria, and they shuffle along a few steps behind in his dreamy wake, pretending they are not walking with him. "Wasn't he in love with Yakko-san just last... week?" Hasumi murmurs discreetly under his breath to Yamada, who shrugs and waves his hands helplessly as if to indicate that this abrupt change of heart is nothing out of the ordinary for Tanaka.

"Yakko-san is an angel, a goddess descended from the heavens and far from the reach of such humble mortals as me," Tanaka declares, overhearing them. "Miki-chan is sweet and kind, and she bakes delicious cookies. How could I refuse to return her love? Have you seen a doctor, Hasumi? You look really bad." Tanaka looks sincerely concerned when he stops without warning and spins around to grab Hasumi, nearly giving him a concussion by bumping their foreheads together to check his temperature. This is the only reason why Hasumi doesn't throw him into the koi pond in self-defence. The koi must be grateful.

"It's no big deal," Hasumi insists, shoving Tanaka to a more decorous distance. At Tanaka's sceptical frown, he explains, "I was feeling poorly for a while, but I'm better now. I finally managed to get a full night's sleep after I finished the last paper for Kawaguchi's class yesterday. Who's Miki-chan?" he hisses as an aside to Yamada.

"Masumoto, that girl with the pigtails. You know her, she's in our class." Yamada looks around nervously, then grimaces at Hasumi. "You really do look worse than when you came to interview my great-aunt. I'm sorry."

"I-" He begins, and stops. There's no way he's going to tell Yamada about the feverish dreams and the mysterious scratches on his chest – Yamada will just run to Ichinomiya and tell him Hasumi is being harassed by kami or youkai, or something equally ridiculous, and that's not a fight he's willing to concede yet. Someone - one of the seniors - elbows Hasumi in passing, but Yamada grabs him before he falls, though he still drops one of his books. Irritated, Hasumi shrugs off his hands and bends to pick up the book. "I told you, I'm fine, I've finished the paper, and why are you apologising for my insomnia anyway?"

The senior trips over something and Yamada flinches at the barked expletive he lets out. "I'm sorry."

"See you in class later, Hasumi. Oh, Miki-chan," Tanaka sighs and drifts off again. Yamada hurries after him with a guilty glance back at Hasumi.

On the orphanage's annual trip to the nearby shrine, Ryoukan got two fortunes, one for himself and one for his friend, though he wasn't sure if the fortunes would count since he drew both of them himself. One said, "Let the truth light your way," and the other, "Heed not meaningless aphorisms." Ryoukan crumpled them both up and threw them away.

Hasumi is not, it seems, the only person who wants to find Ichinomiya. When he finds himself unexpectedly cornered in the library by Yakko-san, of all people, Hasumi is, to say the least, dazzled.

"So you are Kantarou's Hasumi-kun," she says in her lilting voice, and puts her hand on his head. Hasumi squeaks. "Aren't you cute."

"Y-Y-Yik," he says, thinks, faintly, Yakko-san and squeaks again, as she pets his stubbled scalp, Yakko-san is rubbing my head!, only peripherally aware that people are passing by and trying not to stare, because most of his consciousness has latched onto Yakko-san, and rubbing, and head, and he is on the verge of passing out. "Yik. Yak-yakko-san!"

"Why so alarmed, Hasumi-kun? I don't bite," she says, laughing, and Hasumi wishes desperately for the ground to open up and swallow him as his face turns beet-red at the image his helpful mind immediately conjures of Yakko-san biting him while Ichinomiya looks on and laughs. "I just wanted to see the Hasumi-kun he was talking about, and ask if you've seen him lately. He's been hiding from me again."

So I'm not the only one he's been hiding from,he thinks, and suddenly feels a little better. "I haven't seen him," he manages to say without stuttering, then squeaks again when she smiles and pats his cheek lightly as she turns to go.

"That's all right, he can't hide from me forever. You'll look better with longer hair, though." And just like that, Yakko-san is gone.

"What was… do you know her?" Tanaka looks as stunned as he feels; Hasumi can only shake his head in dazed reply. He finds enough presence of mind to wonder that Yamada looks even more affected than either of them: he is as pale as a sheet.

A/N: This is where I stopped writing to wait for new manga chapters to come out and never started again. Sorry that I haven't been able to continue. It's been too long and I'm in the wrong head-space for this. Here are the notes for what is supposed to happen in the rest of the story, for those who stumble over this late, or still remember for some reason and want to know what on earth is going on.

break to the end

1. The girl Hasumi met in the woods is a fox, but when he complains to her about the orphanage, she decides to take revenge for him and causes a lot of damage. Realising that she is dangerous to humans, he stops her by denying her reality, which hurts and weakens her because he named her.

2. So we get to the present, and she gets jealous and angry because Hasumi is interested in Kantarou, with all the associated youkai friends. Yamada is a rokurokubi, and this ties in with the main story because he came to the school to be with his unaware human, Tanaka, like the fox. As she gets more upset and exercises her powers more, she begins to drain Hasumi's life.

3. Kantarou asks her to stop for Hasumi's sake, she tells him, "Who says I am doing this for his sake? I don't love him in order to benefit him." Her hurt and rage has made her an oni, and she would rather kill him than let anyone else have him. Hasumi is having trouble denying something strange is going on by now as well. Having failed to dissuade her, Kantarou spends a night with Hasumi to guard him. They talk, and Kantarou says, back turned to Hasumi, "I am so tired of pretending."

4. Tanaka is injured and Yamada's rokurokubi nature is discovered, and Yamada flees back into the mountains from whence he came.

5. Kantarou and Hasumi lay a trap for the fox. When it is clear she will lose and be destroyed, Kantarou offers her a bargain. "If neither of us can have him, can't I be enough for you?"

6. She breaks down and agrees, comes to Kantarou. In the instant before her oni nature disperses fully, she stabs him with one of her broken-off horns. Kantarou embraces and names her. The story ends here.

postscript:
In the epilogue, Hasumi doesn't remember anything of the events in the story, but he is disturbed when Kantarou comes back to school after a long and unexplained illness openly talking of youkai as though they are real in spite of people scoffing. It bothers him most when a young girl (Youko) comes to see Kantarou at school. Hasumi and Kantarou don't associate beyond the sort of sniping that goes on in the series proper.

Thanks for reading.