“… Aha! I see it.”
He pointed triumphantly and sat up straight after finally spotting his assigned target in the star field. He smiled and traced out the shape of a cow with a finger.

“Nn!” She smiled, nodding her approval. “The sky’s extremely clear tonight, ne?”

Was it? He hadn’t noticed.
Tilting his head up towards the heavens, he searched in the millions of stars for the next challenge he would offer to her.

She sighed and relaxed, waiting for him to finish his quest.
It was very strange how, as the years went by, fewer and fewer words seem to pass between them.

Was it because they were getting further and further apart, or was it because they were getting closer and closer together?

Was it because they didn’t want to speak to each other, or was it because they understood each other so well that they didn’t need words anymore?

So many things had happened, and so many things had changed.
Enemies and friends had came and gone.
Days filled with pain, tears, and blood, mixed in with laughter, joy, and delight.

What was evil?
What was good?
What was darkness?
What was light?
It was all a big blur to her now.

Sitting in a cuddled heap in his arms, the cold night wind didn’t seem to exist at all. Her head rested against his chest, and her legs were sprawled over his lap.

It was the safest place in the world, and the most protected feeling she knew.
The only thing that had remained when everything else was thrown into chaos.

He had once vowed that he would rather die than be her damned ‘shikigami’. That once he had a chance, he would kill her and escape the never-ending loop of serving under humans.

She had never given his threats a second thought.

Not until she finally understood his pain and that horribly unjustified feeling of having no control over his own life. Having to look in the face everyday and protect a creature that had taken everything from him.

Nobody deserved to be treated like that.
She had no right to hold him captive against his will.
Ozuno might have thought it was for the greater good, and that it justified him taking Zenki and turning him into something he was not meant to be.

What was the greater good?
For human kind to be safe?

She had learned after many painful lessons that humans posed just as big as a threat to themselves as did creatures of darkness.

It was selfish and wrong to make one being suffer for something he was neither responsible for, nor wanted to be responsible for.

It was so sickly selfish.

She would set him free.
No, she would let him have his revenge.
She would let him kill her if he so wished it.

Yet, when occasions arose, and many did, he didn’t do any of the things she had expected.

He had stayed, he had protected; he had even comforted.
He fought every battle, bested every enemy, and risked his life so many times she lost count.

During the many times she confronted him about it, he would simply close his eyes and pretended she wasn’t even there. Sometimes he would throw some acidic comments her way, but other than that, he never gave her a straight answer.

She was confused.
So very confused.

Even now, when it seemed like he and she had finally become something she had wished for once upon a time, his intentions or his feelings towards her were still an unsolved mystery.
 

What exactly were they now?
 

Master and shikigami?
Guardian and protected?
Priestess and demon?
Comrades?
Rivals?
Friends?

… Lovers?

Perhaps a little bit of everything.
Perhaps it was none of the above.

He had never given her a straight answer.
He probably never would.

Perhaps she would try to find out the truth again sometime. But now, she was content to lie in his arms, and pretend that he cared about her.

“Hello, earth to shrine girl! Don’t tell me you’ve suddenly gone deaf…”

“Huh?” She raised her head and saw him frowning down at her. She forced up a smile. “Ah, gomen, gomen! I wasn’t paying attention, what was it I had to look for?”

He lifted a hand and pointed at the bright star that had been the last star on the tail of the cow. “Look to the south of that one...”

She waited patiently for him to tell her the object she was suppose to spot, and when he didn’t finish his sentence she lifted her head up to his face in confusion.

“Just look.”

She did as she was told.
Turning her head back towards the skies, she watched the star silently, as it twinkled and shined in the clear night sky.

Suddenly, she saw a little glint of red, which soon burst into a cluster of burning colours. She watched, mesmerized, as the line of colour shot across the skies leaving a bright trail behind.

“… Sugoi…” she whispered, her eyes twinkling with the wonderment of a child seeing snow for the first time.

She heard him chuckle and his tease, “What, you’ve never seen a comet before?”
She shook her head gently. “Iie. It’s the first time……. It’s beautiful.”

He had fallen quiet again, and she assumed he was looking at the comet as well.

She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. The tail of the comet seemed to change colours every second. So far she had counted more than ten different colours, and even more were forming with every spark of light the comet emitted.

“That comet is called ‘Kurenai’.”
After what had seemed like an eternity captured in one second, he finally spoke. “It only comes by earth every couple thousand years. The last time I saw it was right before I was subdued by Ozuno.”

It didn’t take much for the guilt to start eating away at her.
However, this time, she had an idea.

“Make a wish, Zenki.”
“Huh?”
“It’s sort of a human thing. If you make a wish to a falling comet, it’ll come true.”

A long silence followed, and she began to get a little worried.
Why was he hesitating?

“I wish……”

She tensed a bit and got ready to do what she had wanted to do for so long.

She knew he was going to wish for his freedom.
She was going to give it to him.
Destroy any seals that were left, and let him go.
Even if it meant she would have to walk the rest of her days alone.
She had taken enough from him. She was going to take no more.
She would not allow herself to take any more.

“I wish……”

He leaned his head down, and she tensed even more when she felt his breath on her ear. When his head was so far down that his chin was nesting on her shoulder, she heard him whisper,

“… I’m not gonna tell you my wish.”

W… what was that??
She pouted and frowned.
Well, so much for her great idea.

The comet slowly made it’s way across the sky and began to slowly disappear into the horizon.

“… Now you make a wish.”
She lifted her head up to him.
“I did, so you have to, too,” he stated.
“Fine,” she said softly, and closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. She smiled at him, giving him notice that she had made her wish.

He smiled back. “What did you wish for?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Tell me your wish first!”
He shook his head, and she shook her head as well.

“Oh, come on, don’t be so stubborn,” he teased.
“You’re the one being stubborn.”
“I am the great Kishin Zenki. I’m allowed to be stubborn,” he said, closing his eyes in satisfaction.

“…. Then who am I?”

“Huh?”
“Who am I?” she repeated, her gaze fixed on the disappearing comet.
“You’re Chiaki,” he stated, pure and simple.
“… That’s it…?”
Her voice was soft and quiet, and laced with sadness.

“That’s all I am, isn’t it. A little human girl. A little human girl named Chiaki who once thought she knew her place in the world. Who once thought she knew everything there possibly was to know about life. Who was stupid enough to think she had the power to vanquish any evil, when most of the evil came from the very same race she was trying to protect… Who… who…”

Her tears drowned out any other words she had left to say.

It had been so long since she last cried.
After all that had happened, she hadn’t shed a single tear.
Until tonight.

She had been holding everything in. Every last nasty thing.
And she was finally ready to let it all out.

She felt his hold on her tighten, and she turned her head into the curve of his arm, sobbing quietly. A hand went up and gently stroked her hair, as the other wrapped itself around her waist.

She cried and cried until she could cry no more.

“Yare, yare… Ya finally stopped, huh?”
She looked up with a sniffle and a red nose. He chuckled and wiped away her trailing tears.

“… Fine. I’ll tell you my wish,” he said smiling.

She lifted a hand to wipe away the moisture that he had missed.
“It’s okay,” she said. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
He grinned, his fangs showing. “You women. Sure change your minds fast, huh?”
She sniffed again and nodded.
He sighed and shook his head, but his expression very quickly became oddly serious, as he looked her straight in the eyes.
 

“… I wish to stay with you forever.”
 

It took a few seconds for the words to sink in and for her to utter a “Huh?”
“I wish to stay with you forever,” he repeated.
“… W… why?” was the only word that came into her mind.
He grinned.

“Because you make great banana pie!”

She stared blankly at his grinning face, and suddenly found herself smiling, too.

It was true.
He was never going to give her a straight answer.
But somehow, she was completely satisfied with the one she got. She looked back up at the sky.

“Ah… Kurenai is gone already…” she said, disappointed.
“… And you were expecting it to still be there after you cried up a river??”
She pouted. “… Now I’ll never see it again……”

He was quiet for a while, and then he spoke up again with renewed energy in his voice. It was weird, he sounded almost cheerful.

“Hey, you didn’t think I was going to let you off the hook that easily, did you! That stupid cow of yours took me forever to find! Now, look to the south of the star, for real this time, and find a slipper.”
“A slipper, huh? No problem. I won’t even take half the time you did.”
“Don’t count on it, stupid shrine girl.”
“Oh, bite me.”

His brows lifted and he lowered his head –

“Hey, ow! Y-y-you really bit me!!!”
“You told me to…”
“Zenki no baka!! I didn’t mean literally!!”
“Well, how am I suppose to know, since I’m a baka…”
“Why, you….!”
“Heh heh heh…”
 

… And the joking quarrel continued.

A quarrel between a master and her shikigami.
A quarrel between a guardian and the one he was destined to protect.
A quarrel between a priestess and a demon.

A quarrel between two comrades.
A quarrel between two rivals.
A quarrel between two friends.

A quarrel between two lovers.

Or perhaps it was a little bit of everything.