. . .
“Into that blackest of hells
guide him now, I pray—”
—Saijō Yaso
. . .
Alastor Nyx frowned as he squinted down at the very tiny font of the English-Japanese dictionary that Dionysus had unceremoniously slapped him on the face with not even an hour ago.
The book was so ridiculously tiny that it can even fit on the inside of his hoodie’s pocket with some room to spare (and yes, Alastor already tried putting it there with at least two boxes of pocky) but having to leaf through for a particular phrase or word that he was looking for is such a pain.
He had been trying to actively learn some more basic Japanese phrases that he can actually use as it seems that he and Winters are bound to stay for long in this country, what with her little brother still MIA.
And as the hours turned to days which soon quickly turned to weeks until two months had actually passed them by without any news of the kid’s well-being, Alastor pointedly tried not to dwell on the what-ifs, not on the huge, looming possibility that the kid has been gone for so long and that they might as well just be searching for the body…
No.
He’s not going to think about it.
He didn’t want to think about that.
(Alistair, his older twin brother, had been missing for an entire fucking decade and the idiot still got back home safe and sound. Maybe Alistair and William can bond over that little tidbit once the kid gets back.
When. Not if.)
Instead, he and Winters—Dionysus soon inviting himself over by the first week of their still ongoing search—had talked and gone over for what seemed to be like hours on end as to who could have possibility taken or wanted William out of the picture, other than their most likely suspects.
The options are quite too many.
And so far, not looking good…
As of now, the three of them are currently in Aogashima… because last night, Dionysus had been bitching seemingly nonstop about a ‘moody hell-spawn who keeps ruining his jam’ or some stupid shit like that.
(And Alastor had to physically stop a literal underworld goddess from shoving a literal wine bottle down the god of wine’s throat for such a scathing remark.
…Oh Artemis, just what has my life come to?)
But despite the god of wine’s apparent lack of tact, Alastor strongly suspects this is to get the goddess of shadows riled up on purpose—a very poor attempt in making Winters to get back on track, to focus on some of her more pressing duties instead of running in on dead-ends for the time being while Dionysus tries to garner more time to get in touch with some of his other… friends (for a lack of a better term) regarding some news about William’s disappearance.
Anyway.
Aogashima isn’t really one of the worst places to be in at the moment while they take a much-needed breather. Because if it was just Winters on her own, Alastor is so sure she would have driven herself straight to madness while chasing the slightest bit of clues that will no doubt lead her straight to more dead-ends.
The place Dionysus had managed to spirit them all off to is a volcanic island located to the south of Japan, somewhere in the northernmost Micronesia and according to Winters: Aogashima is considered to be one of the country’s most isolated areas.  
Well, Alastor thought wryly as he fidgeted a bit on his spot, she wasn’t really wrong. The place was really kind of isolated.
It wasn’t that the place was too quiet or spooky or anything like that, it’s just… Alastor has been living in Tokyo for some time, in a city for gods’ sake, the sudden change of environment was just kind of freaking him out.
He had grown up in a pack filled with people that were too much like his own, of course there’s bound to be some culture shock, especially in such a foreign country.
…at least, the view is good.
Currently, Winters was out and about (and Alastor was getting the feeling that he’d have to go look for her soon enough as it was getting dark) to gods knows where.
“A-Ay… wait no, ee-kee…gah… guy…?”
Alastor slowly tried to sound the word out in his tongue, his frown quickly shifting into a frustrated scowl once he finished reading what the word means.
Apparently, the word ‘ikigai’ is a Japanese concept that refers to ‘your reason for being’. ‘Iki’ in Japanese meaning ‘life’ and ‘gai’ is a word that describes value or worth. A life’s purpose… their raison d'être if you will.
…What the hell.
How could he have made such a beautiful word sound like some sort of a curse? And why the fuck does the words felt like they were getting tangled in his throat instead?!
Fuck.
…and Alastor is also pretty sure that he’s butchering the Japanese language right now. Could he even get arrested for this? He’s pretty sure this level of incompetence could get him arrested.
At the thought, Alastor let out a low growl of frustration as he threw the book on the ground, completely irritated with the book and most of all, at himself. Why was he so stupid and so fucking useless―and why was he even doing this again?
Winters can speak Japanese perfectly and his are so-so anyway (some of the locals even seemed charmed by his clumsy attempts), so why was he even bothering to learn the language in the first fucking place?!
…Oh. Right.
Because he wanted to impress her.
“What? You got beaten by a book?” Dionysus suddenly cackled, barely looking up at Alastor through purple, red-rimmed eyes.
Nothing new, the god is hungover.
Can gods even get hungover…?
Alastor let out a huge sigh… and with an annoyed huff, he plucked the stupid book off of the ground before he changed his mind and decided to throw it in the fireplace or something. That would be a waste of book and money.
“Aw, come on, puppy, why so sad?”
His eyebrow twitched at such a degrading nickname.
“Better be careful or your face will freeze like that,” Dionysus remarked as he pointed at Alastor’s glare when Alastor didn’t bother to say anything. “Pretty sure that’s what happened to Poppy…”
Okay, now that’s just mean.
“…Seriously? Do I look sad to you? Remind me again, why the hell am even I trying to learn Japanese?” Alastor complained, “This thing’s complicated!”
The god of wine only snickered.
“Your girlfriend’s a hell lot more complicated and I don’t think I hear you complaining there,” Dionysus teased, lips curling into a shit-eating grin.
Alastor automatically opened his mouth to defend his mate.
A second later, he closed it and shrugged.
…Touché.
He just walked himself there.
“I’d rather stare at her for hours than this thing for sure.” Alastor grumbled under his breath, patting the book off of some dust before getting up.
The god of wine squinted at him, “…that’s concerning.”
Alastor rolled his eyes as he headed for the door, “Whatever D, I’m heading out for a bit. It’s bound to get dark real soon and Winters is still out there.”
“Mm, hell hath no fury like it’s goddess scorned.”
Alastor glared at him over his shoulder.
“As I was saying, better go save some poor souls from her,” Dionysus made a vague, shooing motion with his hand, completely unperturbed as he opened a new bottle of vodka, pulling it out of nowhere, “Off you go, then.”
Alastor stared at it. Where did he even get vodka–?
“What,” he uttered, dumbfounded.
“Begone with you, wee puppy.”
“Please go take a hike.”
Alastor heard Dionysus mutter something along the lines about mates and ‘rude, lovesick puppies why did I even bother’ under his breath but pointedly decided to ignore the wayward god’s drunken comments as he stepped out of the inn, the door sliding shut behind him with a click.
As Alastor shrugged on his coat into proper place, he began to walk down the path to go look for Winters, tracking her by scent alone… which, on hindsight, should have been a piece of cake for him since there aren’t many people around here and the fact that his mate has such an appealing scent―key words: should have.
Because these days, Alastor couldn’t help but notice, with a sinking feeling in his chest, that even with Winters just being close by, her scent’s growing fainter, like she’s fading or something… the same way his dad used to before he… he...
Fuck.
He didn’t want to think of those implications too.
As Alastor walked further, shoving his hands deep inside his pocket, he allowed his mind to drift to the reason (or the half-baked excuse Dionysus managed to cook up) why they came here right now. 
That’s a safer thing to think about.
Aogashima is a pretty hard place to visit by the locals and a damn near impossibility to go to by foreigners, after all. But thanks to his mate’s ability to travel through shadows—and Dionysus having some real suspicious connections that Alastor didn’t even want to bother himself with—it wasn’t that much of hassle to come here in their case.
How lucky, he thought, wryly.
Anyway, from what Dionysus had told them, there was some evil spirit—or an onryo, from what Winters has suspected… that has manifested itself over a few days ago in the woods, not too far from the town that they were staying at.
Either one of the locals are actually responsible for this evil spirit being here or the thing had been there all along.
In the end, the reason why an evil spirit was even here in the first place doesn’t really matter to him or Winters in the long run. What concerns them is the fact that this onryo could be a real threat to the locals if left unattended.
And Dionysus’ wacky woodland parties.
Alastor turned left, finding himself in front of the area’s café.
Looking up, it was only thanks to Winters telling him that the kanji (セレナ) is read as Selena when they first passed by it on the way to the inn that he was aware what it even means.
Selena.
Selene.
… which is another name for the moon itself.
The goddess of moon before Lady Artemis herself came to be, to be specific. And just like the rest of his kind, Alastor is quite well-versed with that particular lore despite some of the minute details having different sorts of versions.
Some things are just lost to time.
Stepping in, with the bell chiming (and barely brushing the top of his head), Alastor relaxed a bit when he immediately spotted his mate seated by herself with a barely-touched cup of latte… that has a very generous serving of whipped cream, in Alastor’s opinion.
But the two servers by the counter—a pair of skinny teenagers who had no business staring so blatantly at her—were quite preoccupied nudging and blushing seemed to be the ones most likely responsible for that.
Aw, would you look at that.
How cute.
…but that just won’t do.
“WINTERS~!” Alastor called.