featherbrain ☆ l.jn ☆ ayakashi series | ✔

jeno [twenty-two]

To your surprise, everyone was there when you arrived. Even Taeyong, curiously enough. Someone must have gone out to get him when they got your text, and the Nekomata bounded up to you with concern on his features.

"Are you okay, Y/N?" He asked, ear flicking nervously as he gave you a brief once-over. "I got your note. The Wraiths are back?"

The blinds had been shut and doors locked behind you, café completely devoid of patrons. You forced out a smile, "I'm fine, Yong. And more than just the Wraiths are back; Mark called me after the attack."

The others all took in sharp breaths of surprise. Sicheng's eyes narrowed, gaze hard and resigned as he seemed to immediately accept your claim. Johnny closed his eyes, head tilted back as he let out a low string of curses under his breath. Renjun's heterochromia immediately came out, while Taeyong's ears flattened back against his head, hackles raised. Jungwoo looked down at his hands, and your statements had even managed to get a sizeable reaction from Sungchan: his hands clenched into fists before one of them patted his brother's shoulder.

"What did he say, Y/N?" Renjun voiced the question presumably on everyone's minds—except the two who already knew.

Deciding to skip on the thinly veiled threat of seeing you in class, you instead focused your sights on the seated Tsukumo-gami who seemed unable to look at you in that moment, "He told me to ask Jungwoo about him."

Sungchan's grip on the eldest's shoulder tightened just a bit, "Jungwoo, you don't have to—"

"No, brother, I do," Jungwoo patted his hand, gaze lifting to meet yours. "I am an open book. Please, ask me whatever you need."

Jeno took the first crack at him, "How do you know him?"

"Sungchan and I were staying at the shrine not only for my benefit, but the benefit of the town you all call home. We were the protectors of a great power that lay below the shrine, to make sure nobody tried to awaken it and use it for their own purpose. Some time ago a young Onmyoji—I suppose he must have been barely adolescent then—began visiting us. He claimed he had stumbled upon our home by chance, just following a feeling he had. I told him he must have sensed that we were Ayakashi."

You were able to guess, "It was Mark."

"Yes, Lady Onmyoji, the Onmyoji who had found us was indeed your former classmate. I found it harmless to talk with and guide this Onmyoji. After a short time, he stopped coming. I thought he must have moved; he had been discussing his upcoming college plans with us after all. But now I know what he was doing. I am not sure if his original intention for coming to the shrine was to awaken the power that lay beneath it, but I am sure that is his intention now."

Renjun crossed him arms, "What is the power, exactly?"

"An old Wraith, one whose legend has been lost to time," Jungwoo's voice was clear, staring off into the distance as he spoke. "If one were to harness its power correctly, they could do most anything they wished."

Forcing the words past your closing throat, you breathed out, "Mark said he wanted to do a ritual that would bring his father back."

"Yes, he had mentioned that his father was an Onmyoji that had passed," he nodded, looking rather forlorn as he admitted this. "I am sorry, I should have realized this sooner."

"No, Jungwoo," you let go of Jeno's hand to step forward and take both of the Tsukumo-gami's in yours. Squeezing your friend's hands, you bitterly professed, "I should've told you—all of you—about him the minute I knew he was an Onmyoji."

Jungwoo looked up at you, lightly squeezing your hands back as he whispered, "Thank you, Lady Onmyoji."

"So Mark is trying to summon this mega-wraith to bring his dad back from the dead," the Satori brought the group's focus back to the threat at hand.

You gave Jungwoo a final soft smile before releasing his hands and stepping back to your place beside Jeno. Your boyfriend's hand found its natural place on the small of your back, the warmth of it reassuring you.

"Can't I just banish the Wraith?" It seemed like the most obvious solution to you, so you were unsure as to why both the Tsukumo-gami's features darkened when you said it.

To your surprise, it was Sungchan that addressed you, "You're going to kill yourself trying to do it, Onmyoji. You're not powerful enough."

"Even with all five of our powers perfectly channeled by you, Lady Onmyoji, it is not a guarantee," Jungwoo's own response wasn't much better than his brother's ominous statement.

The group was dead silent as everyone absorbed the words of the two brothers. But you were determined, even more-so when Jeno's hand grabbed yours tightly.

"I have to try," you declared, digging the nails of your free hand into your palm in hopes to hide your fear in the painful crescent marks left there.

"If we do nothing then he's guaranteed to succeed," Sicheng agreed, though he didn't seem very happy about it.

Johnny sighed, "I don't like this. I'm letting everyone know that I hate this idea."

"Nobody's ecstatic over it," Jeno shot back, the trembling breath he let out afterwards alerting you to the genuine anxiety he felt.

"Well, you're definitely going to die if you don't have all of us," Renjun's face was red even as he set his decided gaze on you.

"And you'll have pretty kitty and I for backup!" Yuta promised, even Taeyong was too worried to snap at the kitsune's nickname for him.

"I go where my brother goes," Sungchan informed you again, and you took this as his own commitment of assistance.

With an eerily familiar feeling that was now tinged with fear, you nodded resolutely, "Thank you guys. So much."