Noragami Fanfic Blog #6
In Which Yato Learns That Feelings Are Not, In Fact, Optional
My fanfic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77692631/chapters/203500416
Fanfic summary:
When Hiyori pushes Yato out of the way of the bus, she doesn’t wake up again. Trapped in her spirit form with her body in a coma, Hiyori becomes Yato’s Regalia and breaks nearly every rule that comes with it. Heaven disapproves of this violation of the natural order and Yato's Father attempts to tighten his leash. And Yato is forced to reckon with what it means to bind someone who was never meant to be bound.
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Hello from the other side of a mini hiatus! Between house hunting and improv classes, my brain has basically been running two apps at once and both of them were lagging. We're finally in underwriting, so the marathon is nearly over. I can redirect some of that mental bandwidth back to where it belongs: making a fictional god emotionally confront himself.
Anyway. I was re-reading my draft recently and started adding some explanatory dialogue for Yato, the way you do, and then it hit me: in canon, Yato basically never explains himself. Ever. To anyone. It's always Kofuku, or Kazuma, or Tenjin, or literally whoever happens to be standing nearby with better communication skills.
Hell, for learning about Sakura, who only Mizuchi/Nora and Father know about, Hiyori spontaneously developed telepathy while Yato was asleep. Still mad about that. It's such a lazy narrative shortcut. Imagine how beautiful it would have been if Yato had tearfully recounted the events to Hiyori, showing his deepest trauma to her that he's never shared with anyone.
Here's the thing that really gets me, though. Yato is SO closed off that even the one person who has repeatedly risked her life, her body, her actual half-alive existence just to keep following him around gets nothing but crumbs. Crumbs! She's out here bleeding for this man and he can't even offer a full sentence about his own childhood.
"But Author", you might say, "Yato is terrified Hiyori and Yukine will learn what a monster he used to be and might abandon him."
Yes. Exactly. That's the point.
Stories exist to take a flawed person and force them to grow through hardship. That's kind of the whole assignment. And I don't think canon actually made Yato do that homework. Case in point: he possesses Hiyori's body without consent, specifically to isolate her during her high school debut, violating pretty much every boundary she has, and then… nothing. No real reckoning. No consequences. The narrative just kind of shrugs and moves on like it didn't happen. Cool cool cool, very normal, very healthy.
So now, I've come to the realization that the events leading up to the showdown and recruitment of Bishamon need to be centered around Yato learning to open up to Hiyori. I'm going to give Hiyori a helping hand here, because Yato can be a brick wall sometimes, and allow her to feel his emotions when she is in her weapon form.
Obviously this is going to send Yato into a full spiral. My man is going to do what avoidant people do best: he's going to try to pull away and stop calling Hiyori entirely. And he's going to pick precisely the worst possible moment to do it, right as Bishamon finally decides she's done tolerating his continued existence on this earth.
Timing? He's got none. It's part of his charm and also the reason this whole arc is going to hurt so good.
More soon! Back to outlining before house paperwork eats my brain again.
