It's Been A While (Yukio X Reader X Rin) [✓]

2- 50. Kone And Bon

RECAP:

Rin surprisingly whipped around and said, "I'm going to punch a damn wall if we don't find this chick in–"
    "No, I told you to stock up the shelves and then you could take a break!" We heard a man shout.

We turned to see what was going down, and sure enough, Izumo stood in front of a store manager in a uniform, listening to the elder reprimand her for probably not doing her job right.

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The purple haired female rolled her eyes, and when she did, her gaze landed on us.
    She squinted as we all bolted to her at the same time, and I hugged her like there was no tomorrow.
    "Izumo, I missed you so much! I can't believe we found you!" I wailed dramatically, gripping her even tighter as I kept shouting my greetings.
   
She sighed as I pulled away and her eyes fell upon all of us three in a row.

"Wow. Four Eyes, Samurai Jack, and Demon Magnet. Never thought I'd see you again," she said, cocking her head and scanning us.
    "What's with the nicknames? You'd think a stranger wouldn't be so goddam rude," Rin said firmly with his Kona sword resting on his shoulder as an unpleased frown plastered his face.
    Izumo's eyes widened, soon realizing why he didn't recognize her. "So they got you too, huh?"
   Yukio answered for the demon boy. "Yeah. But Y/N got her's back."
    "Clearly," Izumo replied, holding in a secret smile.
   
There was a few moments of silence before someone spoke up again.
   
Izumo's manager started, "Hey! Who are you and why are you–"
    Izumo put a hand up and said, "Shut it, Old Man."
    He snarled in return.
   "Moving on, what are you doing here? And why were you trying to find me?"
    The gunslinger cleared his throat. "We need your help. I–"
    "Yeah, I know," Izumo cut him off, pulling or her phone then showing the bounties to us. "It's everywhere."
    "Hence why we need you. We need to take down Arthur A. Angel, and we can't do it without you. We also need your help finding Bon, Konekomaru, and Shiemi. Can you... Maybe come with us?" I asked quietly, pleading inside that she would say yes.
   
Please don't say no, please don't say no...
   
Her facial expression was doubtful as she thought for a moment. Then, she smirked and chucked her employee hat on the ground while looking at the manager.
    "Hey, boss, I quit!" She shouted proudly, then dragged all of us out as her boss yelled behind her that she couldn't quit because she was fired.
   
Eventually we got a long way away from the shop she worked at before she turned around to face all of us.
   
"Well, you've found me. Now who's the next targeted bastard?"

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"Wait, so Bon and Konekomaru are in the same place?" I questioned, getting in the back seat of the van with Izumo sitting next to me, and then both the boys in the front.
   "Yeah. After we were 'kicked out' of the academy, they both went to the same place to study their religion." The new-found girl answered.
    "I'm not surprised, knowing that they're basically best friends," I added.
    "Y/N's right," Yukio began. "But where exactly are they?"
    Izumo smirked.
    "Don't worry. Just follow my directions."

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Eventually, we arrived at a small village.
   
But... Bon said his burned down... I wonder what village this is?
   
The little town was small and quiet, and quite honestly it looked like nobody was there.
    "I wonder where everyone is..." I muttered.
    As we kept ambling in slowly, suddenly Rin put his arm in front of me, making the other two also stop.
    "Watch out," he warned seriously.
    "What is it? Is something wrong?" Yukio questioned.
    "About four feet in front of you, there's a barrier created by some kind of illusion magic. Best not to walk into it." He responded.
    "How do you know?" Izumo followed up.
    Rin narrowed his eyes. "I can sense it. There's obviously people here."
   
Izumo took a deep breath, then shouted, "Listen, I know you losers are here! Just come out and I won't break this wall of crap!"
   
The girl's yelling seemed to work, for the barrier seemed to fade gradually and reveal the same looking village, but there was a person now standing in front of us.
   
He looks awfully familiar...
   
"Tatsuma Suguro?" All of us but Rin said in unison.
    "Oh, my. You are Ryuji and Kone's old friends, am I correct?" He asked, looking genuinely surprised.
    "Yes. If you don't mind, we wish to see them." Izumo answered in a matter-of-fact tone.
    "Of course. But you see..." the older man paused, glaring at the handsome demon standing next to me. "We don't allow fiends." He pointed to Rin, almost in disgust.
   
Before Rin could protest rudely, I cut in for him.
   
"Sir, please. He's not a fiend. I promise I will keep an eye on him. He's a good person, I swear to you." I pleaded, bowing swiftly in front of him.
    He gave Rin and I the side-eye before saying with the wave of a hand, "Fine. But if the boy does something impenetrable, he'll curse the day he was born."
   
I tried not to glare at him in my response, but I couldn't help it.
   
He then smiled. "All right. Now that's over, come with me."
    We all followed, with Izumo and Yukio in the front, and Rin and I in the back.

The gunslinger started to chat up a storm with Tatsuma, asking him questions about the weird village.
    Meanwhile, the people of the village peered out of their small cottages to watch us.
   
"Is that a demon?" One small child whispered his mother while gripping her yellow and blue kimono.
    She patted the kid's head. "Don't worry, Dear. Just go back inside," she told back, sending the child where she told them to go.
   
I turned to see Rin staring down that house as the lady went inside almost shamefully—yet he was vexed as well.
    My heart sank, feeling terrible for what he might have felt overhearing that conversation.

We started to walk with more pace, but still finely enough to take in our surroundings of the beautiful little town with vibrant green grass and Sakura trees.
   
As we strode through the place, I looked to my right to see a group of about five young men looking me up and down.
   
For a safe little village, it sure does have it's... Strangeness.
   
Rin then spotted at what I was looking at, then grabbed my hand and dragged me with him a little faster; enough to catch up to the rest of the group.
    The demon look just about to blow up, holding in his anger.
    I squeezed his hand to make his gaze fixed on me, then smiled gently at him.

I wonder if it makes him calmer?
   
His stressed expression turned calmer, but his lips still didn't form the grin I used to get.
   
But for now, it was okay, because I understood.
   
"My son and Kone are in here. Please, stay as long as you'd like." He grinned warmly, but still gave Rin a hurtful glance as he rid himself off.
    I let go of his hand and tapped his shoulder gently, telling him it was okay as we ambled in.
   
It was a little dark, but we found our way to a small room where Konekomaru sit, studying what looked like to be kanji or something.
    "Knock, knock," Izumo said abruptly, making Kone's soul basically jump out of his body for a second.
   
He closed the book and squinted at us.
   
"Y-Yukio? Izumo? Y/N? And... Rin?!" He screeched as if he'd saw a ghost.
   
Whoops. That's right.

He remembers Rin as dead. Guess he and Bon were the only ones who somehow hadn't heard the news.
    "I-I—am I hallucinating?! B-B-Bon!" He yelled, scrambling to his feet and running out the room's back door as we reluctantly followed him.
    Apparently that room was the back room, since he lead us outside to a small looking garden, then stopped as he looked up at a tree and shouted, "B-Bon! Come down p-please!"
    We could see Bon's head peak around the leaves that covered his figure while asking, "What? Can't you see I'm—wait, what the fu—?!"
    And as if the gods stopped him, before he could finish his cuss, he fell off the branch he lay on and plummeted to the grass in shock.
   
He grunted and then looked up at us.
    "When the hell did Satan's spawn come back to life? And why are you all here?!"
    As Bon got to his feet, Yukio said to both of them while holding up the bounties on his device, "We have a slight problem."
   
Their eyes widened and both shot each other a look.
    I added lastly with a sigh, "We really, really need your help."