To Be Free! (Noragami Fan-Fic)

I Feel Free With You

     It was the middle of the night when I had finally finished all the paperwork and was had entered my room and was about to take a shower when Akai walked in with a phone in hand. I looked at the caller ID and sighed before reluctantly picking up the call.
     "Hel-" I said but before I could finish, was interrupted.
     "Crystal, I wanted to know if you're free this weekend to go somewhere," Yato said in excitement.
     "Yeah, I'm free," I answered and gestured for Akai to sit next to me. "But why are you specifically telling me you're going to bring me somewhere now when you haven't done that in the past few hundred years?"
     "Well, my boss at my previous job gave a little tip and I wanted to treat you for always staying by my side. Even after everything bad I did..."
     I smiled gently. "Sure thing, I'll go."
     "You will? Great! Come down to Kofuku's place on Saturday, we'll be in paradise before you know it! You can even invite Akai if you want!"
     "See you then! Bye!" I said and hung up on him. I turned to look at Akai. "I know he means well... but I can't help but get the feeling that something bad is going to happen."
     "Well, we'll just have to go there and see for ourselves. You already agreed after all. You know how he gets when you don't show up for something important."
     "Yeah. Guess we have to go to sleep early if we want to get ready for anything. Goodnight," I said and pecked him on the cheek before heading to take a shower and going to sleep.

     "Ta-da!!! Welcome to Capypa Land!" Yato announced while I stared at the place that I would like to call my worst nightmare. "Woo! I'm no longer a Capypa Virgin!" He cheered. "Whoa, the flowers are a Capypa! And here's a Capypa! And there! Huh? What's with the demon face, Crystal?"
     "Out of all the places..." I muttered as I remembered the scene from that night when I came here with Hiyori and met Fujisaki. I quickly shook the memory out of my mind and put on a smile to hide the fact that I didn't want to come here and decided to try and enjoy the trip to the best I can.

     Along the way, we ran into Ebisu and Yato began to explain the story of how this place 'came to be'. "But what are you doing here?" I asked him.
     "Are you by yourself?" Yato quickly said. But Ebisu wasn't listening and ended up running over to another place to take another picture but tripped clumsily on the way there. "Your shoes are untied and everything," Yato scolded. I looked ahead and pointed at the man in the Capypa costume. When Yato noticed, he became entranced by it and kept hoping to be noticed. In the end, the Capypa came, but it was to take a picture with Ebisu. Yato was lucky that after a long wait, the Capypa came to take a picture with him and the rest of us together.
     After taking pictures, Yukine somehow managed to get hooked to the Capypas as well. Then we went to the shop and looked at the things we might want to buy. I looked around but I didn't buy anything because we came here before and I already bought all the souvenirs for all the regalias who are happy with what they have. But when I saw how childish Yato and Yukine were acting, I decided to pretend to be their niece and transformed into a child version of myself from when I was younger so I won't get too embarrassed. Akai played along as well because he felt like he was standing out with his red hair and girls kept coming up to him.

     After many hours of playing with rides that kept falling apart, we were heading somewhere and just let Yato lead us but after a few minutes, I realized the similarities of what happened the other time I came here. Before I knew it, Yato grabbed our hands and pulled us closer to the real nightmare. "For the finale, the Capypa will cast their amazing smile spell on us!" Yato announced in pure joy while I was still horror-struck and tried to make a run for it while I still could.
     However, Akai quickly stopped me after he told the others to go ahead. We were both still in our child forms but that didn't stop us from trying to stop each other. "What's going on, Crystal?" He said. "The entire time we've been here, I felt pain from you. Tell me what's wrong. And remember you can't lie to me like you used to and suffer. I'm your familiar now and I can feel half of what you go through. So tell me what's wrong."
     "Nothing's wrong! Nothing at all!" I said quickly. "I just need to go to the bathroom."
     "You're lying," Akai shot back quickly. "Do you not trust me? Your familiar? Your exemplar? Your boyfriend...?"
     "If I told you, there's no way for you to fix it without getting rid of my memories and I don't want to go through anything like what has happened these past few weeks ever again."
     "Just tell me," he said and took my hand.
     "...A few weeks ago, I came to this place with Hiyori and a few other friends for a quadruplet date because our friend didn't want to come here alone. Everything went fine at first, but then, when night came and it was time to see the night parade, I was so confused. Throughout the day, I had a feeling I was forgetting somebody and one of the boys that came along for the date suddenly kissed me and I fainted. Only to wake up the next day with my memory, lost. Again. I get the feeling the same thing will happen if I went to the parade again so I didn't want to watch it."
     Akai's hand that was holding onto mine instantly gripped it tighter. "Don't worry," he said with a bright smile. "I'm with you this time, there's nothing to worry about."
     I looked at him for a few seconds before tearing up and hugging him tightly. Without realizing, we changed back to our normal form. "Thank you... for always being there for me..."
     He nodded and we walked over to the parade and watched in peace. "Oh, yeah! Crystal?" He said suddenly.
     "Yeah?" I asked and turned my head to face him when I suddenly felt his lips on mine and I was surprised but kissed back until I realized a few seconds later that we were in public. "Wh-What was that for?"
     "That guy kissed you. I only made sure to do the same to you so that both of us are even," he responded like it was the most reasonable thing.
     "This is a public area!" I implied.
     "That's even better! I get to show the world that you are my girlfriend," he said and kissed my forehead. "I love you."
     I blushed in embarrassment before nodding. "I love you, too," I said after I calmed down. "When I'm with you, I feel free." I smiled and kissed him on the lips before he could tease me for being emotional.