Chapter 31

Like Parent, Like Child (なり、なり) is the thirty-first chapter of the ノラガミ Noragami manga series written by Adachitoka.

Synopsis
Yama announces her new relationship with Abe at school. Despite her going after Kouto Fujisaki, she was more compatible with Abe. Abe enters, everyone cringes at the excitement of the new couple. Fujisaki enters and Hiyori swiftly leaves, remembering the kiss. He calls after her but she gets away.

Yukine stumbles across her, noting how she is already in her summer uniform- being in the heavens messes with your sense of time. He asks for more time on his homework since he’s been practising spells with Kazuma. She tears up remembering Yukine and Yato, the scent and her promise that she almost forgot. She hugs him to Yukine’s shock.

Later Yukine threatens to use Bakufu if she surprises him again. Hiyori is impressed with his progress and he tells her he’s been learning Kanji to read other shinkis’ names to use spells. Hiyori asks after Yato, but Yukine hasn’t heard from him. Daikoku enters, moping that Kofuku hasn’t returned either. They sent the attendants home because the council would be long, but he worries since they don’t like Kofuku. Yukine notes how Kazuma also thought it was strange. Yukine reveals the council is to do with the masks.

Hiyori ponders how she stopped writing in her diary, thinking she wouldn’t forget like everyone else, but realises she’s no different and she can’t get complacent. She remembers Kofuku said Yato would fade away if people forget him, so she searches for him, calling his name, only to realise she doesn’t know anything about him.

Yato tells Ebisu to stop looking the ayakashi on the eye or they’ll find them after dodging a bull-like one, but Ebisu insists his shinki are strong despite his own battle skill. He demonstrates with Hoki, who specialises in bare-handed wrestling, taking down a monkey-like ayakashi. He has confidence in his fortune rather than his skill as a warrior god like Yato. Yato says he gets replaced for someone with such ‘good luck’, but he says that’s because he keeps masked ayakashi and he’s been replaced a few times, which gets to Yato since he can’t be replaced. Ebisu says he’s a lot more careful with his shinki and only brings a few with him should something bad happen. Yato asks him why he wants to be a crafter to which Ebisu asks why Yato exists. Ebisu discusses his research on Yato from when he wanted Yukine- he is formally known as a war god, some call him a god of calamity with no shrine, only mentioned in a few oral traditions and his own social media profiles. He asks what kind of work could keep him from fading. Yato goes to attack Ebisu- they need gods like him because of the gaps in heavenly justice. He was born from peoples wishes too, so what could be wrong with not wanting to disappear. He wants to make someone happy. Ebisu remarks that it must be nice to value one's life and believes Yato will make a good god one day.

In the heavens, little children are singing kagome in a circle around Ebisu’s shinki and masks. Takami begs High Sentinel Ōshi to stop whatever she’s doing and use purgatory instead so the shinki can use borderlines. The sentinel explains that the kagome is a curse that only children too young to know right from wrong can invoke, weakening the power of any inside the circle. The sentinel promises to stop if Takami reveals Ebisu and his guide's location. One of the shinki try to attack the children to stop them, but another stops him since it would sting their master. Another tells Takami not to give in to the heavens- they just have to get through this. The sentinel urges him to tell quickly, as his master will be in excruciating pain when his shinki start dying.

Ebisu keels over from the pain of his shinki– their names are disappearing. Yato asks why it’s so important that he becomes a crafter. Ebisu avoids the question, claiming he doesn’t like to be asked twice, which Yato points out he never answered the first time. Ebisu says if he doesn’t go, the next Ebisu would need more shinki to go. He reveals the word of Yomi is in possession of a woman who lives there named Izanami, who is the mother that abandoned Ebisu. As he says this, she appears from the water.