Save Me From The Monsters (TomoeXReader) • Completed •

The Familiar

My body tenses.

"As I wish?" My voice is soft.

"Take your time to think about it," he says with a sad smile. "We'll give you some privacy." He and Tomoe then both leave the room.

I am not steady when I rise to my feet, but I throw the thought aside, not wanting to stay in this damn room a second longer without being able to breathe fresh air again. I carefully slide the door to my room open and slip quietly outside.

I find the back exit quickly, not bothering to eavesdrop on the intense conversation the two men seem to be having.

My bare foot touches the wooden patio as fresh spring air fills my lungs

It cannot already be spring.. can it?

I use a post of the shrine to lean against as a soft breeze brings the smell of sakura petals to my nose, dancing past it to rustle my hair. Pink petals fall like snow over the lush garden that lies before me. The smell of sakura has always reminded me of my mother.

Oh mother. How I wish you were here.

I take a step toward the garden and stumble, still not accustomed to being on my feet after spending so much time off of them.

My brother took you from me. He took father. He took the village.

Anger boils my blood as I grit my teeth and clench my fists. Even as a yokai, I am weak. I am not nearly strong enough to destroy my brother, not yet at least.

I know that the Mikage shrine can offer me safety while I build up the strength I need to take care of myself, but a part of me wants to run as far as I can away from this shrine, and away from those who live in it, because part of me is terrified that I will come to care for the two men who live here. Part of me is terrified to loose these kind people just as I lost my parents and my brother.

"If you do decide that you wish to leave, know that the Mikage shrine will always welcome you." The land god stands behind me. His voice surprises me.

"Why did you take me in? How could you be confident in asking me to say?" I ask, my back still facing him. So many questions race through my mind. Yet somehow, he answers them all.

I turn my head to him as he speaks.

"I believe that everything happens for a reason, even if we cannot see it yet." Mikage leans on the shrine wall.

"Tomoe, the stubborn fox, he brought you here for a reason, (y/n)." Mikage looks to the sky as the winds pick up, bathing him in sakura petals. "A reason that even he is unaware of, but a reason nonetheless." He looks back to me, catching a flower in his hand.

"But that is not the reason you wish to stay here, is it?." His expression turns serious.

"I cannot stop you from wishing to take your brother's life, or the life of any yokai for that matter, but if you decide to live here, there is one rule that I will not allow to be broken." He says, his eyes meeting mine over the rim of his round glasses.

"You will not take the life of a single human." His eyes are practically rocks. "Not only is it my rule, but as accordance to the scrolls of the ancient gods, any yokai who has been transformed from a human will follow his masters commands, and if ever he takes the life of the humans from which he was given life, or the gods which breathed in him eternal beauty, he shall turn to dust, and his soul banished to the depths of the netherworld." I never imagined that Mikage could hold the intensity that is locked behind those round spectacles.

"I also think that you and Tomoe could learn a few things from each other." His stone expression is gone in a moment as it is replaced with an easy smile.

Mikage is a very powerful god, I decide.

"I want you to become my familiar, (y/n)." Mikage says. Hope surged in my chest at his words, and I know that despite his intensity, Mikage is also a very kind god.

"Are you positive about this decision? I would not want to embarrass you with my weakness." I do not know much about familiars, but I know that they are to protect their god at all costs, and I am not nearly equipped for the task. I can not even walk probably.

"Everything happens for a reason, (y/n)." His kind smile breaks the composure I was trying so hard to keep up. Tears pour from my eyes and I know that I cannot leave this place. I know that my place is here, with Mikage and Tomoe. I run toward Mikage and he chuckles as he spreads his arms open wide.

Sealing the contract, I become the familiar of the land god, Mikage. The shrine becomes my home. And Tomoe becomes my fellow familiar.

"Welcome home." Mikage says, releasing me. "Tomoe will be your guide. Rely on him, and rely on me." he says, leading me back into the house.

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For the next few years inside the shrine, Tomoe taught me how to be a proper familiar. He split the workload between the two of us and taught me that part of a familiar's duty is to take care of the shrine.

Once a week, Tomoe would take me to the forest area that surrounded the shrine, and teach me how to be a yokai.

He taught me how to hide my ears and my tail as well as to transform into the black cat, panther, leopard, and lion, the animals that encompassed everything that I was, as well as what I could become.

He suggested that I learn to use my brother's Katana, but soon discovered I couldn't hold it properly without having horrible flashbacks of that night.

To his surprise, I insisted on keeping it with me at all times. A strange paradox. As it was, without my brother, the katana was my only connection to my parents that I had left, as well as the man my brother once was. Keeping it in a sheath on my waist, however psychotic it seemed, kept the memory of my parents just as close. Tomoe seemed confused by this, but he didn't try to take it from me..

While Tomoe was strict and impatient with me at times, I knew that he accepted me as a fellow familiar. There wasn't much else he could do seeing that Mikage had invited me in.

On the other hand, during those first few years, I knew he rejected me as a friend.

The shrine spirits told me that he suffered for 300 years before coming to live with Mikage. He was a wild fox on the brink of death when Mikage found him. They think that is why he took pity on me even if I was human.

The fierce fox that was feared throughout the world was found and cared for by Mikage in his most vunerable state, and because of that, Tomoe loved him. Tomoe loved Mikage more than a familar loves his god. Tomoe loved him as a friend. The shrine spirits told me that Mikage hoped for Tomoe to see me as a friend too.

However, It wasn't until decades later that his hope was granted.

Many... Many decades

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Chapter twoooooooo

UH DONE

hehe.

I'm having so much fun with this. Wbu guys?

So what do you think of Tomoe?

What's that whole deal about "everything happens for a reason" ?

How do you feel about a bit a back story before we really get going? hehe

Find out next time :P

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Love you all.

Harleigh