Save Me From The Monsters (TomoeXReader) • Completed •

The Tattered Heart.

Dedicated to madfairytaill14 for voting on several chapters of my book! Jeez that makes me so happy!! Thank you so much

Chapter 18: The Tattered Heart

Word count 941

Tomoe POV:

Something needs to be done. I was a fool to coddle Nanami the way I did. I was a fool to think that maybe she could be a good master. I was a fool to trust this girl, this human.

(Y/n) had long retreated to the world over yonder, but I suppose that is a better state than what she was, locked in her room for several days after that evening, and not a word I said even remotely drew her back out.

Nanami seems too smug with herself now that (y/n) is gone, and she throws herself at me now more than ever, a few times even attempting to kiss me. If it had not been for the familiar bond I would have surely killed her by now.

I look around the shrine once more from the roof, my hairs have been on end all day, and I feel as though something awful is coming. I relent on my search, entering the shrine to see the shrine spirits braiding Nanami's hair.

I manage to squeeze past her to my quarters without her noticing, and once I'm there the true sulking begins. Whether minutes or hours go by before I am needed is unknown to me. I sit on my soft mat and simply exist, breathing, but not living.

Nanami's shrill screams pulls me from my trance, and I take my time searching for her. However my pace quickens when the hairs on my skin prickle with goosebumps and low chanting finds my ears.

I rush out to the front to see Nanami cowering on the porch as a swarm of miasma covers the shrine.

(Y/n) stands at the base. A rat grins beside her, chanting rhythmic spells quietly, yet my ears find the words.

"あなたが絆を破れば、あなたは自由になり、あなたの神の抑圧から安全になるでしょう."

Break the bond and you shall be free, safe from the repression of your god you shall be.

My eyes widen in realization.

She's going to kill Nanami.

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Your POV

My brother said he found me wandering around the nether world, lost and afraid. He spoke to me as he did when we were children, and I believed him. He told me the crimes our village had committed against the gods and that he was simply delivering their Devine punishment.

I believed him.

He told me I could break the bond, and I could be rid of Nanami, I could be rid of the bond, then there would be nothing to keep Tomoe and I apart.

I believed him.

Yuzu was much kinder to me than I remember, but then, since I woke in his arms there's not much that I can remember. He said he loved me, and he was happy to see that I was alive.

And I believed him.

I do not see Tomoe run toward me when I approach the shrine, but Yuzu does, and without a beat, he steps in front of me, draws a blade and holds it to Tomoe's chin.

"Leave her be Fox, she must focus." My tongue picks up where his chanting ended, and I repeat his words without hesitation.

"(Y/n)," Tomoe says it cautiously, but I am too focused to pay mind to it.

"Do you remember what Mikage said about killing a human?" He says carefully. Yuzu buts in.

We're not going to kill her, just break the bond

I speak to him, but in my head, so that I am the only one that hears it.

Yuzu wouldn't hurt Nanami.

"Nonsense, it is all lies, I've killed many a human with no punishment, and today I will kill a god." His grin leaves me uneasy, but he is my brother so I do not speak. His words do not register in my mind.

"But in order for me to do that, I need to release you from the bond as well, Tomoe, wouldn't want you spoiling the fun."

Tomoe is restrained by several yokai immediately, and they, with hold of my fox, chant the same spells that spill from my lips. Yuzu kisses my head.

"You've done well, sister, leading me to your god, but now that you have served your purpose, I am no longer in need of you." His blade plunges through my chest. "You are now relieved of your familiar duties, sister."

Not a word escapes my lips as I fall backwards, feeling the blood pool around me, staining my clothes, my skin, my hair.

"(Y/n)!" I hear Tomoe's scream. I turn my head to look at him and see Yuzu's blade cut clean across Tomoe's eyes. The fox falls to the ground without a sound.

My brother laughs as he turns to the shrine, and attacks Nanami. She is dead before she can scream, and the world shakes at the death of a god, a mortal god. I can hear Yuzu's laugh, I can see the yokai swarm the shrine, tearing it apart, I can feel the miasma in my lungs.

"I'm sorry Mikage, for today is the day that I have truly failed you." My world goes black in an instant, and I welcome death with open arms.

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This chapter is a fat oof. I still need to go back and fix it because it's definitely not perfect, but I wanted to get this out to you guys ASAP.

Tell me what you think!!

Xoxo Harleighkinz