After that little scene the two little guys, Kotetsu and Onikiri, led me to a room for the night. I sighed and dropped my bag to the ground before lying down next to it and stared blankly at the ceiling. From here there were two choices for me, 1. I could go to Tokyo and live with Ichi-san 2. I could stay and figure out who hurt that fox. Option two was a bit more appealing and I cursed myself for my infatuation for canines. I sighed and turned on my side, option two it was.
I woke up with the sun in my face and a groan on my lips. Memories of last night rushing into my mind nearly giving me a headache that I probably deserved, on the other hand, i probably didn't. I sat up with a scowl.
"Good Morning lord god of the land!" The two were at my feet and I stared blankly at them. "And now please get right to it!"
I leaned back from them and rolled my shoulders, "Get right to what?" They leaned in closer.
"Your duties as a land god, my lord!" The two…had very obnoxious voices.
The two led me outside and gave me a broom and I smiled thinking back to when me and James had to clean the whole base for some prank that he did. After that I was dusting of the walls and clearing the leaves. Then came washing the floors, fixing doors and weeding the yard. "Who is Tomoe, if I may ask?"
"Master Tomoe is a familiar that served Mikage. He now serves you!"
"I see." I really didn't, but I wasn't about to tell the two little hellions that.
My eye started to twitch as I kneeled on the ground pulling out the damn weeds and cursing. One of the weeds managed to cut me and I had to lean back and take a deep breath of fresh air.
"So you do not even know how to properly weed the yard?" Tomoe appeared standing a little of to the side with a fan, "What a truly useless boy." He turned away slightly with a smirk.
"Oh you're back little fox?" It was my turn to smirk as he scowled at me, but it didn't really work because it looked more like he was pouting.
"There is no chance you can fulfill the duties of a land god." He raised his chin slightly and I prevented myself from rolling my eyes. "Why not head on home before you are forced to admit defeat."
That hit a nerve, "I would, that is, if I had a home to go back to, but I don't so I cant. You're stuck with me Fox-chan." I felt my eyes soften and a soft smile come on my face, "My father gets into all these debts that he can't pay them back so the house has been seized." I may not like the man, but he is my father and while he wasn't the best at least he fed me and got me the necessities that I needed in order to live.
"Not my problem!" He attempted to kick me again and I caught his foot with a sigh. He vanished and I shook my head before focusing on the weeds once more with a glare.
I fell back on the floor in relief as the familiar pain burned through my muscles. My head twitched as I heard someone walk up. "Dear god, please allow my daughter to give birth to a healthy child." I sat up and watched the old lady, funny thing was, I could hear her, but her lips weren't moving.
"It was the prayer in the heart of a worshipper." Kotetsu "part of a land god's duty is to be seated in the shrine and hear the wishes of those on the land." Onikiri. I nodded and sent out my own little prayer for the old lady's daughter. "Come, come, lord Jackal! On to your next duty! Please look through these!"
The two piled a bunch of little notebooks in front of me and I picked one up carefully and looked inside, ~dear god, please let my mother be safe….~dear god, don't let Nezumi leave….~dear god, please let my child…~ All of these were prayers. "These are prayers?"
"Correct, a record of the past twenty years. Master Tomoe wrote them down. With the intention of lord mikage reading them when he returned, but with his absence the followers declined. Tomoe did his best by keeping the shrine clean, but…" I nodded in thought "Do you understand now lord Jackal?"
"Where is Tomoe?" I looked over at them and they stilled.
"Master Tomoe…is in the world over yonder." I felt my eye twitch in annoyance and rubbed my face.
"Yes, yes, but can you lead me there. Can you take me to Tomoe?" They shared a look before nodding and I strapped my combat knife back onto my thigh.
They lead me through a creepy forest while holding lanterns and I couldn't help but feel a little edgy, "In the shadows of grassy fields and in wells…all the dark places in this world serve as entrance ways. Lying between our world and the nether world is the world of the supernatural." I paused.
"Hey you said I have powers right?" They nodded, "Then do you think I can make some fake ears and tail so I don't stand out like a sore thumb." They stared at me like I grew another head.
"lord Jackal you're so smart! These talismans are your power, you're starting, you write what you need and then stick it to what you are trying to do." They gave me five little white sheets and a paint brush. I wrote down wolf figuring that would get me what I need.
I felt a shift of weight and scowled as I saw the black tail and felt the ears twitch on my head, "This…is aggravating." The two clapped at my success and led me further through the forest with their little lanterns.
"This is the world of the yokai kind!" The rows of red lighted sliding doors had me shaking my head in disbelief. As they continued to scream for Tomoe I trailed off on my own and started wandering.
A muffled yell had me peering around the corner and what I saw cause my blood to boil. Six or seven creatures of some kind had Tomoe pinned to the wall and his yukata had moved to where I could see his ribs. I put on a look of detached amusement and strode into the alley, "Oh~ what is going on here I wonder?" They looked at me and the one who held Tomoe's chin backed off. "I was just passing through and decided to see what all the excitement was about."
"Back of Wolf unless you want to end up in the same condition as him." He jerked his hand toward Tomoe and my smile took on a rather feral edge.
"Oh~ you see Tomoe-chan is my friend and I am rather protective of my friends so if you don't let go…I'm afraid I'll have to remove you by force." They exchanged looks as I leaned back and let my hand fall to my knife as I bared my teeth in a snarl. "I would choose wisely."
They backed off and dropped Tomoe to the floor before running off into the dark. "You won't get away with this Wolf!" I flipped him off and stuck my tongue out at him before walking over to Tomoe.
"How are you Tomoe?" I kneeled down next to him and he glared at me. "Not well, ok let's see here…" I picked him up and moved out of the alley while Tomoe hid his face in my neck causing me to sigh.
We got home and I laid Tomoe down on the pallet in my room and went into the kitchen with the intent of making some soup. "lord Jackal! We thought you were killed! Did you find Master Tomoe?"
My eyes darkened and I pulled the soup off the burner and poured some into a bowl before putting on a false smile, "Yeah! He's resting right now so don't disturb him okay?" A this point I was happy that I chose option two because Tomoe needed me more than either of us knew.
Death: Another chapter is out and about ready to be read!
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