And We Set Forth To Our New Daily Lives Part 4

MIKOTO

"Why are we here in the Red Light District?!", Nanami curiously asked.

"We're very sorry Nanami-sama", the two apologized together. "but Sister Mizutama is Tomoe-dono's friend for a long time that's why we think he's here", they explained.

"Tomoe is here.....?"

"Come on Nanami, let's just go peek inside", I convinced her and we went on looking inside.

The two spirits hurriedly went ahead of us and started shouting the stupid yokai fox's name, "Tomoe-dono! Tomoe-dono, are you here?

"You're too loud Kotetsu, Onikiri. What do you want with me?", we heard a reply from a room a few steps away from us.

"Tomoe-dono, so this is where you are!", the two chorused excitedly as they slide wide open the shoji door and entered.

Nanami and I looked at each other and hurriedly followed them also. "Wha!! Tomoe-dono, how pitiful! You're a familiar, and yet you've stooped to drinking while the sun is still high." When we heard their commotion before we reach the door, Nanami pulled me back before I managed to enter the room.

"Let's just wait him here. I don't want to enter such room", she blushed as she whispered to me and I agreed. I nod and decided to just take a peek while we hid behind the door.

The commotion inside continued.

"Please Tomoe-dono, change your clothes immediately!"

"You girls can get out now."

"What? I can't believe these two. You're just will-o'-wisps how dare you to get cheeky!"

The two hidama onibi(1) keep nagging on the arrogant kitsune(2) to stop drinking sake(3) and flirting with the two beautiful young tanuki(4) ladies who accompany him. But the two tanuki ladies got pissed and started assaulting the onibi children.

ﾊ ﾊ "Exactly ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ ", Tomoe didn't dare to stop them and just watched.

"Nanami!", I called the attention of my friend beside me. I saw her face dimmed and quietly stood up with her clutching fists.

I, myself is angry. I can't bear to just keep watching our two little friends getting hurt but Nanami stopped me and hold me on my shoulder, telling me to wait a little bit.

"Tomoe-dono, come back to the temple." "Tomoe-dono, you still won't accept Nanami-sama as your master?" "Don't you care if the temple breaks down?", the fire spirit children still tried to convince him to no avail.

"I don't care if it crumbles down or whatever", he simply responded. "I don't care. In fact, I'm relieved I don't need to be a familiar anymore."

Nanami's grip slide off and my body started to move on its own to push the harlots away from our little spirit friends

Surprised, the ladies run back to Tomoe and hid behind him like pitiful kittens.

"You're totally a nasty guy, aren't you?" I said to Tomoe who was also startled by my sudden intrusion.

        ﾊ _ ﾊ !!

        (⊙_⊙) ╮( ˘ ､ ˘ )╭

"Mi-Mikoto! "Oh, just

Why are accompanying

you here?!", Nanami"

    ↑   ↑

Tomoe Mikoto

Still, in confusion, Kotetsu and Onikiri are the ones who explained to him, "Tomoe-dono, Nanami-sama said she wanted to talk with you....so she's currently here."

"What?!" Tomoe's eyes widened in shock to see Nanami standing at the doorstep

"You have a home to go back to, and that's how you treat the temple? Doesn't it mean anything to you?", she infuriatingly shouted at him before bidding goodbye and walked out, slamming the door behind her.

"Nanami-sama!", the shrine spirits called Nanami and we intended to follow her but Tomoe stopped us for his questionings.

"Wait, Nanami?" I hurriedly stood up and opened the door while the three still continued their arguments..

ﾊ _ ﾊ "Why did you take her here!? ('皿'＃) ".

"Nanami-sama insisted", It is Onikiri who replied him.

"Who in their right mind would bring humans here?!" Then he glances at me with a disgusted look. "Not only that, but you even brought her friend along!"

Hey, did you know those words kinda hurts?

"But Nanami-sama isn't a normal human, she's our land deity", Kotetsu explained.

"That's even worse!", he refuted

"This isn't the time to argue. Nanami completely left already. We need to follow her fast or else she'll be in trouble!", I worriedly stopped them before running away to follow Nanami.

The two spirits followed me quickly and even outran me outside of the red house. Not knowing what direction everyone went, I tried to call her and even the shrine spirit's name.

"Nanami? Onikiri? Kotetsu? Where are you?", but no one responded. I even just got scared that I'm just attracting other monsters around. If I started to walk without the lamp we used earlier, I'll just lose my way because of the fogs.

Thinking the scene in the anime where Nanami encountered the three monsters, I can't stop trembling when I worry if our two fire-spirit friends saved her in time or not.

"Please Nanami, be safe", I prayed inside my mind.

" I wonder what's going on already. This isn't as easy as how I watched it", I bitterly told myself as I lean on the walls of the building beside me. Maybe I won't get lost if I just followed the walls of these buildings.

Just then I heard a deep voice coming from the window at my side, "Hey.... stop by here..."

"Huh?" Before I can react, multiple hands already came out and grab me on my arms and wrists.

" ＼(ᗒロᗕ )ﾉ AHHHH!", I screamed. As I was thinking it's already my end, someone else gently pushed me away and hit the hands that pulled me.

"Ittaa..", I groaned I pain when I fall down hard on my bottom. It also seems like I slightly hurt my right ankle.

"Someone like you is a free feast to these guys. Go back to where humans should be", said a familiar young man's voice. When I opened my eyes, it's no other than Tomoe.

*teary eyes* ﾊ __ ﾊ (；⌣̀_⌣́) ｡ﾟ(｡ﾉωヽ｡)ﾟ｡ "Where's Nanami?" "I don't know" ↑ ↑ Tomoe Mikoto

He reached out his hand to me, "Stand up, I'll take you back"

I averted my eyes in another direction. Realizing that I don't want to accept his hand, he roughly pulled me back on my feet. "I said let's go". He said with a hint of annoyance.

I tried to hold back my tears and slapped this idiot fox yokai who stands in front of me. "H-how about you? Aren't you the one w-who should go home? Isn't that shrine y-your precious home?"

Nanami made an effort to go here just to give him back his home and apologize even though we've already given her warnings about the danger of this place. And yet, this doofus can't even understand it.

"Wha-? Huh?!" Tomoe snarled at me. "Someone like you who can't even protect herself dares to act so highly? You can speak all you want with your big mouth while you still can because if I leave you and Nanami alone, you'll get eaten by monsters in no time!"

"You're the one who's egoistic!" I argued back with tear teary eyes. "And now, Nanami might be in big trouble right now"

He stood there silently for a moment before he replied, "Nanami is just a powerless girl with the Land deity's power. Figuratively speaking, she's like a duck sitting inside a pot and given with onions and leeks then told to cook itself. But I don't care. It's not my business anymore!", then he made an evil laugh which makes me more irritated. But I suddenly thought of a good idea.

"Or could it be your way of escaping because the great and strong Tomoe doesn't have the confidence to protect a single weak human girl?" I said while drying my eyes. I acted as innocent as I can. "I'm a bit disappointed. Mikage-sama said this Tomoe-sama is a very dependable person, I didn't realize it earlier, Tomoe-sama is actually a scaredy-cat who just runs away. I'll go look for Nanami now to say it" I didn't hold back in taunting him since a man's weakness is his own pride.

ﾊ _ ﾊ (‡▼益▼) 〣(((＞＜)))〣 "YOU! DO YOU "EEEEKKK!!" THINK YOU CAN FOOL ME?!!" ↑ ↑ Tomoe Mikoto

So it's not effective??

"I'm not like that old Mikage", he furiously said as he grabs me and carried me on his shoulder like a piece of useless baggage.

"EHH?! Wha-what are you doing? Put me down!"

"SHUT UP!" then he started jumping over the buildings. "WHAAA! SO HIGH! SO HIGH!" I screamed while shutting my eyes tightly and clutching onto Tomoe's clothes to assure that I won't fall down.

"QUIET WOMAN! YOU'RE TOO LOUD! FOCUS ON LOOKING FOR NANAMI!" Tomoe angrily reminded me.

I slowly opened my eyes and immediately saw Nanami in front of three ugly monsters, uglier and grosser than what the anime portraits them.

"T-Tomoe! THERE!", I pointed him to the scene.

Tomoe accelerated his speed to go down as much as he can. I know deep inside him, Tomoe is really protecting his pride now and don't want to be brandished as someone who is expected to protect the new Land deity of Mikage shrine, failed to do so, even though he still doesn't acknowledge Nanami as his new master.

Then as the monsters are about to grab Nanami, they fought on each other which among them should have the first bite. I got nervous for her but then just right in time, I saw Kotetsu and Onikiri in their will-o-wisp form rushed to aid Nanami in her escape.

I sighed in relief. I'm glad they're not late.

Tomoe and I landed in a narrow street intersecting the main road where Nanami ran away from the monsters. Disregarding that I am a mere human, he just dropped me the second his feet touched the ground. "Hurry up and take Nanami back and don't ever come back. I don't even care if she cries and clings to me", he said as he walks away and confronted the monsters.

"I should hurry 'coz things will be really messy after just a few seconds", I thought while I start to ran away and didn't waste time.

If you're really curious what happened, well, they just turned into meat chunks by Tomoe.

Author's Note:

Hi everyone~! I think I'm enjoying writing with these emoticons, even though it's a bit tiring and time-consuming....hehehe.. but I think it's still worth the efforts!

hidama onibi(1) - will-o-wisp

kitsune(2)- demon fox

sake(3)- rice wine

tanuki(4) - demon raccoon

Your feedback and opinions are warmly welcome here~