~Tomoe X Reader: Book One~

Tomoe bristled as he sensed the mark of the land god, dropping the handle of the broom he had been using to sweep the shrine in surprise.
The broom handle bounced twice from the force of its fall, and Tomoe gritted his teeth, a thick aura of black flaring up around him.

Mikage... That idiot... He better have a good explanation for doing this, leaving me for twenty years with nothing but a rundown shrine and two annoying spirits...

Said spirits sensed it as well, and Tomoe heard the two high pitched voices exclaim "Mr. Mikage!" In unison from the room over.

Still seething with rage, Tomoe calmly picked up his fan from the kitchen's wooden countertop and headed towards the door of the shrine, ears flattened against his head, when the frantic voice of Onikiri, the male shrine spirit, called out from the hall.

"Master Tomoe!"

Tomoe hurried his pace, then paused in the doorframe as he saw what the two shrine spirits were yelling about.

His eyes widened a bit and he made a small noise of shock, then forced himself calm.

Out on the patio area of the shrine,
A slight bit of blood dripping down onto the wooden planks, was a human girl, bearing the Mikage's land god marking on her forehead.

She was curled on her side, (h/c) strands of hair framing her unconsious face, dark-lashed eyes squeezed shut. She wore common clothes for a human, a (f/c) t-shirt, black jacket hoodie, and jeans, but the bottom half of her shirt had been ripped away, carefully wrapped bandages on her midsection already soaking through.

A scrap of parchment with Mikage's familiar messy handwriting caught Tomoe's eye.

He stepped towards the girl, the female shrine spirit Kotetsu moving to the side, and then Tomoe knelt down next to the girl and picked up the paper.
He read it, gritted his teeth, and shoved the note into the folds of his kimono.

A shadow fell over Tomoe's eyes, and he gently picked up the girl's small body, standing up and retreating into the shrine.

"Master Tomoe!" Onikiri called, hovering as he hurried after. "What's going on?"

Tomoe kept his gaze ahead, closing his eyes in irritation.

"I don't know why Mikage wants me to take care of her, or why a human bears the mark of a land god..."

Tomoe gritted his teeth again, an image of Mikage's smiling, idiotic face being pulled up in his mind.

"Damn Mikage... The shrine isn't an orphanage, you know..." He muttered.