Chapter 2: Arisu's Responsibilities as Land God

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Arisu woke up to her fluffy tail tickling her nose. She sat up in bed and stretched, yawning. She had some dream. She dreamt that she became a Land God and she had to stay at a creepy rundown shrine. There were these two little shrine spirits and a jerk of a fox yokai named Tomoe. Tomoe left the shrine after she punched him and they argued. 'How weird. Thank goodness that it was just a dream...' Arisu thought, relieved.
"Good morning, Lady Arisu!" two voices greeted her cheerfully. Arisu slowly looked at the sources of the greeting to see Onikiri and Kotetsu. Oh. So it wasn't a dream after all. Arisu face palmed and flopped on her back on the bed. "Damn..." she groaned. "Good morning. Onikiri, Kotetsu." Arisu said curtly after she finally sat up, slightly nodding her head at the two willow the wisps.
"Here is your morning meal!" Onikiri said, presenting her with an omelet, white rice, a pair of chopsticks, and a cup of lemon honey tea on a tray. Arisu accepted the food gratefully. She clapped her hands together and bowed. "Thank you for the meal." Arisu said formally. "No need to be so formal with us, Lady Arisu." Kotetsu informed her.
Arisu nodded her head stiffly and ate the meal slowly, chewing thoughtfully. It was pretty good. Soon she finished. "Thank you. It was great." Arisu handed the tray with the dishes on it to Kotetsu. He took it and it vanished from his hands. "It was my pleasure to prepare it for you, Lady Arisu." Onikiri responded, obviously pleased.
"I need to get dressed." Arisu announced. "Yes, Lady Arisu. We will wait in the hallway for you." Kotetsu replied. The pair of spirits disappeared from the room. Arisu located her duffel bag and looked through it. She selected a pair of capris, a plain light blue shirt, a pair of white socks, plain silver heart shaped earrings, and a darker blue scarf.
She zipped up her duffel bag and replaced it in its previous place. Then she undressed. After she was dressed, she put the silver earrings in. Arisu didn't even bother putting on a hat; she wasn't going anywhere, so it didn't matter if her ears and tail were showing. Then she exited the room.
"We must start work quickly, Lady Arisu!" Onikiri and Kotetsu said in unison. Arisu raised an eyebrow. "Work?" she asked. "Your responsibilities as a Land God." Kotetsu replied. Until sunset, Onikiri and Kotetsu had run Arisu ragged cleaning the entire shrine. Arisu was now asleep in the garden with her long tail wrapped around her sleeping form.
Suddenly, Tomoe appeared out of nowhere and looked at Arisu sleeping. "Tomoe..." she murmured. Tomoe looked at her curiously. Was she dreaming about him? "...You jackass..." Arisu finished in her sleep. "She's supposed to be tending the shrine and she falls asleep? I knew she couldn't handle it," he kicked her, "Hey, you! Wake up!"
Arisu jerked awake and sat up, glaring daggers at the silver haired fox yokai. "What do you want? I thought you didn't care about the shrine." Arisu growled. "And what about you? I thought nobody could pay you to take care of it." Tomoe shot back calmly. "You can't even keep up with the work. Why don't you go back home if you can't handle being a god?" he sneered. Arisu looked away and her eyes clouded. "I don't have a home to go back to. I was abandoned by my father." she replied.
Tomoe looked thoughtful for a few moments. Then he said, "Not my problem!" And vanished. "What the hell was that about?" Arisu muttered. She was exhausted from cleaning the entire Mikage Shrine. "Lady Arisu!" Onikiri's voice called from behind her. Arisu jumped and her tail fluffed out. "Don't do that!" she hissed.
"Sorry, Lady Arisu! It's time for your next task as Land God!" Onikiri apologized. Arisu groaned and followed her into the shrine. Kotetsu and Onikiri plopped a huge pile of notebooks in front of Arisu. "What the hell is all of this?" Arisu asked. An old woman came up to the shrine and prayed. 'Oh god of this shrine, please let my daughter give birth to a healthy child.'
"I can hear her thoughts..." Arisu murmured. "Yes. This is one of the powers of a Land God. You hear the prayers of the shrine's visitors and as the Land God it is your job to do everything you can to make their prayers come true." Kotetsu explained. Arisu grabbed a notebook and opened it. "What are these?" she asked quietly. "These are the prayers of our shrine's visitors for the last twenty years. Master Tomoe has written down every one of them so they were ready for Lord Mikage's return." Onikiri responded.
'He writes neatly. I can't believe that jerk would do something like this...' Arisu thought as she leafed through the first notebook. Another visitor showed up to the shrine and prayed. 'God of this shrine, please let me find true love...' he thought then left. Arisu looked thoughtful. 'Tomoe, even though he's a jackass, actually cared for this shrine a lot... He kept it in great condition and worked so hard...' Arisu's thoughts trailed off.
"So, do you understand, Lady Arisu?" Kotetsu asked hopefully. "I understand. I'm not cut out to be a Land God." Arisu murmured. Onikiri and Kotetsu fell on their faces. "But I do want to see Tomoe. Can you take me to him?" Arisu asked. "Um... Master Tomoe is in the World Over Yonder..." they replied.

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