The Eye Of The Beholder

This is one of my favorite things in anime so I’m going to share some of those moments with you 

Akatsuki no Yona | Hak x Yona

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne | Chiaki x Maron

Fruits Basket | Kyo x Tohru

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku | Hirotaka x Narumi

Kaichou wa Maid Sama | Usui x Misaki

Shugo Chara! | Ikuto x Amu

Snow White with the Red Hair | Zen x Shirayuki

Special A | Kei x Hikari

With Valentine’s Day coming up, I thought it would be nice to shout out my favorite romance animes! All of the ones I’ve listed below either have great main couples or great plot or are just plain cute so I hope you enjoy.

Blue Spring Ride / Ao Haru Ride

Fruits Basket / Furuba

Golden Time

Horimiya

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War

Kaichou wa Maid-Sama

Kamisama Kiss / Kamisama Hajimemashita 

Ouran High School Host Club

Say I Love You

Snow White With The Red Hair / Akagami no Shirayukihime

Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii / The World Is Still Beautiful

Special A

Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You

pls i want to be ALL OF THEM

Kamisama Kiss

Fruits Basket

Noragami

Bed and Breakfast for Spirits

Spice and Wolf

Inuyasha

Inari konkon

You've got:

Mahiro and Kuro from Servamp

Nanami Momozono and Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss

Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian from Black Butler

Kagome and Inuyasha from Inuyasha

Yugi Amane (or Hanako-Kun) and Yashiro Nene from Toilet-Bound Hanako-Kun

Dean Winchester and Castiel from Supernatural

Edalyn Clawthorne (Aka Owl mom) and Luz Noceda from The Owl House

@kamihaji-week  August 13- Ship Day

“Mikage?” Nanami finds the Land God sitting in the parlor relaxing with a book.  “What is all the racket going on outside?”

“I believe it is Tomoe, Mizuki, and Kirihito discussing something heatedly.”

With fists clenched at her sides, “Eh!  What are they fighting about now?!”  The young woman is ready to storm out there and given them all hell.

“Oh, if I had to guess it has something to do with you my dear,” he smiles and finally looks up from his book.  “You are what those boys usually fight over.”

“Kami, I can’t even think of what it could be over right now.”

“It is the age-old question that haunts many a young man, Nanami chan.  I would leave them be if I were you.”

“Age-old question?”  Exhale, “never mind,” shaking her head, “I can’t do that, they might scare away patrons.  I’ll go tell them to stop or take it elsewhere.”

After Mikage wishes her luck and returns to his reading, Nanami stalks her way out to the front porch. She was sort of used to Tomoe and Mizuki bickering constantly for her attention but now Kirihito too?  Ugh, ever since they had saved him from Izanami in the Underworld he’s been popping up unexpectedly and she had no idea why. They weren’t friends for starters, Tomoe was starting to suspect who he truly was, but simply disliked the guy ever since he found out he had tried to kiss her.  But this was the first time he had shown up at the temple.  ‘Was he trying to sneak in and got caught?  Maybe that’s what the argument was about?’

The shouting grows louder the closer she gets to the door, yes, this needs to be stopped now for she could clearly hear the voices of Tomoe, Mizuki, and Kirihito, ‘Kurama too?’

Sliding the door open with a harsh slam, Nanami launches into a tirade of her own, pumping her fists at them.  “Are you trying to scare people away?!  What are you guys all fighting about now?!”

The three men freeze in mid fight mode, Tomoe with his hands blazing of fox fire, Mizuki suspending a stream of water from the nearby purification basin that quickly disintegrates when he hears Nanami screaming, and Kirihito with a simple tanto dagger clasped in his hand. Kurama who appears to have been trying to break it up also pauses and they all turn to look at her.  He is the first to back off as she storms her way over.

“Kirihito what are you doing here?!  Tomoe, Mizuki, you two really need to stop being at each other’s throats!”

“He started it!” They all point at each other

“I don’t care who started it!  Just stop it!”

She is so furious, that even when Kurama walks over to her she is poised to strike.  He puts his hands up, “Nanami chan, you can quickly settle this fight, all they want to know is which of them do you prefer.”

“Eh?”  She turns and looks at the three men.  “Tomoe and Mizuki fight for my attention, but Kirihito too?”

“Apparently so.”

But Kirihito steps up first, “I do not have any feelings of the sort for you.”

“Liar!” Tomoe and Mizuki cry out.  The fox yokai lighting his hand on fire again, “if that’s the case why they hell do you keep showing up wherever Nanami is?  You must be following her!”

“It is true,” the dark-haired man responds without emotion, “but I simply find her intriguing.”

Now it’s Mizuki who counters, “I don’t believe you either, you’ve tried to kiss her once, and succeeded a second time…”

Nanami stiffens, “how did you find out about that Mizuki, I-I never told anyone that part.”

“You did what!” Tomoe roars and takes a swipe at the man, “you bastard!”  Kurama and Mizuki grabbing his arms to hold him back.

“You should just leave Kirihito,” Kurama advises, “Just get out of here and don’t come back.”

“Tch,” he grins and puts his blade away, “Just remember, you can’t watch her all the time!” then disappears down the hill.  

Kurama exhales and let’s go of Tomoe along with Mizuki, “that’s one down.  He gives me the creeps too, Nanami chan, you sure know how to attract them.”

Startled, her whole body flushes at the insinuation, it’s not like she tries to gain anyone’s attentions, most of the time they seem to just gravitate to her or wants something from her and it’s frustrating.  At one point she had lumped Kurama into that pile but lately his attentions have changed.

With the girl a bit flustered now, “Nanami chan,” Mizuki takes the opportunity to get closer to her, “will you just tell Tomoe you like me better, so he’ll leave me alone.”

But Tomoe pulls her away from the graspy little snake, “Don’t touch her!” he growls, ears pinned back, “you’re just as bad as Kirihito!  First you trick her into the marriage binding then kissed Nanami when she was unconscious to force the familiar spell!  She’s just too nice to kick you out of here!”

Mizuki crosses his arms and huffs, “that is because I do love her…”

“You had barely known her!  You are just a sad, lonely, pathetic, irritating little snake!”

“Tomoe, you don’t have to pick on him either!” Nanami pulls out of his grap, but when Mizuki tries to grab her arm instead she steps away from them both.  “You two are both aggravating.”

Kurama who stood back during the latest fireworks, “Nanami, do you prefer Tomoe or Mizuki, if you just tell them it may stop the fighting.”

“I doubt it,” she rolls her eyes.

“No…” Mizuki cries out

“…Tell us the answer!” Tomoe finishes the retort and the two men look at her expectantly.

“I-I…” she puts up her hands, her face is heating up and red blotches are popping up on her cheeks, “t-this is not fair to make me say it!”

“So, you do like one of them, don’t you, Nanami chan?”  Kurama teases the girl, “it’s pretty obvious to me, I mean I see it all the time being surrounded by adoring fans.”  He holds both her arms gently, forcing her to face them.  “Look at the poor saps, they deserve to know how you feel.”

“But,” head dropping, “I don’t want to hurt one of their feelings…”  

“It’s me!” Tomoe points at Mizuki, pushing his finger into the man’s chest.

“No way, Nanami chan likes me better!” returning the gesture.

“You are dreaming snake boy, Nanami likes me more than you!”

“I don’t think so, you perverted kitsune!”

Tomoe grabs Mizuki’s yukata, “who you callin’ a pervert!”

“Okay, how about drunkard!”

“Why you little!  Nanami…  Eh,” Tomoe look to where she was just standing, “where did Nanami and Kurama go?”

“See you scared her off!”  Mizuki pushes away, huffing and running off to search for them.  “Nanami chan?!”

From a distance, high in the sky, but where they can still watch the two guys as they searched the shrine grounds, Kurama had whisked them away by her request.  “You know, eventually you should just tell Tomoe you love him.”

“I will,” she exhales, “but when I’m ready.”

He laughs, “this is why I don’t want to fall in love, it’s so much work!”

“Oh please, I know you are Ami are getting closer too!”

“I am n…  Fine, then let’s just keep these secrets between us.”

@kamihaji-week August 14 Family Day

It didn’t matter that Tomoe and Nanami were now living in the human world, going about their day to day life as a normal husband and wife, because Mikage Shrine and all those affiliated with that world would forever be their surrogate family.  Of course, it wasn’t normal for humans to be able to see that world, but thanks to their friends who made it possible, the shrine was still the one place they both could return to when the need arose.

And today was such a day. Nanami had delivered a healthy baby girl that they named Keiko, and they wanted their friends to meet her and be a part of her life from the start.  So, they bundle the infant up in a carry sling nestled tightly against Nanami’s chest and head over to the shrine along with their friends Kurama and Ami.

“Good Morning!” Nanami is the first to announce their presence.  

Onikiri and Kotetsu are the first to rush out to greet the group.  “Tomoe!  Nanami! It had been too long since your last visit!”  

“Yes, it has,” she smiles, “but I have been busy with this little one.”

Now Mizuki comes flying through the door, “Nanami!”  but when he sees she is holding a child stops before he could hug her.  Gazing down at the bundle, “Is that her?”  

“This is our daughter Keiko,” unwrapping the blanket just enough for them to see the baby’s face. She looks around, “but where is Mikage? I had hoped he’d be here too.”

“He’ll be here in a minute,” offers Onikiri, “he’s just finishing up answering a few wishes that came in.”

“How is Mikage,” Tomoe asks the two shrine spirits, “is he well?”

Kotetsu, “Oh very much so, master Tomoe, but he does miss you.”

Onikiri, “Come please,” motioning towards a sitting room, “everyone, please relax in here while we grab a few refreshments.”

After settling down in the parlor, the conversations are light as they wait for Mikage himself to come in.  Mizuki chooses to sit beside Nanami, to Tomoe’s irritation, but as long as the snake familiar doesn’t touch her, the former kitsune holds his tongue and so far, he seems genuinely interested in the baby and not just Nanami.  The former rival’s infatuations with his wife had slowed down considerably in the two years since they had left the shrine, but old prejudices still linger.

“Good morning Nanami, Tomoe,” Mikage smiles as he enters the room and sits down, “Kurama, Ami, it is nice to see you again as well.  Please forgive my tardiness.”

“It’s no trouble,” Tomoe smiles, happy to see his mentor and benefactor looking stress free.  “Kotetsu and Onikiri mentioned you had some wishes to take care of, is the shrine doing well?”

“Very much so, we may not be as busy as the larger shrines, but because of all of Nanami’s past influence in revitalizing this place, we have a steady trickle of new parishioners.” Turning to her now, “how is motherhood Nanami?  Please tell me her name and how she is doing.”

“This is Keiko,” she removes the child from the sling to cradle the infant in her arms to show Mikage, “and she is a wonderful child, very quiet and not fussy at all.”

“She’s adorable, and I see she has inherited Tomoe’s white hair.”

“Mmhmm,” Nanami beams, “she’s sleeping so you can’t see it, but her eye color is turning violet like his too.”

“Even if she has his coloring,” Mizuki interjects, “she seems to also have your features.”

Nanami laughs, “it’s a little too early to be certain of that.”

Ami, “I think she does look like you Nanami, and regardless, with your two gene’s she’s bound to grow up to be beautiful.”

“I think you two could produce some adorable children too,” Nanami winks at her friends.

“Speaking of which,” Mizuki turns to Kurama and Ami, “how is your relationship considering you are from different worlds as well?”

Ami blushes a little, “it really didn’t bother me when he explained it all,” squeezing his hand, “Kurama is still the same Kurama I fell for regardless that he is a Tengu yokai. If anything, that makes him even more special.”

“She keeps me grounded,” he raises her hand and kisses the back of it with a smile, “especially with my hectic schedule.”

Mikage, “Young love is always such a beautiful sight to behold.  When this first started I had simply had hopes to save Tomoe, but I never dreamed it would turn out like this.  Now he has a family of his own, friends in the human world, I am the one who is truly blessed to have been a part of this.”

“No, Mikage, we are the ones who are blessed.” Tomoe speaks up.  “If you hadn’t saved me and shown me that I could be a better person, I wouldn’t have found my happiness.”

“Yes,” Nanami adds, “and if you hadn’t helped me when I was abandoned by my father, I never would have met Tomoe or gained a new family in all of you.”

“I must disagree,” he rejects their praises but continues to smile, “this is because of you my dear Nanami, all I did was start the chain of events that you yourself had created when you went back in time.  You had found the way to save Tomoe when I couldn’t.  You influenced Kurama’s changes for the better along with so many others.”

“You are too kind Mikage,” Nanami still insists, but she is glowing from the comments.  

Keiko begins to stir in Nanami’s arms, and Tomoe reaches out to take her from his wife to give her a break, cooing at the child and rocking her gently to put her back to sleep.  The smile on his mentor’s face grows even fonder from seeing the once deemed dangerous and no good yokai was now gentle and truly happy in his role as a husband and father.  Fate may have played a role in his meeting Tomoe, but it was in this moment that Mikage could truly thank it for allowing him to have played a part.

Conversations amongst the parties continue through a lunch that Mizuki and the other shrine spirits prepare but with the afternoon coming to an end, the young family wish to leave before the air grows colder in the evening.  

“Please visit!” Mizuki and the shrine spirits beseech the group of friends.  “We miss you guys.”

“Remember,” Mikage speaks up, “you will always be welcome at this shrine, and if at any point you’d like to come back, the door is open.”

“Thank you,” they all bow to the God.  

“We will visit as often as we can,” Nanami addressing the God, “I do wish to make sure Keiko knows you all.”

@kamihaji-week August 15 AU Day

“I am 17!” a frustrated Keiko screams at her mother.  “You can’t control me forever!”

But Nanami simply narrows her eyes and responds with a clenched jaw, “Yes, 17, not 18, you are not an adult Keiko and as long as we are still responsible for you, you are damn well going to follow our rules!”  

“Dad?!” turning to her father, “you know I was perfectly fine, right?!  Please tell mom she’s making a big deal over nothing.”

“Oh, no,” holding up his hands, Tomoe sighs, “While she may be overreacting a little, your mother is right Keiko, until you are an adult we cannot simply have you running around in the middle of the night, regardless if you were with Otohiko.”

“I am not overreacting!”

“Nanami, you are a little. Compared to my past self, Keiko is a very good girl, and you were no less adventurous in yours,” he chuckles, “can we be so surprised that she turned out this way?”

“No,” exhale, “I guess not,” turning back to her daughter, “but that doesn’t mean it was okay.  Even in their world, things can grow dangerous in an instant and you don’t have any magic to use against an attacker.”

“You know, neither of you have ever told me why you gave up that part of yourselves.”  She waves her hand before they can respond.  “Dad, I understand that if you were a yokai and mom was human you’d have to watch her grow old and die, and the whole back story with Yukiji, but why didn’t mom become a yokai?  Uncle Otohiko was telling me that you could have chosen that path instead.”

“The only one with the power to grant that request is Ookuninushi and I doubt he would have,” Nanami answers her daughter, “it’s not like I was close to him, and he didn’t well care much for your father.”

“I did wonder about it so the last time Uncle Otohiko took me to Uncle Ookuninushi’s place I asked him myself, and he said he would have if you’d had asked, but he wasn’t going to simply offer it.”

Tomoe cocks his head, and stares at his daughter, something wasn’t sitting right with him.  “You asked about us, or did you ask for yourself?”

“What!?” Keiko crosses her arms, “I asked for you and…”

“Don’t bother lying to me little girl, I may be human now, but I have lived for over 600 years and I can read people better than most.”

“Okay fine!  I did ask if I could be a fox yokai like you were after I saw an old painting of you.”

Nanami, “Why would you want that?”

“Because I look so much like dad, and I thought if he was a very handsome kitsune, I could be a beautiful one too!  

“Oh Keiko,” her mother starts to laugh, “you are already such a beautiful girl, it doesn’t matter if you were human or yokai, that will never change.”

“But I must say, I am flattered that you’d want to be like me,” Tomoe hugs his daughter, “and you would look cute as one, but that’s still not the truth is it?  It’s because you like Kurama’s son and he is yokai.”

Keiko huffs and turns away, “I don’t know what you are talking about,” though clearly by the tinge of pink on her cheeks he was right.  

Tomoe then turns to his wife, “Maybe we should just tell her what Mikage asked you recently.”

“Tell me what?” Keiko looks expectantly at her parents, “is it something good?”

“Well,” Nanami looks to her husband furtively before addressing their daughter.  “Now that you are going to be of age soon, Mikage asked if we would come back to the shrine… permanently.”

“As a human land god again?”

“No, to become a real God,” Tomoe answers for his wife, “but that would also mean I would probably return to my original state.”

“What about me?!”

“Well, we would ask if they would grant your request as well.”

“That would be so cool! I could go hang out with Aunty Himemiko in Tatara Numa!  Wait, why would they ask this of you?”

“According to Mikage, there have been more and more yokai human relationships popping up and they feel that we would be best suited in dealing with them.”

“Despite the fact it was strictly forbidden before?”

“Yes, because it was your mother that originally broke those rules when she helped Aunty Himemiko and Uncle Kotarou.”

“So, because Mikage shrine is a marriage shrine, and while he will still be there, they wish for me to come up with a better system and rules regarding the relationships; we will be co-deities in the area of marriage I guess you could say.”

“That’s really amazing that they’ve asked that of you mom!”

“Of course, it depends if Ookuninushi agrees to it, he will be making his decision by the end of the year.”

“Have you thought of how you would help these couples out?”

“There is another divine tool, like the lucky mallet called the Shinjitsu cup that when you drink from it, and if your desire is both true and without ill intent it will grant your wish. They will give that to me to use as part of the marriage ceremony.”

“And if their intent is to become a yokai, that’s what you’ll become?”

“Yes, though I haven’t tried it out yet.”

“We would be the first to test it out,” adds her father.

“Why hadn’t this tool been brought to light sooner?”

“It may only grant the wish of one that is truthful, however they didn’t not want it to be used lightly and so it had been hidden away down in Yomi.”

“Aren’t you happy, you may be able spend even more time with Hiroto?” Nanami teases her daughter.

“Mom!”  Keiko storms away to her room, “not funny!”

Tomoe chuckles and pulls Nanami close to kiss her forehead, “looks like Kurama and I will need to have a conversation.”

“Be nice, Hiroto is a good boy.”

Yeah I’m talking about you two.