Mizuki makes a huge mistake that upsets Nanami, and Tomoe decides to make her feel better.

Nanami had been in a slump for a while, and it was clear to everyone. And everyone knew the unfortunate reason why.

A few weeks ago, Nanami, Tomoe, and Mizuki had gone to visit the Year God. When they did, Nanami had been presented with a picture of her mother. She had not seen what her mother looked like in many, many years. To be able to see her smiling face again for the first time in so long was incredible. It made her realize how much she really missed her.

Unfortunately, Mizuki had been attempting to help clean the shrine one day and had unknowingly thrown out the picture along with everything else.

The only thing Nanami had left of her mother was gone forever.

Mizuki had felt absolutely terrible, and though Nanami tried to assure him that she wasn't upset, the tears leaking from her eyes told him otherwise. He direly wished there was something he could do to make her feel better, but the picture was surely destroyed by now and he couldn't just go ask the Year God for another one.

Tomoe passed by Nanami's room and saw her curled up in a ball on her futon, hugging a pillow close to her chest. She hadn't yelled at him in days. That was when he knew something had been very wrong.

What was even worse was that she also hadn't smiled.

It took all of Tomoe's control to not kill that stupid snake when he found out what he had done. He had done some horrible things in the past, but this really did it.

Nanami and Tomoe hadn't had an argument in a long time. He was afraid that if he gave her a hard time about how she was neglecting her land god duties (ever since she found out the picture was gone, she had not had the motivation to do anything and it was affecting the shrine), she would completely fall apart. Even he could admit that having something so precious ripped away was an awful feeling.

Why did he feel like he had experienced that before…?

"Nanami…" he said quietly as he entered her room.

"Hm?" came her response, muffled by her pillow.

"I have something that might cheer you up."

"Mm-hmm."

"Will you please turn around?"

Nanami released the pillow and flipped over to face Tomoe. The look on her face tugged at his heartstrings. She looked more depressed than he had ever seen her before. Like nothing mattered in her life anymore. Her eyes had reddened from multiple tears. Even now, they were glassy.

"It is not perfect, but…"

Tomoe handed Nanami a piece of paper.

Her eyes widened and she gasped when she saw what was on the paper.

A perfect drawing of her mother.

"…Where did you get this?" she asked softly.

"I went Over Yonder. There is a yokai who is very gifted at mind-reading. She was able to see the picture in my head and then draw it. I know that it is not the same as the original, but I thought—"

He was cut off when Nanami threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I love it."

Tomoe slowly wrapped his arms around her waist. He buried his face into her neck which allowed him to smell her hair. It smelled of strawberries.

The overall aura around her brightened considerably. He could feel her body shaking with more cries, but this time, it was tears of happiness.

Much too soon for him, she pulled away.

"Thank you, Tomoe," she smiled as she wiped her eyes.

After a small pause, Tomoe smiled back at her.

Whatever it takes to see you smile.