Editing Takahashi Tomi (section)

===Tomi's previous story arc===

While there are some in his hometown who know of the Nekojin, there are few who doubt that strange things happen around them. Especially after the last year. In one of the darkest hours of his family, one of their own in a fit of jealous rage made a pact with The Dark Realms. While she soon regretted doing so she could not face admitting what she had done. With their hold on her they turned her into a spy and saboteur. As attacks on the temples and community increased Tomi's family first tried to keep him uninvolved, making him promise to come straight home from school and stay at home rather than going out anywhere (especially since his lack of close friends meant he usually wandered alone when he went out).

But when a pair of nightmare beasts attacked the neighbors house he knew he couldn't just hide and do nothing. The neighbors knew nothing of the battles that were taking place for control of the valley, being normal humans without magic or mystic knowledge. Shifting completely into Neko form Tomi leapt out his bedroom window and charged past the beasts into the house. While dodging thrown objects from the family, who initially thought he must be one of the monsters, he managed to raise a shield around most of the house and then put seals on the doors and walls of the room they were in. Fortunately due to the power being out they did not connect the strange cat-beast that saved them with the shy boy next door.

After this his family reluctantly allowed him to take part in the defense of the community, but insisted on keeping him in the back of the fight. He helped maintain the wards on the temples, and in the final battle was one of six who spent the night pouring their strength into keeping the wards strong around the gateway the creatures wanted to unseal and open. A gate that if opened would provide the Dark Realms with an opening directly into the mortal world, a passageway through which their armies could march freely.

But for the first and final battle much of this hidden war passed without excitement for him. In the first he acted without thinking, only later realizing the danger he put himself in. The final battle required him to put forward his best efforts as the enemy threw everything they had at the gate now that they knew its location in the mortal world. Worst came in the final minutes, when his cousin's treason was revealed. Harsh words passed between her and her family, words that could never be taken back. Then, with no hope of restoring her place in the family or gaining the love of the man she was drawn too, his cousin found herself strangely free to act. In one last desperate bid to atone she threw herself at the last of the enemy's Wizard-Priests, disrupting his attack on the gate. As one of the last circle keeping the gate shielded Tomi had a front row seat for her death, and a view of what powerful dimensional magics can do when they feed back on their casters. It took only seconds, but then and in his nightmares it seemed like hours that felt like minutes (somehow long and yet terribly rushed).

In that battle he saw violent death for the first time, his family having managed to shelter him from it until then. Suddenly he realized just what might happen if he failed in the task that he'd been given in his dreams. He trusts in his skill at protective and healing magics, but now worries about his poor skill in actually attacking an enemy. Terrified that he will one day again find himself safe behind a shield, watching, helpless as another dies.