Hello, from here on out it'll be the revised version, although i may replace all three chapters at once so that people won't get confused [if i have the time to finish it by the week] , well just a heads up though.

Also just for less confusion

Day Rikuo: Rikuo

Night Rikuo: Yoru

Natsume was on the way home to the Fujiwara Residence after school, arguing with Nyanko-sensei again since he would not stop begging Natsume to detour and to get some dango when an apple rolled towards them. Confused, Natsume picked up the apple in confusion as to where it came from since there were no apple trees in their neighbourhood, while Nyanko-sensei on the other hand was asking Natsume to pass it over for him to eat.

"Sensei, you can't eat this, it definitely came from someone's groceries! Not to mention that it's dirty, you'll get sick!"

Natsume scolded the beckoning cat which tried to reach for the apple regardless of the scolding he received. Although, he did stop when a feminine voice was heard calling out to them as he went back to acting like a regular cat hanging off Natsume's shoulder.

Natsume looked up to the voice to see that a young woman with auburn hair, the top half which was pinned up had called out to them, as she approached her hands full with groceries that looked close to overflowing. Jogging to catch up to her to save her the trouble.

"So sorry about that, thank you for picking it up for me!"

The lady said as he placed the apple back into her bag, Natsume had then offered to help her with her groceries. However, she declined stating that she was from the next town so she would not want to bother him since the sun was starting to set and she did not want him to worry his family. Turning on her heels, she bid Natsume farewell as she went back the direction she came by leaving Natsume and Nyanko-sensei watching her leave before turning and heading back to the Fujiwara residence.

- 030p -

As Wakana was walking back to the Nura residence, she thought about the brunette that she had met, he had looked really familiar but she could not place where she had seen him before realising, that he looked akin to her mother Natsume Reiko, her mother who had passed away young not long after her sister had reached elementary, her mother who she had inherited the sight from. When she was younger, many who lived in their town pitied her and her sister since they thought of Reiko as a lunatic, as she carried a bat covered in talismans around swinging them in thin air.

However, Wakana and her sister who had the sight knew otherwise, they were able to see what their mother was able to see, see what their mother actually fought against and experience the world of youkai as many youkai would come to their home to find Reiko either because they were bored, or they had wanted to play again. On other days, their mother would come back with groceries in hand while boasting about having added a new name to the book of friends showing to them the new name and telling them what she had done to acquire the name. Many at times, Reiko would come back without any injuries or with some scratches here and there but regardless, she would act as if nothing was wrong as she waved off her children's worries.

Wakana paused thinking of her sister and the book of friends, since it was in her position when they were separated into different foster homes when their mother passed, initially Wakana did not want to let her sister take the book of friends since she was worried for what would happen to her if the youkai's were to turn hostile. Since, why would the youkai want their names to be kept from them even though the master of the book was dead and many had not seen their master after their names had been taken, leaving them unaware of Reiko's death and thought to be forgotten by her. However, her sister simply reassured her and took the book to her new foster home, reassuring that the youkai would not harm her since she was Reiko's daughter furthermore, many of the youkai treasured Reiko despite fearing her, so she believed that the youkai's whose names were in the book of friends would not harm her if they came to reclaim their name.

Wakana was cut from her musings when she heard her son call out to her, coming to greet her at the Nura household gate, helping to lift the weight of some of the groceries in her arms, he questioned if she was alright since she looked quite dazed. She replied she was fine as they walked further into the nura household as the youkai that passed by them greeted them.

As Rikuo walked in front of her, she wondered what happened to her sister, the last she had heard of her was of the news that she had given birth to a healthy baby boy, although, Wakana did not have the time to reply to her since she was dealing with the haunting at her foster families home, resulting to the meeting of Rihan, then the birth of Rikuo to the death of her loved one. Wakana's expression turned solemn remembering her husband's death and after that with all the incidents that kept happening one after another, she had unfortunately forgot about her sisters news and years had passed without letters being exchanged which Wakana thought to be odd, since her sister would send her one every month even though Wakana may not have been able to respond.

Wakana had paused in what she was doing when she wondered if something could have possibly happened, seeing the pause

"Mother? Are you feeling alright?"

Wakana had looked up towards Rikuo who seemed to be worried, shaking her head she asked if he could help to keep the rest as she had something to do. Rikuo nodded towards her and she took her leave, heading to her room to write a letter to her sister.

A few days later, after Wakana had asked karasu tengu to find and send the letter to her sister, the crow youkai had returned, her letter in hand as he delivered the news that her sister and her spouse had passed away in an unfortunate accident. When Wakana heard the news, she mourned for her sister and spouse, for their life had been taken away from them and their child too soon, she wondered what had happened to them for them to depart early much like their mother. But, how could she have not known of her sisters death? Surely they should have contacted her. However, while she mourned there was still something more important that she had to take care of, her nephew, was he alright? Did he have the sight? Is he in a good home? All the questions ran through her mind as she asked karasu about the son

Thankfully, the boy, Natsume Takashi, she learned was doing well, he was currently living with the Fujiwara family in the small town of Yatsuhara, the town that she had visited a few days ago, her mother's childhood town now that she had realised. The gears in her head turned, could the boy that she had met been….? It could have been possible seeing as he looked almost exactly like his grandmother. What about the book of friends then? Could it be with her nephew? If so, was he alright? If Takashi indeed had the sight then it could be dangerous for him, since many youkai had given their names up and it's been decades since they were last called, Wakana's sister had no problems with youkai for as far as she knew, since they had lived close to the city where less youkai resided so she wasn't as concerned.

However, Takashi currently stays in the heart of the place where majority of the youkai which had given their name resided. Wakana wasn't sure if any of the youkai tried to attack her nephew thinking that it was her mother, this scared her, while he may be healthy and well in the eyes of humans, what youkai injuries could he be hiding, thanking Karasu Tengu as he left the room, Rikuo had opened the shoji not long after Karasu left.

Rikuo was worried about his mother, he had overheard the news from Karasu Tengu before he had taken flight again, since he had asked the Tengu if his mother was fine which was when he had heard learned that he had human relatives and the news of his aunt and uncle's passing. Which led to him sitting in front of his mother's room, as she had called him in, he went in and had sat in front of her worried, as he could tell from her mother's expression that she was still mourning, and since Rikuo had no idea what he could do to comfort his mother he had just sat with her in silent comfort. As Wakana had tried to calm herself down, she brought out her smile again.

"Rikuo, let me tell you about my family and the book of friends."

From then, for the next few hours, Rikuo had sat there listening to what the book of friends was, the purpose of names and the power they hold and about Natsume Reiko and their childhood, by the time that Wakana had finished her story, the sun was beginning to set and Rikuo and the youkai was glad that Wakana had seemed to be back to her cheerful self once again, and from what he had heard of his mother's family he had thought that it was a shame that he could not have met his extended family. Then, looking at the expression on his mother's face, as his day form melted away to reveal his night form.

"Mother, we don't kidnap humans ya know"

Yoru said as he smirked towards his mother while she let out a mischievous chuckle as she denied the claim that her son had made of her.

"Just pay him a visit Rikuo, see how is he doing and make sure he's safe."

nodding towards his mother, he had gotten up from his seat opposite his mother and when he opened the shoji door, his closest aides had fallen through the gap now in front of their master found out for eavesdropping on the conversation. Hasting to get up and to be presentable, they apologized and asked to accompany their master on the trip to Yatsuhara knowing his intentions. Yoru sighed seeing his subordinates sighed as he agreed to them although warning them to be careful since Yatsuhara is located in the countryside, their youki may be overwhelming to the humans there and as such have to be careful to not be seen since it is not the same as Tokyo. The youkai nodded enthusiastically promising to be careful and as a result, the trip to Yatsuhara ended up being bigger than Yoru had originally thought.

-uwu-

In the Fujiwara household, Natsume was woken up with Nyanko-sensei pawing at his face. Waking up to shove him off, he realised that sensei was in his full form. With that Natsume wondered what was wrong, looking on beside him he saw that Tanuma, who had decided to stay over since he had heard about the youkai stalker and was worried, had also been woken up seeming as confused as Natsume was.

"Get out of the house, there are youkai coming."

Sensei said as he pushed the two boys towards the window to leave with the other lower youkai that had come to bring the two humans away when Natsume turned back to Sensei who waited for the two boys to leave first. Natsume confused asked what was going on, seeing as even Misuzu is present.

"Could it be the tengu that was watching us recently Sensei? I thought that he wasn't around anymore?"

Natsume said as he washed pushed out by Madara who in frustration that Natsume wa being so slow pushed him out of the window, being caught in the arms of Hinoe who told him to worry about himself more as they were after him, that the humans would be safe but, Natsume wouldn't if he did not get away now. As they were about to leave the compound with Misuzu and Madara staying behind to hold the youkai off, however, Natsume stopped much to Hinoe's protests when he saw the small procession of youkai that had appeared from the forest. While there was a variety of youkai in the area such as a yuki onna and what seemed to look like monks, the most prominent to Natsume was the silver haired youkai that seemed to be the leader among them.

Madara tensed up at the presence of the multiple youkai and looked towards Misuzu who shook his head first. Misuzu then turned to address the youkai questioning, what business the youkai have in his town to come with and entourage of youkai. Some of the youkai beside the silver haired were vocal in their protest in not respecting their master properly, Madara was about to bite back when the silver haired youkai silenced his entourage stopping them.

"I apologise if we came off as hostile as first, we simply came to find Natsume Takashi, the grandson of Natsume Reiko and the holder of the book of friends."

Yoru told what seemed to be the lord of the town not mentioning the book of friends, since, they were not sure whether Takashi was the current owner of the book of friends but with the youkai around his current residence, he had a good guess that his cousin had the book. Although that was the least of his worries. The lord of the town snorted as he spoke,

"For as long as i had known, the third master of the Nura clan did not give his name up to the Reiko,"

"I am honored that you know about me and indeed i did not, i am not here for the book of friends, but for Natsume Takashi instead."

Yoru spoke to the lord with respect as the wolf youkai then growled towards them questioning what he wanted with the boy, and Yoru without regard to the wolf questioned what it would mean to him since it was not his business.

Madara shot out a purification light towards the youkai who dodged, only hitting the silver head youkai by a little and not dealing much damage towards him at all, at that Madara clicked his tongue, knowing that his usual attacks would not do much in this situation, as he was about to move away to get to Natsume, he realised that he could not move at all, as he tried to see what held him in place his feels something sharp digging into his neck and muzzle. Seeing it to be red strings and from the cold that he feels at his feet, he suspects that the yuki-onna had taken action. Looking on to where the strings lead to, he saw this headless youkai which the strings belonged to and the aforementioned yuki-onna who had mist forming around her. Madara had tried to break out of the strings and ice but he couldn't since, whatever he did seemed to make the strings tighter. The both of them exerting youki as they threatened

"I suggest that if you want to keep your head, you have some respect for our master."

As Madara decided to try and escape again, this time he was successful nearly falling off the roof as he did so since he realised, looking down, that he was free. The ropes on the tiles around him and the ice nowhere to seen. Looking towards the silver haired youkai, he had his weapon out the youkai around him confused at their masters actions

Natsume had caught the eye of the youkai leader as he tended to Tanuma whos headache had gotten worse from the onslaught of youki present, and when he made eye contact with the leader, he was terrified initially, since he had thought he was next seeing as Sensei was already taken down. Then, the leader seemed to be apologetic as he shifted his gaze from Natsume towards Tanuma and back to Natsume again, then watching the leader take out his sword, while he prepared for the worst, being held down by Hinoe who knew what he wanted to try and had to watch as the leader youkai brought his sword down, turning away he expected that Sensei would be hurt, however, all he could hear was the shattering of ice and ropes falling to the ground. Looking up, he saw that Sensei was in front of him, trying to block him from them, but from what he could see the leader wasn't even paying attention to them anymore and instead was looking at his subordinates.

Yoru was glaring at yuki-onna and kubinashi who were remorseful seeing that their master was angry

"What did i say before we came?"

"To be careful with our youki."

Yoru then looked towards the rest of the youkai present as he questioned what they had done then, to which they replied that they had released their youki to intimidate the youkai present. A tick mark formed as the youkai shrunk back seeing that their master was furious with them.

"Then?! Are you waiting for me to tell you what to do or will you do it yourselves?!"

He scolded them as the youki emmating around them disappeared to a certain extent since, youkai are made of youki. So unless, they were in the guise of humans they would be unable to erase their youki fully. Although, it was enough for Tanuma to not be in pain anymore.

Yoru looked towards the lord of the town and bowed, the youkai protested that their master shouldn't bow but was shut down and fell quiet when he glared at them again.

"I apologize if we had come off hostile, but i think that it'll be best that we leave for now."

Yoru apologized to the lord of the town, then turning to where he knew Natsume was as the wolf growled at him. Not paying any mind to the wolf, he managed to make eye contact with the the boy, bowing to him in an apology, mouthing a 'see you later' that he knew Takashi had taken note off and turned to leave, his entourage following behind him. The trip back home was quiet as the youkai knew that their master was fuming, and indeed he was but since the sun was going to come up soon, he decided that his other half would do a better job of scolding them, besides it was a saturday so Rikuo could go at it for as long as he wanted.

Which ended up till the afternoon, where Rikuo was stopped by his mother dropped in wanting to speak to him, the youkia with their sore limbs from being forced to kneel too the chance and bolted.

uwu -

Once the entourage of youkai was gone, the lower level youkai all deflated as the threat was gone and nyanko-sensei changed back into his maneki neko form landing on top of Natsume chasticing both Tanuma and Natsume for not running away. But in truth, he too was a little shaken from the encounter with the lord of the pandemonium.

"Seems like you managed to gain the interest of the third master, in the sense of you as a person rather than the owner of the book of friends Natsume-dono"

Misuzu said as he brought his huge head down, resting in front of them as he spoke.

"Do you know of them Misuzu?"

Nyanko asked from his position as Misuzu hummed in agreement

"What i know of the clan is little, but the family has been around since Edo. With Nurarihyon being the head of the clan, the nurarihyon that we saw tonight was the infamous third master, the grandson of Nurarihyon, a Hango and the one holding the current title of the lord of pandemonium and famous for defeating Abe no Seimei."

Nyanko snorted at the information Misuzu had given, while the two humans in the vicinity were confused at the term, and when Natsume had asked what a Hanyo meant

"Hanyo's are youkai who have human blood in them, in a sense where they were born from the unification of a human and youkai, which was also reasoned with why he smelled so weird."

Natsume had heard what Nyanko said at the end and chuckled. Although, he was surprised that such a combination existed since he always assumed that youkai preferred stay out of sight of humans. Noticing that the sun was going to come up soon, the two boys sneaked back into the house, deciding that they could figure out what happened tonight after they rested properly since, they were up for most of the night due to the youkai, maybe find out more about the infamous third master of the Nura clan.

—

Well i'm going to stop here for now, i'm going to try to space events out a little more so that it isnt so jam packed, so the former three chapters may end up being four or five maybe more, i'll try to add more events so that it isn't like exactly the same. Also i apologize for the one week turning to two for some reason school work got real heavy this week and even though i wrote a little in class i couldn't finish it last week. Ah for now i'll try my best to make a chapter a month a habit to get back into the feel of writing since i know that if i say i'll post when ever i can it's gonna go down to nothing at all lol. So if there are more chapters a month it's a bonus i guess but other than that.

Au revoir, till next time!