It hadn't been long since Natsume had been there, but already his body ached. He still remembered the moment he had been taken away. Tanuma had invited him over for the weekend to work on homework. Finals were coming up and with how much Natsume slept in class, he knew that he needed to study quite a bit. Luckily Tanuma was willing to help.
Nyanko-sensei had declared the visit too boring, and had disappeared to meet with the mid-class youkai at a sake spring. Natsume had walked alone toward the temple at Yatsuhara, but he had never completed his trip.
His walk had been interrupted by a youkai, which was unfortunately no surprise. Most the time he could handle the weaker youkai by himself, but this wasn't one of the weaker youkai. They had gone straight for the throat, one hand closing off his air supply and the other holding his arms by his side. As his vision faded he caught a brief look, fur seemed to cover a majority of the body and he made out three eyes before his ability to comprehend left him. For all he knew, the three eyes may have been double vision as he blacked out.
Now, Natsume was staring at the ceiling of a cave, hands tied before him at both the wrists and elbows, twisting his arms in a very uncomfortable way. Then again, it wasn't like tying him up would be for his comfort in the first place. Slight movement of his legs said they had the same treatment, with rope binding his ankles and knees. Whatever had taken him clearly didn't want him to escape.
There was a shuffling to his side, and he turned to look. Before he had even completed the movement however, he was being held up by the rope that bound his wrists. His shoulders cried in pain as the joint twisted unnaturally. An unconscious grunt of discomfort left him.
"Ah, finally," the voice that said this was feminine, but nonetheless menacing. His skin crawled as hatred seemed to seep into him from the sound. "I finally have you, Natsume Reiko."
"I-" He wasn't able to get more than that word off before he was dropped carelessly.
"I forgot. It isn't Reiko, is it?" The voice faded slightly and there was another shuffling as the youkai walked away. "Natsume Takashi, her grandson, the new holder for the book of friends. The one who will pay for his grandmother's carelessness."
A whistling split the air. Before Natsume was able to react to the words in any way, there was a thud as something collided with his thigh. It felt like he had been punched in the leg, but the force was far greater than expected. He opened his eyes to see a length of rope being pulled back into the shadows, a massive knot in it likely what had made contact with his leg.
He heard another whistle, and fearing instinctively he brought his arms up to protect his head. It seemed a bad move as the knot of rope slammed into his gut. The air was forced out of his lungs, and he rolled to his side, coughing in an attempt to recover.
The attempt was doomed to be a failure. Another whistling was heard, much faster than the wind-up of the second strike, and there was a blossoming pain that cracked against his exposed ribs.
There was a small snapping sound, and this time when Natsume coughed and tried to draw in breath there was a slight pain in his side. It seemed the youkai had the intention to let him recover his breath, and he gladly did.
"What grudge to you have against my grandmother?" Natsume tried to push the pain from the bruises he knew were forming to the side. "Did she take your name?"
"If it were only my name…" There was a pain in the voice that Natsume had grown used to hearing over his time with the Book of Friends. "She abandoned me!"
The exclamation came with another swing of the knotted rope. This time the pain was concentrated on his knee, pushing his lower leg to the side. A yell of pain escaped Natsume, and through blurred vision he could see that the normal, straight form of his leg had a significant skew to it now.
"She discarded me like trash!"
A hit to his shoulder had him unable to even move. Another shout escaped him, but the pain in his shoulder from trying to curl in on himself had him holding extremely still.
"Reiko… she never came back." Natsume could, through his pain, make out the sound of crying. "Why did she never return?"
A huff escaped his lips, and he tried to gather the strength to speak. "Reiko, I'm sure she didn't forget you. She can't come back though. I…" The slight shift to try and look at the youkai had him inhaling sharply. "I can return your name. You may be able to see her again after that."
Unfortunately, this had the opposite affect than what he had desired. "What good will my name do now!?" Another whistle and a thud against his skull had him dizzy, and try as he might his vision faded fast, as did his conscious mind.
Right as he was on the brink of what he was sure was a dream, there was a familiar roar. Nyanko-sensei. How did he know though? He was supposed to be out drinking.
"Natsume!" That voice was familiar too. Where had he heard it? Before he could place it, everything surrounding him faded to black.
Natsume had been late, that was the first thing that told Tanuma something wasn't right. Of course, it was more rare for his friend to be on time, considering what he constantly dealt with. For the first half hour, Tanuma wasn't too worried, it was just a small wriggle of discomfort. Something he often felt, waiting for the blond to show up, wondering if he ran into trouble.
After an hour, that discomfort had become more than the small worry he always had. Doubt filled his mind, and he thought back to when he had seen Natsume being attacked. Strangled, nearly chopped in half, almost bashed in the head with a hammer, and anything else his mind was able to conjure.
It was nearly two hours since they had promised to meet, and finally Tanuma could stand to wait no longer. He walked down the quickest route to Natsume's house, looking into the trees, examining everything for a hint at where his friend was. The crisp leaves of fall crunched under foot. Right as Tanuma spotted a white cloth on the ground and was crouching to pick it up, there was a rustle of leaves on the side of the road.A ball of orange, white and black barreled into Tanuma just as the boy grasped the scarf in his hand.
He sat up, rubbing his head and looking at the cat. "Ponta!" He held the cat up hastily. "Where's Natsume?"
The cat eyed him, and rather than correcting his form of address looked at the object in the boy's hand. "Did he not go to your place? That idiot." A sniff of the scarf had Nyanko-sensei's eyes widening. "Boy, how long have you been waiting for Natsume?"
"Eh? About two hours now, why?"
Instead of answering directly, the cat sniffed the scarf again and took off into the forest. "Follow me, quick." Tanuma barely had time to process, and quickly got to his feet to follow.
Running through the undergrowth of the forest wasn't easy by any means, but the thought that Natsume was in trouble had Tanuma running faster than he did on level ground. They had been running for nearly twenty minutes when a yell shattered the usual calm of the forest. A worried shout had Nyanko-sensei transforming.
"Ponta!" Tanuma yelled out in surprise when he was suddenly lifted off the ground by his collar.
The trees blurred, and the next thing he knew Tanuma was deposited into a dimly lit cavern. There was a roar from somewhere above him, and the powerful presence of youkai had him grimacing in pain. That is, until he notice a limp form a few feet in front of him.
"Natsume!" He rushed to the collapsed form of his friend, immediately checking if Natsume was alive. The pulse beneath his fingers and the, albeit uneven, rise and fall of his chest told him that he was at least among the living.
Though it wasn't often that Tanuma carried it with him, he was glad he brought it today. The small pocket knife was sharp, and with a bit of work cut through the ropes binding his friend. A bright flash of light had him wincing and looking around, but with his ability to sense spirits Tanuma was unable to see anything.
Placing the knife back in his pocket, he began to look over the unconscious boy. There was a skew to his knee, and the joint was already swelling. The same went for his shoulder. With the uneven breaths, he wouldn't be surprised if there was some sort of injury to the ribs or lungs. Tanuma had definitely seen the boy in much better shape.
"Ponta, are you still here?"
"Naturally. This weakling Natsume, getting himself so hurt." There seemed to be a rustle, just on the edge of Tanuma's perception. "Boy, you'll need to get Natsume onto my back."
"Uh…" Tanuma considered the situation. He wasn't really able to see the massive beast that Natsume had described to him. Reaching out a hand in the direction the voice had come from, he felt fur beneath his fingers.
After ascertaining where Nyanko-sensei was, it was a bit easier to get Natsume up. The problem was trying not to jostle the obviously injured boy. Tanuma ended up climbing on as well, in order to hold Natsume in place. After the assurance that they were situated, Nyanko-sensei stood, flying much more slowly than usual toward the main road.
"We need to get him to a hospital," Tanuma looked at the pallid face of Natsume, "but we need an excuse first."
They landed at the bottom of a hill off the main road. "Easy, we tell people Natsume fell down off the path."
Tanuma considered this, then held Natsume close to him as he slid from the back of the invisible beast below him. There was a puff, and then the normal calico cat was next to him.
"I'll stay here with him. Boy, go get Touko or someone."
"Ah, right!" Tanuma ran.
A strange look passed through Nyanko-sensei's eyes. "Idiot."