Chapter 1: Rejected
You're a liar!
Go away!
Begone, you, son of demons!
I told you not to show your face here again!
Just…
…
What's this?
People keep yelling at me…
Why? I don't understand…
…just… just get the hell out of this place, you creepy liar!
Oh, yeah... Now I get it.
It's just that nightmare again…
Natsume woke up to the lively sound of birds outside. The soft glimmer of sunlight rushed through the worn wooden panels of his window, lighting up the entire room with a lively shade of grey. Out in the bushes, the cicadas kept on singing, an endless sound by which had made Natsume felt entirely homey and a little delighted than usual. It was indeed a perfect awakening and it was going to be a very cheerful and sunny day, he thought, but still he felt unusually sleepy that morning. Were the world belonged to him alone, were he the one with all those powers, he would twirl the earth back on its capstan so that it would be night again, so that he could continue to slumber and quench his nightly depletion. And, yes, he couldn't sleep well last night. Again. The mosquitoes were swarming all around him as if he was the only mammal left in the world, and he was left curled under his thin blanket, itching all over, falling and emerging from an exhausting delirium. Because of that, he was forced to see that stupid nightmare yet again. Well, if you couldn't sleep well at night, you were prone to have some bad dreams, people said. Yet, he sees those almost every night, with good sleep or less sleep and Natsume couldn't figure how true the statement was.
Sighing, half-content and half disappointed, Natsume pushed himself up, folded his blanket and futon neatly and got up. There's no use to fret over pathetic things like that, and neither would a force sleep help, well, not after the day had officially rang its natural alarm clock. Life must go on, no matter how wretched it is and Natsume seriously needed to find something to eat.
As usual Natsume knelt in front of a small altar at the corner of the room. It was a small house, really. In fact, the room was the only thing the house had, no welcoming hallway after its grand creaking entrance, no kitchen, no bathroom and not even any interconnected rooms beyond it. To correctly put it, it was just a small abandoned looking hut which is absolutely no better than a lowly cowshed. But, that is where Natsume lived, where his parents used to live. Or where they were banished to live, since they were too poor and too powerless to deny any accusation they had thrown on them. Any blame or any form of curse.
Indeed, his life was wretched, wretched enough where he would pray and think before going to sleep every night what difference would it make if he were not born. Will the villagers stop hating his parents? Will they have a happier life? Will the villagers too, by any chance, have a happier life? Or will they find another scapegoat, instead?
But, that thoughts did not let Natsume purse a frown before the names of his parents. No, not right then. He would not let it, no matter how sad or how guilty he felt. What dear sons would have the heart to complaint and worry their parents? He knew he shouldn't cause any more trouble to them than he already had. That is why, he would not even think about everything and feigned a smile in front of them as if no sad memories or feeling ever occurred to him. And even if it did cross his mind, he would choose to ignore them all.
Strange how people's emotions work. He acknowledged his feelings and ignored them all at the same time.
Perhaps…
Perhaps, that was what had let him survive after all this time…
His perfect mask…
His mighty spell-cast life-saving amulet…haha…
On top of the altar there were two small tablets of the names of his parents and between them placed upright against the craggy wooden wall was an old green book. The book was once belong to his grandmother, Natsume Reiko, thus his parents told him. He knew nothing further about her accept that she died very young and both his parents showed neither anticipation nor reluctance to say more than that. Perhaps she was crudely unpopular like the rest of them, he thought, and asking the villagers would be the worst idea he had in years. Well, he had neither money to buy another tablet for her on the altar nor would the butsudan maker agree to carve one. That was why, Natsume thought that the book will do for his grandmother's ihai. He bowed down before the momento of his grandmother and the names of his parents and smiled.
"Father, Mother, it is a beautiful day and I'm happy as how I had promised you. I pray you to always be well in your world. And, you too, Grandmother. Please pray for me as well."
Snatching his breakfast – a few dried potatoes - Natsume cracked the door opened and walked outside. The sun had already risen and Natsume could see it brightly peaking through the lush branches of maple trees. Summer was nice and the air was unbelievably warm and calming. Except…
Natsume could catch the stench that was stuck in his nostril. The smell was familiar, he wasn't stupid to be entirely blunt in smell, in fact he kind of knew what was happening the moment the smell reached him. Wordlessly, he backed about 5 steps away from his home to get a better picture of it, and lo!
A thin eyebrow raised and Natsume stared none too calmly at the sight before him.
All the compound of his home, walls and everything were completely tainted with dark coloured substance unrecognizable but linkable with what man call organic fertilizer. Natsume's eyes were impossibly wide admiring the view which had truly given the hut an all new rustic appearance and the aromas… Mud? Old decomposed food? Cow dunk? Or perhaps the human's…
Natsume didn't dare to test the limit of his curiosity – perhaps, he really should skip his breakfast today - but, what he was certain was someone must have sneaked around his house at night and threw the wretched thing everywhere near its walls and doorsteps. No wonder there were countless unwanted insects last night. And to think that the smell hadn't penetrated inside… it was a miracle.
Natsume sighed. It wasn't the first time his home was being bombarded with nocturnal renovations. He had seen worst, but it was the first time it had been… well…you know…fertilizer. Usually, he will stare at it and felt like crying. He had no idea why he didn't that day. Perhaps, he had gotten used to it. Perhaps, it was summer.
He lifted all the firewood he had gathered yesterday and began to walk towards the village while making a mental checklist on what he would do that day. Of course naming a list of suspects was the last thing he would do since it will include everyone in the whole goddamn place. Looks like he needed to do some wall scrubbing after he got back. And, later he will put some wildflowers around just to enlighten things up. Not bad for an economic home improvement, he thought.
A/N Another multichapter for this fandom! Seriously, I don't really have a plot for this story, but I just want to see where it will go…:P