So, I finished reading the Natsume in a bottle arc (manga ch. 50 or something) and wrote this fanfiction shortly after. I was too lazy and too uncertain of my story to upload it here on fanfiction, but due to my new year's resolution to start sharing my stories with others, believe me I have written a lot in this past year, I decided to upload this.
Please let me warm you in advance, this story is cheesy, unoriginal (I bet someone beat me to this 'disappearance' concept), probably badly told and problems are solved too easily (at least in my opinion). So why bother reading? Trashy novels seem to sell quite well, so why not try a trashy (short) fanfiction? Enjoy!
This story will contain hints of shounen ai in future chapters.
Disclaimer: I don't own Natsume Yuujinchou.
"Takashi!" Toukou's voice came from downstairs. "If you don't wake up soon, you'll be late!"
"I'll be down in a minute!" I yelled back as I finished putting on my uniform. I glanced once again at the window making sure it was unlocked. Last night Nyanko-sensei hadn't come home from drinking with his friends, which was unusual. Normally he would enter my room in the middle of the night, deliberately making a lot of noise to wake me up. I found myself staring at the empty room. Without Nyanko-sensei the room seemed even more empty than usual.
"Takashi!" Toukou called again.
"Coming!" I answered, stumbling down the stairs almost as if to prove I really was going downstairs.
"I'm off to school!" I called to Toukou and Shigeru as I opened the front door. I immediately froze at the sight of a shadow that was being casted on the ground in front of the entrance. It was too big to belong to a human.
Ever since I was small, I have sometimes seen strange things. As others cannot see them, they are most likely what you would call youkai.
Without looking at the youkai that was blocking the morning sun, I quickly started walking.
"Hey!" a deep voice called behind me. I immediately knew that the youkai had taken notice of my startle otherwise he wouldn't have called out to me.
I ignored him, walking even faster. I heard him come after me, his big body was dragging over the ground. When I was a kid I would have been scared to death by being followed, but these days it happened so often, I couldn't even remember when I started to get used to it.
"Hey! Don't ignore me!"
Silence, just the dragging sounds and the sounds of my quick footsteps.
"Hey! Human! Listen to me! Hey!"
Ignore him, I told myself. He is irritating you on purpose to get your attention.
"Hey little girl!"
"What do you want!" I finally snapped, turning around to face him. I completely forgot I was walking down one of the busier streets of the village. My exclamation earned me a lot of stares, one of the reasons I often avoided this route even though it was the shortest way to school. I stared at the youkai, taking in the image. His entire body looked like a shadow, the only difference was that he was solid. Like most youkai he was wearing a mask. This one had chosen a white mask in the shape of fox, complete with angry yellowish-orange unseeing eyes. Instinct immediately told me to get away from this dangerous fellow.
"Do you want to play a game?" His voice sounded a lot more ominous than when I didn't have a image of him.
"I don't have time to play," I answered, continuing my way. "Find someone else to play."
"Let's play demon tag!" The youkai seemed to have stayed behind. At least I didn't hear him following me. Suddenly I felt him touch my back as he ran past me, almost smacking me to the ground.
"You're it!" The words seemed to swirl around in the gust of wind he left behind in his tracks. For his size he was surprisingly fast.
"I'm not going to play tag," I mumbled, relieved that he finally left.
Without any further hindrances I reached school, where I changed my shoes at the entrance on autopilot.
"Good morning Nishimura!" I called, catching a glimpse of him at the end of the hall way
Nishimura ignored me, walking towards the stairs. Maybe he didn't hear me? I shrugged, I would meet him in the classroom anyway. I hurried down the hallway as the bell rang.
I arrived at the class room at the same time as Mr. Kaneguchi, my history teacher.
"Good morning," I said politely.
Mr. Kaneguchi entered the class room without greeting me. I stared after him, he hadn't even given me a sign that he had seen or heard me. Something was off, the always friendly Mr. Kaneguchi wouldn't ignore one of his students. With an ominous feeling I entered the classroom, sitting down at my desk.
"Good morning everyone." Chatter in the classroom quickly faded, class was starting. Mr. Kaneguchi sorted some papers on his desk, his usual routine when taking attendance. "Aizawa Yuki…"
"Here!" Yuki raised her hand as she answered.
I glanced around the classroom, unconsciously looking at the tiny youkai that had made their home of this classroom. Nothing seemed out of place as Mr. Kaneguchi ran down the list.
"Takashi, Natsume."
"Here!" I answered putting my hand in the air.
"Takashi?" Mr. Kaneguchi looked up, as well as several other people who turned their head in my direction. "That's strange, he rarely takes a day off," Mr. Kaneguchi mumbled as he scribbled something down. "Goto Ai?"
I was stunned. I must have looked ridiculous with my hand still raised in the air. I had answered loud and clearly. Mr. Kaneguchi should have seen me when he looked up from his list. On top of that I had greeted him at the door! Slowly it dawned on me, for some reason I had become invisible. I finally lowered my hand, in my mind tracing back my memory. When had I become invisible? Toukou and Shigeru had talked to me during breakfast, so it must have happened on my way to school.
"That youkai!" I yelled. I jumped out of my chair.
Classmates started whispering. "Did you see that? That chair moved on its own!" and "How scary! Do you think it's a ghost?"
Apparently I wasn't just invisible, but people couldn't hear me either. I felt panic welling up inside me, this was definitely bad! I ran out of the classroom, slamming the door and shutting out the screams of my classmates with it. From their point of view the door had opened and closed on its own, but at the moment I couldn't care less about my surroundings. I had to find that youkai.
Horrifying thoughts ran through my head as I ran down the hallway. What if I couldn't find that youkai? Maybe Nyanko-sensei knew how to break this spell, but what if he didn't know? What if this spell was too powerful even for Nyanko-sensei? Would I stay invisible forever? Would I disappear from the human world just like this? In any case, the only thing I could do for now was to look for that youkai and ask him to lift this spell.
隠れ鬼ごっこ(Kakure Onigokko) is a Japanese variant of Tag. As the name says, it is a combination of Hide-and-Seek (Kakurenbo) and Tag (Onigokko). It is played by choosing one child as 'Demon', while the other children will hide to avoid capture. The demon has to look for the children and tag them when found.
If I'm not too busy celebrating Natsume 4th season I will upload the next chapter within next week. Until then!