Chapter 3 – A camping trip

His breathing was ragged. He panted and panted, sweat dripping down his back, face, arms and legs. His whole body felt wet and sticky as his school uniform clung on to him tightly, his white shirt stuck on his back and the leggings of his pants were making it harder to escape.

Why does this always happen to me?

~.~.~.~

"Natsume did you bring everything?!" shouted Nyanko-sensei from the bottom of the stairs. The pudgy cat was already hopping towards the doorway, eager to get out of the house. "The snacks! Don't forget the snacks!"

The sandy-haired boy let out a sigh. "Hai, hai, Nyanko-sensei." Really, the cat was such a pain sometimes. Reaching the bottom of the old wooden stairs, Natsume turned into the kitchen and grabbed a packet of chocolate biscuits and some soda crackers. He needed only light things in his knapsack.

"Ara, you're awake already?" Natsume turned around and came to face Toukou. His expression was like that of a child who got his hand stuck straight down in a cookie jar. "I thought that you would be up later, Takashi-kun." She was still dressed in her nightgown and had a sleepy look on her face. She must've been woken up by the sounds that he and Nyanko-sensei were making. If not why was she up at 5 in the morning? The boy felt sorry for his foster mother.

"M-mm! But I figured that I should get to the bus stop earlier so that my friends wouldn't have to wait long." He was at it again. Yesterday night, he had explained to his foster parents that he planned to go on a camping trip with some city friend whom he has not met for a long while. Lying through his teeth to the people who cared about him. He had to though. He didn't want to see someone as sweet as Toukou-san or Shigeru-san to be pulled into the twisted world of ayakashi.

"Sokka." muttered Toukou under her breath. Then as if remembering something, her sleepy eyes lit up. "Ah! Your bento(1)!" Shrugging off all signs of sleepiness, she ran to the sink and washed her face, frantically setting out her task to make her foster child's bento.

"Toukou-san, it's really alright!" Natsume struggled to get his words through to the woman. "I have biscuits and snacks in my bag. Cash too. So I'll just use them inste-..."

"No, you may not!" The young boy was cut off by Toukou. Still warming up the rice, she focused on talking to Natsume. "You're just a young boy and you need plenty of nutrients to grow! Eating just biscuits will make you terribly unhealthy!"

Resuming her attention on her work, Toukou continued to speak to her foster son. "Takashi-kun, it's okay to be fussed over once in a while!" She placed the warmed rice in a beige coloured bento. "It's what parents do. So sit there and wait for a while."

Natsume couldn't help but smile. He was undeserving of his foster parents' love.

~.~.~.~

Nyanko-sensei jumped onto Natsume's face, almost causing the both of them to topple onto the cold, wet ground. "What took you so long idiot?! I could've freezed to death!"

Grunting with effort, Natsume finally managed to get the cat's pudgy paws out of his face. "Toukou-san was making bentos!"

Almost immediately, the cat stopped struggling in Natsume's arms. "Bentos?" He cocked his head and twitched his ears. "Wah!~ Bentos!~ Bentos!~ Bentos!~" The cat sang to himself in obvious delight.

Natsume smiled at his guardian's antics and set him in his knapsack. "Nyanko-sensei..." huffed Natsume. "You're heavy." The knapsack grew much much heavier after bearing the weight of his fat cat.

"Oi! I'm not that heavy! It's just because your puny and weak body can't take it is all!" retorted Nyanko-sensei who had his head sticking out of the dull green knapsack.

"Just don't ruin the bentos, Nyanko-sensei."

The cat turned its head and clicked its tongue. "Hmph! Oh, ye of lettuce trust!"

"What?"

"From some weird English guy who writes plays! You know, the one play which you were studying for your literature exams!"

"Nyanko-sensei, it's 'Oh, ye of little faith', not what you said just now." Natsume corrected his pet cat with accuracy. "Wait, are you reading my books?"

The cat slammed an angry paw onto Natsume's head. "What? Can't I take a glance?!"

At that moment, Natsume burst into laughter, his voice filling the grey empty streets.

~.~.~.~

"Nyanko-sensei, we're here."

True enough, they had reached the foot of a magnificent mountain. It was a tall mountain with lush greens and mysterious blues at the top. Clouds and mist formed close at the peak, a curtain to prevent by-standers from seeing what was really up there. The name of the mountain was 'Barayama', literally translated into 'Rose Mountain'. Why it was named so, Natsume didn't have the slightest idea.

The cat jumped out of the knapsack, stretching its limbs and shaking his fur. "That was a long ride."

"So long that you finished three manjuus(2), two pieces of dried ika(3) and a bento." said Natsume matter-of-factly.

"I was hungry!" protested the cat.

"You're always hungry."

Just when things were about to turn into an all out war between Natsume and Nyanko-sensei, a light cough interrupted them.

"Natsume-sama, thank you for coming here." On the grass right next to them was the ayakashi from before. It was a weird type of ayakashi when Natsume thought about it. It never showed its face, covering it with a paper. It had a shiny white head and wore a leaf-green robe. He had no idea what type of ayakashi this was.

"Alright, let's get going already!" complained Nyanko-sensei. "I'm starving!"

The ayakashi nodded and bowed. "Yes, right this way please. Watch your step."

Taking one last look of the outside world. There was a house not so far away and next to it was a paddy field. The dirt road stretched far and wide into the distance and migratory birds flew overhead. The clouds in the sky were like thin strips of ribbon.

"Natsume-sama!" called the ayakashi from the woods.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Natsume stepped into the lush greenery, starting his mission.

Notes:

(1) Bento: is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables, usually in a box-shaped container.

(2) Manjuu : is a popular traditional Japanese confection. There are many varieties of manjū, but most have an outside made from flour, rice powder and buckwheat and a filling of an (red bean paste), made from boiled azuki beans and sugar.

(3) Ika : means Squid.

Arigatou for reading minna-san!

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