Chapter Summary: Reiko goes out of town for the weekend, and Natsume brings home a pet. First part of two (meaning this will tie in directly to the next chapter).
Cat (1/2)
"I'll be back on Monday. Don't make a mess of the house," Reiko says, and leaves without looking back. Natsume watches her go with his tongue hovering against his teeth, unsure what to say, if anything.
He doesn't want her to go, but he also doesn't want to seem selfish. And he's not ready yet to tell her of the danger lurking in this calm little town, because he thinks she is the cause as well as the only protection he has.
There are always youkai. Natsume didn't expect otherwise, and while most of them tend to keep their distance from humans, there are inevitably those malevolent or curious ones that bother him no matter where he goes. Still, this place is altogether different. The youkai are more predominant than ever before, and they watch him with a dangerous intent.
Nothing has attacked Natsume yet. In fact the only large youkai he's seen up close was the one that Reiko had waiting in his room the day he arrived. But that's been changing lately. The youkai seem to be growing bolder, and Natsume can see them whispering in the trees outside his school sometimes, or he'll feel something following him on the way home. Last weekend, when he was exploring the woods with Kitamoto and Nishimura, something half the height of the trees focused its single eye on Natsume, and smiled to reveal rows upon rows of very sharp teeth, and then it called out his grandmother's name.
Luckily, there was a shrine nearby, and they had been walking long enough for Natsume's excuse about needing to rest to be believable, but he's scared now. He has wanted to tell Reiko, but he wasn't sure how best to do so, and now she's going to be gone for three days and Natsume is afraid.
He wants to just stay inside, but it's Friday and he's got to go to school. Natsume has had a fairly spotty attendance record in the past, not to mention the various disruptive behaviors he's displayed in class, and he's changed schools so often that at times it's hard to keep up. He really can't afford to miss class, so he takes a deep breath and locks the door behind him.
He should have just stayed home.
Normally, Natsume joins Nishimura and Kitamoto about halfway to school. Today, every youkai seems to know Reiko is gone, and it's not even ten minutes before the first one attempts to take advantage of her absence. Natsume is soon lost, as he has been many times in the past, running at a full sprint through the forest, trying desperately to remember where the nearest temple is.
He can't recall, but he stumbles into one in a stroke of luck that suddenly seems much less lucky when he realizes he's tripped across a barrier and broken it, allowing whatever it was containing to escape.
Natsume can do nothing but hope that the spirit won't hurt him; if he leaves the shrine, he will definitely be caught by the murderous youkai lurking just outside. He clenches his hands tight around his knees and breathes deeply. It's been a while since he was this terrified, but he hasn't forgotten the feeling. His fate depends entirely on the spirit about to emerge from its bindings.
He's so keyed up about this that Natsume actually laughs a little in relief when it turns out just to be a fat old maneki-neko. He relaxes more than he really should – appearances mean very little, when it comes to youkai – but luckily it appears to find him interesting enough not to eat on the spot.
"Hmm," it muses, sniffing the air, "you smell familiar. Powerful. And… is that… Natsume Reiko!?"
"My grandmother," Natsume offers, but that's all he's willing to give. The youkai talks about time passing, those familiar lines about human lifetimes being much too short, and Natsume is careful not to mention that Reiko is still alive, just in case. The information might actually help him, but it might hurt just as easily, and Natsume is too tired of getting hurt because he's made himself vulnerable.
He just too tired of all of this.
But then the youkai asks him about something called 'the Book of Friends' before dashing off, and Natsume is too curious to leave it alone. Especially when the youkai had just told him Reiko had no friends, and no human had ever understood her. The cat must have been locked up for years, but somehow Natsume is sure that hasn't changed. The distance between Reiko and everyone else sizzles through the air constantly, a painfully familiar dissonance.
Ever since he moved in with his grandmother, Natsume has felt like he might be able to change. To be fully accepted by at least one person, which might sound pitiful but it's so much more than he's ever had before and it's like a door opening wide and letting in a soft summer breeze. Reiko has changed him already, by her simple presence but also with her wordless understanding of certain things. All the comforting words in the world could never quite match up to the knowledge in Reiko's eyes when she greets him in the morning, the way she never asks if he slept well but just smirks a bit sadly and keeps eating her breakfast.
Natsume knows it's probably foolish and useless, but he wants to understand her too. Even if they never grow any closer than they are now, even if he never tells her what he discovers – maybe figuring out what this 'Book of Friends' is will help him understand Reiko a little more. Maybe that understanding will help her someday, even just a bit. That alone would make this worth it.
So Natsume looks for the Book of Friends. Surprisingly, it's not at all difficult to find – it's just sitting there on her desk, right in plain sight. Natsume grabs it and hightails it out of Reiko's bedroom, retreating into his own room and sighing gently in relief once he's slid the door shut behind him. He has never been in his grandmother's bedroom before. He wishes he hadn't had to now, either. His skin had started crawling the moment he stepped inside, as though something had been watching him.
Probably something had.
The Book of Friends at first seems to be nothing more than page after page of meaningless scribbles. But soon enough Natsume realizes the drawings are actually names; he doesn't hear or read them so much as he just knows them. He doesn't have any time to wonder at what this might mean, though, because it turns out he was being watched after all. The cat youkai is back, snarling for the book, and Natsume only just manages to duck the first attack. Soon enough he's scooped up the book and started running.
He careens down the stairs, wincing at the youkai crashing into the walls behind him – he wasn't able to do the one thing Reiko requested, keeping the house clean. But that's the least of his worries right now and Natsume keeps running. It doesn't take long to reach the forest, but it also doesn't take long for the spirit to become fully enraged.
"Hand it over now," it snarls, voice deepening on the last word. With a puff of smoke it's suddenly huge, and it smacks a gigantic paw down over Natsume's chest, pinning him to the ground and driving the breath out of him in one. Claws almost the length of his hand rest delicately on his throat.
He's probably going to die here. Natsume doesn't know how often he has had that thought in his life – too often – but it's never been as vivid as now. He is going to die without ever understanding his grandmother. She will come home on Monday and her house will be wrecked, her book stolen and her idiot grandson dead. And that will hurt her – Natsume may not know Reiko very well yet but somehow he is very sure right now that his death will hurt her at least a small amount. Of course, she won't cry. If anything she'll laugh, but it will be even bitterer than usual, and the thought aches deep inside his chest.
And suddenly, his fear is gone.
The youkai starts to say something angry about humans always wanting power, but Natsume cuts it off.
"STOP IT," he shouts, and slams his fist wildly into its face. It tumbles back, clutching its head. But though Natsume would normally use this chance to keep running, this time he doesn't. Instead, he clutches the Book of Friends to his chest and yells some more. "I don't even know what this thing is! I could care less about whatever power it has! But it belongs to my grandmother and I'll never let you have it!"
The youkai has gone quiet and still, watching Natsume closely. He knows he should run, but it's like the words are pouring out of his mouth of their own volition. Even after he stops shouting, he can't help but go on, voice shaking with an unstable mix of anger and sadness.
"You said no one ever understood Reiko, and that she never had any human friends. Well, neither did I, not until I met her. She's… I've lived with so many relatives, but she's the only one who's ever said this was my home too. And I – I want to help her. I want to understand her. I don't know what this book is, but it's for youkai, right? I think, if just one 'person' could be her friend… maybe she wouldn't be so lonely."
Natsume falls silent. He didn't want to say that. He doesn't ever want to think that Reiko is anything less than satisfied with her current life, because she is so brash and terrifying and wonderful. She seems so very sure in everything she does, and he wants to think that's because she has chosen this life for herself. He doesn't want her to be lonely. Despite knowing it's not that simple, despite knowing the very fact that she understands him so well means she probably isn't very happy being so alone no matter how she encourages it, Natsume wants that for her. It feels almost like a betrayal to admit the reality is anything different.
"…You little brat," the youkai rumbles after a long pause. "You told me Reiko was dead."
"I never said that," Natsume says. "You thought that all on your own. She's just out of town."
For another long minute, they just stare at each other. Then the youkai says, "Well, there's no point in taking the Book if she's still alive. But you – what's your name?"
"I'm Natsume Takashi."
The youkai hums thoughtfully and stares at Natsume some more. For some reason its gaze reminds him vividly of Reiko – and then in another puff of smoke, it becomes nothing more than a fat cat once more. The cat climbs into Natsume's arms, ignoring his surprise and the way he frantically scrambles the Book of Friends away from it.
"What are you doing?" Natsume asks.
"You're very young," is all the cat says at first, and its eyes still don't blink or look away. Natsume's breath catches a little, but even so he drops the youkai a moment later.
"Get away from me," he tells it sternly.
"It's been a while since I visited Reiko. I think I'll hang around until she gets back," the cat replies, but it rubs up against his legs as it does so. Natsume has to clench his hands not to pick it up and bury his face in its soft fur, even knowing what it really is. Normal animals usually don't like him at all.
But this cat is a youkai, and it follows him home, then yowls at the door until Natsume finally lets it in and gives it most of what he intended for his dinner. It stays on his heels everywhere he goes, making rude comments and trying to persuade him to give it Reiko's sake, and he's too nervous to put down the Book of Friends.
But it also curls up next to Natsume's head when he goes to sleep, and purrs quietly when his fingers slowly press against its warm fur.
Natsume sleeps that night with one hand holding the Book of Friends under his pillow, the other clinging tight to the only youkai that had ever been powerful enough to win Natsume Reiko's games – and willingly came back to play more.
He dreams of asking his grandmother, "Can I keep it?"
I'm sorry it's been so long. Hopefully I haven't lost the tone and characterization of this story. Originally this chapter was difficult because I was introducing Madara, and I wanted to keep it similar to the original but there were clearly necessary differences. Natsume's reactions, for example. And of course Madara's reasoning for staying with him will be very different - this will be covered in the next chapter. I won't make any promises, but hopefully it will be out fairly soon.