A/N: This is the first half of a two part arc. This drabble is particularly short, but I hope that it doesn't take away from the rest of the other drabbles. Balancing Ntasume's spirit world with his human one is rather difficult. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this short piece, and look forward to the second half next week.

The Creator (Reunion Arc: Part 1/2)

I can no longer call myself a human. But I wonder sometimes, just exactly how I've come to become a god. Do gods have parents? Or was the ritual the object that had birthed me? Perhaps gods have no parents. And that, in itself, speaks of just how different I am now from what I once was.

"So where did you say this place was?" Nishimura asks again.

"Ah, just a little further up," Taki says, looking back down on her map. "There's supposed to be a really good place to view cherry blossoms here."

"In the middle of the forest?" Kitamoto asks, sounding doubtful.

"Hey!" Nishimura snaps. "If Taki says it's there, it's there."

"What does that even mean?" Sasada says, her look of exasperation visible for all to see.

Walking a little behind, Natsume and Tanuma exchange amused looks. It had originally started off as an ordinary enough plan to go cherry blossom viewing, but then things had started to devolve once Nishimura had insisted on finding a place where they wouldn't have to share with anyone else.

Once Taki had volunteered a potential spot, the rest had become a foregone conclusion.

"I wonder if we'll ever get there at this rate," Tanuma says, chuckling.

"Hm? It's close by. I can sense it," Natsume replies absently.

A second later he realizes what he had said, but it is too late.

Tanuma slows down on the switchback path, and looks at him oddly.

"Natsume?"

Natsume looks away. Perhaps if he pretends that he is caught up by something else, Tanuma will assume that he had gotten the information from a spirit.

It works.

A moment later, Tanuma falls silent again, once more walking quietly next to Natsume.

The reality however, is that the forest is completely devoid of spirits. A true rarity, and a fact so disturbing that Natsume is having a hard time masking his discomfort. He probes, stretching his senses across the mountain forest area as much as he dares, as he walks effortlessly on the mountain path. Steep steps are no longer tiring for him. In fact, he can no longer even feel fatigue.

And that is when he feels it. There is a deeper power in this mountain, but it is hidden so deeply, that had Natsume not been regularly trained, he would never have felt it.

A deep power, and yet also…

Lonely?

"Tanuma," Natsume says, careful to keep his voice out of the others' hearing range. The young man turns silently to look at him. "Tell the others that I dropped something and that I've gone back to look for it."

Tanuma nods his acceptance, but Natsume can sense the worry in his eyes. "Is it going to be dangerous?"

Natsume smiles gently.

"No."

"All right, I'll let them know."

He doesn't hesitate. The moment Tanuma turns his back, Natsume rushes off the path, shedding his human form. Tanuma may wonder how Natsume had managed to vanish so quickly, but the deep power is proving too distracting for Natsume to care about such details.

Natsume barely registers Tanuma's surprise and confusion, instead concentrating on that source of power, and most of all, that loneliness. A loneliness that calls to him, he who is all too familiar with the feeling.

His feet are no longer bare as he flies through the forest, weaving between the trees. Worshipers had finally gotten around to giving him geta with plain, red straps. It matters little to him—as it was with the headdress, the wooden sandals stick on no matter how fast or how recklessly he moves.

As he closes in on the source, Natsume finally realizes what had truly called him here. Before him stands a Shinto gate, faded orange in its old age, the ritual papers long worn away. Yet it does not have the feeling of being abandoned. There is life there, and once again, Natsume senses that deep power. A power tinged with loneliness, and yet…

"So it is you," Natsume says quietly.

"Hello Natsume," the other god says to him. "It has been awhile."

"Yes it has," Natsume agrees. "It's been a long time since I've seen you, Kai."