Review Thanks:
Quoillyx: Yes Natsume can read yokai language. There is an episode where when Natsume first got The Book of Friends his foster family called it a book of scribbles. I assume that it was in their language. And Kyo can sense when Natsume is in danger (because it's cute) and the other part is he has spent enough around Natsume that he knows the storm isn't 'natural'. As for the confusion. Sorry. All be explained soon!
blackkyu: Thank you!
ZenithYore: I'm assuming you're the same person as Quoillyx going by what you said about your previous review and if not I'm terribly sorry. As for reviews never worry about taking up space. I love reading them :)
AN: I'm posting this chapter early! And this is the chapter that you all have been waiting for! It's going to go into details of the curse; which will be very AU. Also I am planning on doing another missing scenes chapter so if there is anything you all would like to. Like one of Kyo's reunions or anything really leave in in a review or PM me. As always, please, please, leave a review!
Chapter 52
"What do you mean that the book tells the truth?" Kyo asked as he out followed Natsume from the bedroom.
"That's what he told me," Natsume said. Kyo really wanted to ask who this mysterious He was, but right now the idea of finding out the truth about their family curse was too overwhelming.
"What has you two so eager?" Shigure asked as they hurried down the stairs.
"I…ah…" Natsume asked suddenly looking nervous.
"We need to look at the book. The old family book," Kyo said.
"That thing?" Shigure asked surprised. Kyo nodded. "But it's nothing but scribbles and the odd hand drawn picture."
"Actually it's written in the language of the yokai," Natsume explained looking only slightly apprehensive.
"What's with all the excitement?" Hatori asked at he put his cell phone in his pocket with a frustrated sigh. He was joined by Yuki, Haru, and Momiji; the latter two were wearing shoes now. The pair that Haru was wearing looked awfully familiar. Kyo figured that Shigure, Haru, and Momiji had been loaned shoes.
"Natsume and Kyo need the old family book," Shigure said as he still looked slightly confused or maybe worried was a better term. Kyo wondered why his older cousin would look worried by something like that.
"It isn't written in any language that anyone knows," Hatori said.
"Like Natsume was saying before, that the book is written in the language of the yokai and he can read it," Kyo said with a roll of his eyes.
"Yokai have their own writing?" Momiji asked excitedly. Natsume nodded.
"If you could read that book that means…" Shigure said as he let his voice trail off.
"I was reading it when you took it away," Natsume said beginning to look nervous.
"And how much were you able to read?" Shigure asked curiously.
"I just had time to read one word. Curse," Natsume explained.
"And you didn't say anything then, because…" Shigure said as Haru rolled his eyes.
"What was he suppose to say. This weird book I found in your house is written in the language of yokai and even though you are a totally stranger I will let you in on my secret and tell you that I can read it," Haru said.
"I didn't mean it to sound like I was accusing you," Shigure said as he looked directly at Natsume. "It's just that," here Shigure ran a hand through his already disheveled hair, "it's a lot to take in. I never really paid much attention to that book and now…it's really important, isn't it?"
"According to Natsume it can tell the truth," Kyo said as he looked at his boyfriend curiously.
"Or at least most of it," Natsume added.
"I'll go get it then. I moved it to my office," Shigure said then quickly left.
"How come I've never seen this book?" Momiji asked.
"That's because it's never been to the main house," Haru said.
"Really?" Kyo asked finding it slightly odd.
"It's true," Hatori said with a frown of his own. "All I know is that it's always been in the family, but it's never talked about."
"That's…" Kyo started to say but stopped as Shigure returned.
"Here you go," Shigure said as he handed the book over to Natsume with some reluctance.
"Thank you," Natsume said as he gingerly took the book.
"Natsume, do I mind if I ask how you learned that our family book told the truth?" Hatori asked.
"I ah…," Natsume said as he licked his lips. "I sort of had a dream…where I found out about it."
"A dream?" Hatori asked looking confused. Kyo frowned when he saw that Shigure, Haru, and Momiji shared a look. Something else happened last night. Maybe they could tell him why Natsume was injured.
"Natsume can sometimes see things in his dreams," Kyo said deciding on keeping it simple. He honestly still didn't know how Natsume seeing memories really worked.
"So we'll finally find out the truth about our family and why we're cursed," Yuki said as he looked at the book that Natsume held in his hands.
"Maybe we should read this upstairs," Kyo said as he surveyed the damage around the house. "The upstairs is practically untouched."
"Really?" Yuki asked as he too looked around at the destruction. "So only where…" whatever Yuki was thinking he didn't say. Instead he pulled out his notebook and was nodding. Kyo shook his head. His cousin was thinking something, but he had no clue what it was.
"Let's go and read this book. I want to know!" Momiji shouted as he ran up the stairs grabbing Natsume as he passed giving the others no choice but to follow.
~XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX~
Natsume sat on Kyo's bed with his boyfriend sitting next to him. Hatori took the only chair and Shigure was sitting on the edge of the desk. Kyo's cousins were sitting on floor looking at him expectantly. He swallowed nervously. He had never read to anyone before and until recently no had had ever read to him. For some reason that really seemed to upset Kyo, so his boyfriend had gotten in the habit of reading to him.
"Just take your time," Kyo reassured him. Natsume nodded and opened the book and began to read out loud…
"My family is now cursed and it's his fault. I'm having one of my 'friends' write this for me. I don't want himto read it. At least this way if he ever finds it, he won't be able to. Chances are it will be a long time before anyone can, but it's safer this way. My friend is glaring at me and wants me to keep my feelings out as they will get in the way of the information, so I will try to do that.
"Heshowed up one day and my family feel in love with him. They couldn't see him for what he was, well I could. Then again I can see many things…"
Natsume bit his lip here as he remembered the man from his dream. If the man from the dream could see things, then the man might be like him. That would also explain why this book was written in yokai language.
"I saw him for what he really was. I tried to tell them, but they didn't believe me. Then he promised them that the family would always be powerfully and wealthy if they would do one thing for him. He needed twelve members of the family to 'volunteer' to give their names…"
Here Natsume shared a look with Kyo. If the curse had to deal with people giving their names it changed things and also explained things. They were technically 'owed' until the name taker chose to give the names back or at least a person in his bloodline. Of course this was slightly different than the Book of Friends as yokai names were the ones that it held. Kyo and Natsume were so busy sharing a look that they both missed the confused look that crossed Yuki's face.
"…give their names to twelve power yokai that coincided with the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. I know there was a reason he asked them to do this and I know it's not what he promised us.
"In truth he is part yokai and he hates me because I know this. My 'friend' told me what there was a way for himto become a full yokai. The 'man', if he wants to become a full yokai, he has to defeat twelve powerful yokai and trap several human souls within those yokai.
"Twelve people have already volunteered and no matter what I said I couldn't stop them. It broke my heart that there is nothing I could do and what makes it worse is that none of them have been seen since they left. All we know is that they returned and are 'choosing' to live with him. I don't believe him, but once again the rest of them do.
"I know that he has something planned for me as well, but I don't know what it is. Whatever is, it won't be pleasant. But I digress. I know where the twelve yokai are. He has their names so he controls them and they have the names of our family members; so technical they own the members of our family and since they are owed. If you can read this, you know where I am going with this…
"I don't understand," Momiji said looking honestly upset and very confused.
"What his book is saying is that since this 'man' took the names of the yokai and they had the names of the family members that he could control our ancestors through them," Haru said through gritted teeth. "Our family was always full of idiots."
"It's not really fair to blame them. We don't know their situation. Our family could have been destitute," Hatori said. "The author said that the story was heavily edited."
"I don't care. Nothing is worth what our family has gone through," Haru grumbled.
"Let Natsume finish reading before we start discussing what we learned," Kyo said as he rolled his eyes.
"…As for the location of the yokai. It's complicated. Instead of keeping their names he used their names as a seal and locked the yokai in the members of the family. Since he owns the yokai they are doomed to 'possess' a new member of the family when the current member dies. He automatically gets the names of the now possessed member of the family.
"The only way to break the cycle is to break the seals. Where to find the seals is marked on 12 different maps it this book. Each of them is located in quiet a different location. Once the seal is broken the cursed member of the family will be faced with a choice. They either accept the benefits of 'their' yokai, but if they do this they will still have their weaknesses as well. Or they let the yokai go completely. They will no longer have any of the weaknesses, but they won't have the benefits as well. With either choice it will end and they will be the last members of the family to be cursed."
"That's all he wrote," Natsume said as he began to flip through the book. All that was left were the maps with a short description of where to find the exact location of each seal.
"That book changes everything that we thought about the curse," Yuki said with a frown.
"What it doesn't explain is Kyo's part of the curse or how Akito is involved," Shigure said.
"When the author wrote the book, I don't think they knew everything," Hatori said with a sigh.
Natsume frowned as he remember the man from his dream. He had a bracelet that was similar…he shook his head…no he had Kyo's bracelet. Something happened to him after writing the book. Then there was this he that was constantly mentioned in the book. There was a connection between him, Akito, and the miasma. Natsume rubbed his sore eyes. He was so close to figuring it out, he was just missing a few pieces.
"Are you alright?" Kyo asked his voice lace with concern.
"I'm fine," Natsume said as he tried to stifle a yawn. Kyo gave him a frown in return.
"Does reading this type of thing wear you out?" Kyo asked as he continued to frown.
"I don't know," Natsume said as he looked down at the book in his lap. "I never read this much yokai writing in one sitting before. Yokai aren't known for their literacy skills."
"Maybe you should take a nap. You had a pretty rough night," Hatori said.
"Maybe," Natsume replied as he slipped the family book into his satchel next to the Book of Friends. Now only was he tired, but he felt a tugging sensation; like he was being pulled somewhere. Maybe if he slept he would have another dream and be able to talk to the man. The one that wrote the book.
"Why don't we give them a minute," Hatori suggested as he got up and quickly left the room. Momiji gave them a slightly confused look before he followed Hatori. The other two slowly filed out each looking lost in his own thoughts.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Kyo asked once the others had gone.
"I'm fine. Just tired," Natsume told him hoping that his boyfriend didn't push the issue. The tugging feeling was getting stronger. "I'll just take a nap like Hatori suggested, but," here Natsume took off his Satchel and lopped it around Kyo's neck, "can you watch this for me."
"Okay now you're freaking me out," Kyo said as he looked down at the satchel.
"He just noticed it in my dream and if I dream again," Natsume shook his head, "I don't want to take any chances. He knew what it was and told me to hide it." Then there was that shadowy thing that was looking for him, but Natsume didn't want to mention that. He knew that if he did that Kyo would sit up with him and it was obvious that his family wanted to talk about what was just read.
"Fine," Kyo said as he ran a hand through his hair, "but after your nap you will tell what went on while I was gone."
"I'll tell you what I can," Natsume told him.
"I guess that's better than nothing," Kyo said with a sigh. He then leaned over and gave Natsume a quick kiss on the forehead. "Get some rest. I don't think we'll be staying here much longer. With all the storm damage the house took it isn't safe."
"Alright," Natsume said as he laid down and let Kyo tuck him in. His boyfriend gave him another kiss.
"I'll be downstairs if you need anything," Kyo told him and then left.
By this time Natsume felt the 'pull' stronger than ever and he instantly went to sleep wondering where he would be when he 'woke up' this time.
~XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX~
Kyo walked down the stairs and he could just see the rest of his family sitting on the porch. With one last look up at his room he went to join them. Not surprisingly they all looked slightly upset.
"How is he?" Hatori asked using his doctor voice.
"Sleeping," Kyo answered. "Using his powers always wears him out and if he already had a rough night; he'll be fine after he gets some sleep."
"What that book told us…"Shigure said as he reached in his pockets and pull out a pack of cigarettes only to shove them back in as he looked in Hatori's direction.
"You can smoke if you need to," Hatori said
"I'm fine," Shigure said with a shrug.
Kyo raised an eyebrow. He hadn't known that Hatori quit smoking. He noticed that his cousins looked upset by the exchanged and decided that he would ask one of them later.
"So if what that book said was true, we can actually break the curse," Haru said.
"Sounds like it," Yuki said.
"What did it mean by 'strengths'?" Momiji asked.
"If you think about the abilities we have they aren't exactly normal. Like strength, speed, agility, heightened senses," Hatori said with a sigh. "It's different for each of us, but we have them. If we choose to release those yokai we lose those abilities, but if we chose to accept them we get to keep them."
"If we do that though, we also keep our weaknesses," Haru said with sigh.
"I, for one, don't think it's worth it," Shigure said wistfully. "To finally be free of the curse completely. I never really believed it would happen."
"That's something each of us is going to have to decide though," Haru said.
"I still don't like how Kyo and Akito weren't mentioned in the book," Yuki said with a frown. Kyo shrugged in response. Not too long ago he would have been upset because no longer being the cat meant everything to him. Now though it meant that he would lose the ability to see yokai and if he could no longer see them, he was afraid the Natsume would pull away from him.
"We still have to figure out a way to break the seals," Hatori said. "No use worrying about anything else until we do that."
"Natsume will probably know of away," Kyo said as he glanced inside the house and sighed. "So what exactly happened last night?"
"I'm not really sure," Shigure said. "As you know it was storming all day and then…"
"Natsume took a nap and when I went to check on him he was gone," Momiji added.
"Gone? What do you mean gone?" Kyo asked getting a really bad feeling.
"He showed up by the front door a while later. He came back with the bruise on his wrist and the scratches on his back," Haru explained further. "The storm got worse after that."
"I need to check on him," Kyo said as he hurried into the house and practically ran up the stairs. He had a very, very bad feeling. He looked down at the satchel that he carried and swore to himself. He opened his bedroom door only to find that his bed was empty.
