Natsume woke to the sound of someone calling his name. Huh? Sensei? He rubbed his eyes, looked around the room and saw his sensei looking at him expectantly from a desk near the window.
"Are you finally awake now, Baka-Natsume? Look out the window and you'll see something interesting," he said while smiling that creepy smile of his.
Natsume, still sleepy, ignored the fact that his cat just called him stupid and walked next to him. "If this is something not worth being woken up for then I-" His sentence was cut short when Nyanko-sensei suddenly jumped on top of his head. "Sensei! What was that for?!"
"Idiot! Keep quiet or they might notice us!" The cat hissed.
"You were the one who told me to come and look..." Natsume complained while massaging his aching head and slowly took a peek out the window. But once he saw what or who was out there, he quickly ducked back down. Eh? Natori-san? What's he doing here?
"That Natori-brat is better than I thought. He sniffed us out faster than I expected." He hopped on top of the desk again to watch the exorcist from the window.
"Sensei, what should we do now?" Natsume asked in an almost panicky voice. Why is Natori-san here? Did Touko-san and Shigeru-san asked him to find me? Are they with him?
Nyanko-sensei, as if knowing what was going on in his mind, answered his question, "We do nothing. We don't know for sure if he really does know that you're here or is just making a wild guess. He knows better than taking two people who can't 'see' here of all places. Just leave him be, Matoba's men will deal with him."
As if on cue, a man approached Natori but it wasn't one of Matoba's men, it was Matoba himself with two man-made shiki gliding behind him.
"Well, if it isn't the head of the Matoba clan himself. Is the business not so great lately that the head himself would have the leisure to come all the way here to greet one lowly exorcist?" Natori asked in his usual manner.
"On the contrary, I have some important business to attend to and I was about to step out. It was a coincidence to meet you out here." Matoba answered back smoothly.
The smile on Natori's face quickly disappeared, "Then, I'd make this quick, do you know where Natsume is?"
Natori-san...
The expression on Matoba's face changed into that of mock shock as he responded, "Takashi-kun? Was he caught by an ayakashi again?"
Natori looked straight at him for a whole second. "I'm not sure if being caught by an ayakashi is worse than being caught by whatever it is that caught Natsume right now." He sighed and put on his disguise, "Well then, I wouldn't want to disrupt the head of the Matoba clan's schedule so I'll take my leave now."
Natsume watched him walk away. He felt guilty about making his friend worry but he knows that he can't face him just yet. I'm sorry, Natori-san...
Author's Notes: Um.. I'm sorry it took so long. A lot stuff happened in my life but when I think about it, they're nothing compared to what Natsume has been through so I shouldn't complain too much. So people, when you feel like the world is against you, just think of how Natsume got through it all and found a place where he can call home. And how he managed to keep a kind soul despite all that. T_T
7/26/14