Natsume.
"Sensei, is that you?" Natsume asked in the darkness. He couldn't see any light, but strangely, he could see his arms and body just fine. The last thing he remembered was going to bed, but right now, he couldn't even tell if he was lying down or not. It was like he was floating through the place.
A blast of light suddenly came from his left. He covered his eyes with his arms on reflex, but found that there was no need to as the light was not as blinding as he thought. The light played a scene before him like a projector and the boy just watched as colors filled the "screen".
He saw himself walking along the path to the Fujiwara household. He was wearing his uniform so it must've been a school day when this happened. The other Natsume smiled as he neared the house and the scene shifted to Touko-san.
She was hanging the freshly-washed blankets on the clothesline in the yard. She seemed to be in a good mood like always as she softly hummed a tune Natsume has never heard before.
"Touko-san, I'm back!" He heard his own voice say in the distance.
The woman turned her head with a visible blush on her face from being caught humming so obliviously that the other almost chuckled. "Takashi-kun, welcome back." She beamed at him.
Natsume!
The other Natsume came into a halt halfway to where his foster parent was and looked back behind him. His expression then left nothing of the happiness that he had had just a few seconds ago and was instead replaced by fear. However, when he saw nothing behind him, he quickly felt relieved.
"Takashi-kun, is something wrong?"
"No, nothi-." He was interrupted mid sentence when what felt like a gust of wind flew past him. It seemed pretty harmless, but based from the boy's experience, he knew it was more of that. He turned his back and caught a glimpse of an ayakashi.
Its red face stood out in contrast with its huge body which was covered in what looked like dried grass. It didn't carry a weapon, but the pointed horn on top of its burly hair seemed deadly enough. It fled as soon as it came.
The boy was about to blurt out that he forgot something at school so he could run after the ayakashi when he saw, right there on the ground, the body of his foster parent with her head against the stone steps. And the freshly-washed sheets laid next to her, sullied with dirt and blood.
It's all my fault.
Author's Notes: I finally updated! So there it is, Natsume's reason for leaving. Updates for this story might become more frequent as I finally found the outline I had made for it! But my handwriting is so hard to decipher as usual. x.x Also, I'm smitten with Kaneki Ken at the moment. I think I might have a thing for MCs who suffered so much. Huhu.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
4/18/15