"Intruders!"
"Intruders at the courtyard! Hurry!"
A couple of servants were scrambling around and gathering everyone they could find to fight against the group of ayakashi that suddenly attacked the Matoba manor.
"What of Natsume-sama?"
"A separate group is already headed to his location."
"It'd be bad if something were to happen to him."
"Matoba-sama would be greatly displeased."
"Let's hurry!"
The servants dashed through the hallway and out of the building. None of them noticed the pair of red eyes that watched them from under the staircase.
"I guess I'd be needing this paper bag after all." Natori Shuuichi sighed and placed the paper bag over his head. The paper bag had nothing but holes for eyes but it was enough as a disguise in this house that was swarming with shikis. His only problem was if he was spotted by anyone without the gift. To them he'd only look like an adult man with a paper bag over his head.
With another cautious glance at both sides of the hallway, Natori sprinted his way into the nearest room. As he slid the door close behind him, he let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "This is more aggravating than I thought. Now then, which room was it?"
Rather than passing through the hallways, with all this commotion, it was much safer to pass through the rooms instead as it would be less likely for him to encounter anyone in them. Although his pace would be much slower.
"Is this it?"
The room was lined by shelves and shelves of pots of different sizes. As an exorcist, Natori knew right away that these pots were no ordinary pots as each of them were imbued with spiritual power. He could even sense some ayakashi in some of them. However, he had no way of knowing which one of these pots contained the ayakashi he was looking for. The exorcist reminded himself to label all the pots he owned as soon as he gets home.
Suddenly, Natori turned his attention towards the only exit- he could hear footsteps approaching his location. It would be extremely bad if he got found by the Matoba clan, but there was no place to hide in the room he was in so instead he took out strips of paper from his pocket and readied himself with what was about to come.
"Quick, in here!"
Three individuals collapsed in front of the exorcist after sliding the door shut behind them.
"Natsume! Hiiragi!"
Hiiragi nonchalantly stood up in front of her master as if what happened just then was just an illusion. "Master, we have arrived."
"Natori-san… I…"
"Save your words for later, Natsume." Natori smiled down at the boy and patted his head. "Right now, we need to get out of here first."
The boy nodded in response.
"Let's get out of here then!" Nyanko-sensei urged. After staying there for so long, the cat just wanted to transform and leave.
"Wait, sensei." The boy took notice of the pots that lined the shelves.
"You've noticed, Natsume?" The exorcist questioned in surprise.
Natsume didn't respond, instead he closed his eyes as if to shut out everything else and concentrated on a single presence. "This one."
"What is it, Natsume?" The cat asked.
"I'm not sure, but it was calling out to me."
"It's that ayakashi's companion." Hiiragi explained. "He was captured by the Matoba clan."
"That ayakashi? You mean that red-faced one that the Matoba brat killed?"
Natsume turned his attention back to the group. "Is that true, Natori-san?"
Natori still had the bag over his head so it was impossible to tell what kind of face he was making. He didn't know what to say because he too wasn't sure what was going in. He could only suspect that the Matoba clan was more involved in this than he would have liked. "I don't know the details-"
"We were captured by the exorcists and under the condition that my companion brings Natsume-sama here, he would let the two of us go."
2/19/2019