Chapter 2

"Natsume still has not returned, has he?"

The soft fwhump of footsteps stopped for a moment as hazel eyes shifted over to the purple-haired female resting on the window. "Hinoe." That was the only acknowledgement Madara gave.

"It's been a week."

"Has it? I hadn't noticed," said the spirit, although his continued pacing belied his anxiety. The words weren't coated in their usual wry tone.

Hinoe reached into her long sleeves and removed her favorite pipe. "You're a horrible liar. It's like it's his form itself that makes it impossible for you to lie."

Madara ignored the female spirit.

"Are you going again today?" A soft exhale as the sting of the smoke reached his sensitive nostrils.

"Once it's dark."

"It's very likely he's dead."

He wasn't even aware of it, but when he relaxed a second later, he realized he had been fighting a grimace. "I don't believe that's happened yet," was all he said.

"And what if he is? Do you plan on wearing his form for the rest of a human lifetime, pretending to be him? What happened to taking the Yuujinchou?"

Madara chose to bypass the first question. His mind didn't want to quite wrap around the possibility yet, ephemeral as a human life was. "I will get the book fair and square. I won't do it by stealing it from him while he's still alive."

This was a lie. The book was gone, but to those whose names were still in its pages, this was as close to a death sentence as possible. Madara would keep quiet about it for now.

"Because you're the only one who can kill him?" Hinoe snorted elegantly, if such a thing were possible. "Fool, you've grown far too attached."

Natsume Takashi's face twisted into a sneer rarely seen on the actual person. "And so have you, if you're here asking me these questions. Go off and bother those high school girls you're so fond of."

"You're losing your touch, dear Madara. You didn't even deny it." She stood, her purple-flowered kimono trailing behind her, ignoring his sputters of outrage at the casual use of his name. "You owe nothing to the human family. They are humans, and we are spirits. Just remember that." With those words, she leapt from the sill and disappeared out of sight.

The great spirit sighed and scratched his head. Hinoe had been visiting on and off, as well as a few of the other demons the fool Natsume had befriended. All of them had been worried about the boy's disappearance, despite any attempts to hide or deny it. Of course, out of all of them, he himself was the most surprised and shocked when Natsume didn't return one night despite a promised dinner with the family. The idiot had always held those in high importance, but in the end his absence went unexplained.

The next day, he still had not returned, and even Madara was starting to worry. And then the next day rolled around, and Madara knew something was very wrong.

To ease the Fujiwaras' worry, the spirit had even started to take on Natsume Takashi's form, posing as him during the day while scouring far and wide at night. It was to no avail, however, for the original was nowhere to be found.

The room remained much the same state it had been since Natsume had last been there. Almost all of the boy's possessions remained untouched, as Madara had no intention of disturbing his effects. Summer homework still lay in his bag, and papers were still spilled over the desk from his last-minute attempts to rush an assignment. "Vacation is short," he had said, "so I need to take all the time I can."

The sun bled red in the horizon. He'd already had dinner, which was an unusually quiet affair. Madara spoke as little as possible, for fear of betraying his identity as not-Takashi. That meant that normally, Natsume would be holed up in his room, and the foster parents wouldn't disturb him.

A little more time passed, and the crimson melted into a puddle over the houses. Dark blue, bordering on black, crept closer into view. It wasn't just the night, but a thick blanket of invading clouds as well. It was going to rain later that day.

It was already late enough. He didn't have to wait any longer.

Madara, the dog spirit companion to a stupid human who could never keep himself out of trouble, stepped onto the window sill in a human boy's body before leaping into the air. A white beast sprang into the blotchy sky, dashing high, up and away, with his long wispy tail flitting behind him as he continued his fruitless search.