Chapter 16

Headaches were his constant companion now, and the closer the two came, the more they intensified. He suppressed the itch in his throat before it rumbled forth into a growl. The exorcist must be really strong … but more importantly, his intuition was right. The man was back.

He didn't know how he knew; he just did. And here the exorcist was, alone.

He tightened his grip around the branch. He tensed, preparing himself, and when the man was directly below him, he sprung.

Around and around they rolled, and he actually managed to get the upper hand. He didn't think his bravado worked as well as he wanted it to, though, and he'd made a huge miscalculation.

He should have noticed that the majority of his migraines happened whenever his eyes swept past the white bun resting on the man's shoulders. He should have noticed that all the power seemed to be emanating from it.

Admittedly, he'd thought it was some strange fashion statement, like a puffy white muffler … or something.

When he was flung backwards and pinned under the giant spirit, he had only himself to blame, and he was frustrated and tired of everything happening at once. "What do you want," he'd asked, and they hadn't given him the answer he'd been expecting. They weren't after the spirits. Instead, they had told him he was someone they knew, a friend.

Him? Friends with a human and his pet?

(No … the spirit was too strong to be anyone's pet, and he valued freedom more than anything else. Maybe…?)

They had to be lying. But he wanted to listen. Maybe what they were saying was the truth?

"Natsume Takashi." The name rolled off his tongue like water, familiar to his muscles but not to his mind. He wanted to check, to ask them more, but then hell broke loose.

He felt Rinne surge forward, and quickly he tried to stop him. The chaos drowned out his voice, though, and then he felt the weight on his torso lift as the dog fell. Irrationally, he wanted to rush forward to check, to see if he was all right. With a burst of strength, he ripped the paper bonds around his body. "Nya-" he started crying, but then he stopped. What had he wanted to say?

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt a rather insistent tug on his pant leg. "Nushi-sama, w-we should go!"

Ren? "No, I … I think I… They know who I am, Ren. I need to ask them."

This seemed to startle the little tanuki, but he immediately pulled himself together. "I-it's too d-d-dang-gerous right now!" he stuttered. He looked to be on the verge of tears, but despite his obvious reluctance and anxiety, Ren was stronger than he looked. He found himself being dragged hopping, skipping, and slouching at great speed away from the battlefield.

"Where are we going?"

"We sh-should go back-k to the clearing… Kakuyuki and I-Igari-sama are holding them back."

He found his worry shifting from the strange dog spirit to the two he knew. There was no lost love between the boar and him, but he didn't wish harm upon him.

"We should go back and help…"

Ren just shook his head vigorously, and the two continued on their way.

It wasn't long, though, before he felt something approaching. "Something" was an understatement to describe the large mass of pure power barreling towards them. A large rush of wind, during which he actually had to reach back to the raccoon's tiny body and anchor him down, blew past him. He screwed his eyes shut, bearing down until the assault was over.

When he opened them again, the spirit from before was towering before him. "Did you think those two could actually stop me? Fool Natsume, I'll beat it into your head how strong the great Madara is again, if I have to!"

He glared at the dog above him as Ren cowered beneath him, paws clamped over his head as he shivered in a ball. "If you're going to keep going like this, I'm never going back with you."

The spirit (Madara?) snorted. "What lies did they feed you? That they were innocents, under attack from human invaders? There are no innocent demons, Natsume." He huffed. "Then again, you never did learn that, even when you did remember everything."

"What do you mean?" he asked, drawing his words out slowly.

"Just as it sounds, fool. Use your head for once. They must have done something that caused the humans to retaliate in the first place; otherwise there'd be no human in the world paying attention to them. And for protection, they happened to find you. Nice and convenient, eh?"

He frowned and dropped his gaze. His eyes instead met with the liquid brown that was Ren's, gazing up at him in trepidation and fear.

He sighed. "I knew."

"What?"

"I knew," he repeated, louder. Again, he stared into the spirit's yellow, inhuman eyes. "I knew they weren't telling me the whole truth, but I still wanted to help them."

"You're an idiot."

"I know. You always told me that." He paused here. "Yeah, that's what it feels like, if what you say is true." A smile flashed across his face, a moment of levity amongst the seriousness. "I must've been a handful, wasn't I?"

"Still are," came the morose reply.

They stayed in silence, letting it stretch in a comfortable weight around them. Why did he feel so at ease, even though he didn't know this potentially dangerous spirit? Perhaps he's telling the truth, then…

A shout shattered the stillness. An elderly voice, and a figure approaching at a slow hobble. "Hey there, Nushi-sama!"

"Kousetsu!" he exclaimed. "You shouldn't be here!" He got onto his feet and sprinted towards the elder, stopping just a few feet before reaching out and holding the demon's hands in his own. "The elderly shouldn't walk such long distances in such a hurry," he said with a soft smile, "you know that."

"Hoh! It'll be another millennium before you'll find this old man crippled and unable to move!" retorted Kousetsu, waving his cane around. The spirit looked up at Madara. "I see … so it's finally time?"

"What do you mean?"

A hand rested on his head, and for some reason, he felt his heart sting. "We always knew that a windfall like you would eventually have to leave."

"Kousetsu…"

"I'm sorry. We've been keeping secrets from you, and though we knew you were not of this land, we still decided to cage you here. I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "No, don't be. I stayed here of my own free will, although Igari might have had something to say about it had I tried to leave," he chuckled.

"There are many things… Things we've mislead you about, all for the sake of making you stay."

"And I forgive you," he insisted.

"I hate to cut the sobfest here," interrupted the giant, "but standing in the open and chatting about emotions isn't exactly high on my agenda."

Right after he said those words, though, two simultaneous shouts rang in his ears.

"Nushi-sama!"

He felt it, just as the words reached his ears. He looked up, and there was a giant shape – an amorphous blob would have been the best way to describe it – dropping down on them with great speed. Without thinking, he shoved Kousetsu as hard as he could and leaped out of the way himself.

He hit the ground rolling.

"That's it! I'm sick and tired of everyone interrupting everything!" bellowed Madara, and he slammed into the attacking demon, who practically rolled out of the way because he was only a head. An olive-green-skinned head with a head full of flowing white hair.

Pain shot through his head again. He knew this demon too, but from where? But then he saw the angry perpetual scowl on his face and he saw the rows of large, blunt teeth. His eyes picked out the bits of stains around the edge of his teeth.

Teeth. Teeth that were large, fixed in a jaw twice his size. A jaw that could easily fit around him.

He saw a flash of red and a whirl of black feathers and he shook his head to rid himself of the gruesome image.

Yes, he knew this demon, and, he thought with hackles raised, if he was correct, then this was the cause of all his problems.

Then there was a swoosh through the air, and he froze in place. Something pricked at his cheek. He put his hand to the stinging, and when he looked, it came away red.

A choking gasp came from behind him. Dread filled his body as he tried to wrench himself around. When he did, he couldn't help the cry that escaped from his mouth.

"Kousetsu!"

A brief smile was the only farewell before the old man disappeared, disintegrated into wisps of smoke and ash. A soft clatter and the arrow that had pierced his chest fell to the ground. Jerkily, he ordered his two legs forward, one step after another, and knelt, picking up the arrow.

He hissed and dropped it. It burned his hands.

But the markings, the dark black scribbles in thick brushstrokes on the paper, pierced by the shaft of wood, were definitely those of runes.

Tears still in his eyes, he scanned the area. He didn't have to search long, for there, at the edge of the woods bordering the clearing, was a man. It wasn't Natori, though. The most obvious difference would have been flowing black hair, tied behind him, and the fact that this person only had one eye.

Without knowing how or why, he felt hatred for the first time, and this dark feeling solidified and slipped into the air in the form of a name.

"Matoba."