Phantasmagoria

Natsume Yuujinchou

Chapter 4

The Youkai in Yatsuhara 八原の妖怪 Yatsuhara no youkai

Homura opened his eyes. An upbeat little melody rang beside his left ear. That dream again… He sat up and stretched, popping his knuckles and turning off his cell phone alarm. Off to school, off to school…

In the bathroom, he was taking off his pajamas and paused halfway through when he saw the little reddish scar on his stomach. He didn't know why he survived. But he couldn't attempt suicide again just after surviving it. For the moment he didn't give a damn about it, so he decided to bury that thought deep within him.

He walked to school alone, among all the other students, ignoring all the youkai around, staring at his feet, shuffling one in front of the other. He bumped into someone. "Ah."

Natsume turned around. "Homura," he said. "Are you all right?" There was a massive youkai crossing the path very slowly, as if taking its time leisurely, so he stopped, pretending to be waiting for someone. And he guessed that that someone had just shown up.

"Natsume, good mor…ning." Homura looked up to see him, and when he did he saw the same giant youkai. "Wow, that's big…" he muttered under his breath, too low for Natsume to catch what he was saying.

"What?"

Homura snapped back to 'normal people's' reality. "I mean, uh, the sky." They started walking. "It seems bigger here."

"Really… So, it's been about a week, right? Are you accustomed to living here?"

"I guess… It's so much better living alone."

"Why?"

"Why? Well, you know, my parents work overseas so I was passed around. It shouldn't have been that frequent, but there were… certain circumstances. I'm sick of it. Better to depend on myself than trouble other people and make them suffer…"

Natsume didn't miss the glint of hate and guilt in his eyes, and also the tone of sorrow in his quiet voice near the end. He soon got rid of that expression though, and smiled. "Don't you think? So, what do you like, Natsume?" Homura changed the subject.

"You mean my interests? Hmm… A little of this and that. You?" Natsume hoped Homura didn't think that he sounded uninterested in the topic and that he seemed arrogant. It was just that he wanted to find out more about the mysterious boy.

"I like reading, and music, and taking pictures!" Homura made a motion of taking a picture with his hands. "And playing piano."

"You can play the piano?"

He nodded. "And a little guitar too. Maybe you can come to my house and listen if you want." Homura clamped his hand over his big mouth, glaring at his feet. Damn it, I went too far. Why would he want to come—

Natsume had been observing his face closely, and he could see that Homura regretted saying what he'd just said. He smiled. "I'd love to."

Homura doodled on the bottom part of his History notebook while listening to the teacher droning on. Then he twirled the mechanical pencil, and drummed his other fingers on the shelf under his desk.

Suddenly his left hand acted up, twitching. It dropped the pencil, but he didn't pick it up. He withdrew his left hand into his desk, right hand holding it.

It happened four years ago, when he was in the sixth grade in elementary school. He got beat up by a bunch of bullies, just for the sole reason of 'lying' about seeing a long-haired ghost in the classroom that was looming at the classroom doors earlier that morning. As a matter of fact, the ones who were beating him up were the ones forced to fetch him in class when he refused to go out for music class, in case the ghost noticed him. It had caused trouble for them who didn't manage to bring him to the music room and missing class. One of them had stomped on his hand after accidentally getting pushed from another friend and had broke it. As he was lying on the ground and writhing in pain, they had shot off like bullets without a single word.

It had fully recovered, except for the occasional twitching.

Natsume picked the mechanical pencil up while wondering why Homura hadn't retrieved it from the ground. He put it on Homura's desk silently with a note.

What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your hand?

It's nothing. Just a little twitch.

Natsume frowned as Homura looked reassuringly at him and returned to writing notes in his notebook.

Homura and Natsume were walking back home, that is, until they reach a fork and Natsume would go one way and Homura the other.

Homura saw two short youkai coming their way. One was a one-eyed baldy with a little white moustache, whilst the other was a grayish somewhat dumb-looking cow. He was pretty sure they won't be trying to eat him, or Natsume, but he'd take no chances.

"Natsume, I'll get going now."

"Eh? But that's the way to Yatsuhara."

"I know. I'm just taking a shortcut to the next town. I need to go buy something," he lied.

"Oh, okay then. See you tomorrow."

After Homura left, Natsume turned to the two youkai now waiting impatiently in front of him.

"Hey there, mid-ranks. What's up?"

"Natsume-sama, we're here to warn you!" the baldy said in his usual sing-song way.

"A warning!" the cow echoed.

"What warning?"

"There's a very strong youkai on the loose in Yatsuhara!" The baldy sobbed dramatically. "It's eating weak youkai, but we're sure it'll come to eat us soon! Or if he gets stronger, he'll eat humans! Normally we wouldn't care, but our lives are at stake and also, we can't have Natsume-sama who is the savior of Yatsuhara and his friends attacked and eaten!"

Natsume frowned. "Where is it now?"

"Yatsuhara of course!"

"Of course!" the cow echoed.

He broke into a run, with the two youkai keeping pace behind him.

"Where are you going, Natsume-sama? You seem to be in such a hurry!"

"Yatsuhara."

"Oh! You are going to dispel that fearsome youkai so soon?"

"Yes and no. My friend is passing through Yatsuhara."

"Your friend? That was your friend?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Then shall we hurry? That child is special!"

"Special? What do you mean special?"

"He smells delicious! You can smell him from a mile away!"

"Delicious?" Natsume said incredulously.

"Anyways, if you don't hurry and find him your friend will get eaten, Natsume-sama!"

Damn. Where's Nyanko-sensei when I need him? Stupid cat. Homura shouldn't have gotten far, but where is he? Natsume darted his eyes around looking for any sign of movement.

They were at a path now, outside the little stretch of woods. Alongside the path was a little grassy hill, and he saw Homura. He was being choked by a malevolent youkai who had long hair, several feet above the ground. Homura was desperately clawing at the youkai's fingers.

Homura thought that this might be divine retribution, for he had picked flower petals from a plant growing at a shrine somewhere. Maybe it was payback for lessening the shrine's beauty. Plus, he was choked by another youkai who wanted to eat him.

"Do not worry, human child. Your suffering won't be long," it said in a low voice that suggested it was male.

Suddenly something overwhelmed him, and sleep was the only thought in his mind. It dampened his frantic escapade plans.

Wait. Why should I try to escape? I had wanted to die before…

All the remaining strength left his body and his tearing fingers around the youkai's slowly loosened its grip.

Natsume watched the scene in front of him with horror, feet nailed to the ground. Truthfully, he had never expected this to ever happen. Just as a newfound burst of adrenaline rushed through his body and he was about to dash for them, he sensed a changed in the air. Something slightly like an electrical surge stirred in their surroundings and all the other youkai fled.

"Natsume-sama, it's an exorcist! So now, we will run to safety. See you next time!" The two youkai who had accompanied him too took off with the other restless creatures.

It wasn't long before the youkai choking Homura realized it too. It released Homura down and flew to shelter itself. Natsume took the opportunity to immediately rush to Homura's side.

"Homura, Homura!" Natsume pushed him so his face faced upwards and shook him, but he didn't move. Nor did he even seem to breathe. His neck was getting red and a bit swollen from the youkai's powerful grip.

"Natsume?" A familiar voice floated down from above.

Natsume looked up upon hearing his name. "Natori-san!" He was standing on the path on the hill, looking down at him. From his point of view he couldn't see Homura because of the tall grasses.

"Natsume, what are you doing here? ! I was on a job!" Natori walked down carefully to where Natsume was, and saw Homura. "Looks like I'm too early to say 'I'm glad you weren't hurt'. What happened?"

"That youkai was going to eat him when you came," Natsume said as Natori knelt down and inspected him. He mumbled something Natsume didn't quite catch, and suddenly Homura gasped loudly, panting. He gulped the much-needed oxygen into his lungs.

"Natsu…me…?" Homura mumbled before closing his half-lidded eyes and passing out again.

"Homura." Natsume leaned closer to him but there was no answer.

"It's okay," Natori said, "He's just sleeping for a little while, but at least it's not an eternal one."

"Master," Hiiragi said from atop the hill.

He stood up. "Well then, I'd love to stay, but I'm afraid I couldn't. I trust that you'll take good care of him. He'll be awake soon. See you some other time, Natsume."

"Thank you, Natori-san."

"It's okay; you help us out a lot too. Bye."

Soon after Natori left with Hiiragi Homura stirred, his eyelids fluttering open.

"Ugh… Natsume?" Homura said with mild alarm. He couldn't have seen, did he?

"Homura, are you okay? You look sick. You can come to my house to rest if you want to." If he told Homura he passed out after a headache he probably wouldn't suspect anything..

Homura silently breathed a sigh of relief. So he didn't see. "I'm fine, just a little dizzy," he said, sitting up with some effort.

"If you're still unwell you can follow me back home; I'm sure Touko-san wouldn't mind an extra guest." He was worried the youkai earlier would go looking for Homura again.

On the other hand Homura was worried that the youkai earlier would come for him and get Natsume and his family involved. "It's fine. I'll reach home soon. I'll just eat something and then sleep, I promise, so don't worry about me." Homura stood up shakily and took his bag, smiling, while resisting the urge to hide his neck by upturning his collar, which definitely would've turned red by now. He wasn't sure if Natsume had noticed it, but if he did reach up to upturn his collar he certainly would. "I never thought you would wait until I woke up, even if I only passed out for a while, so thank you, Natsume."

Natsume stood up too, hooking his bag on his shoulder. "It's nothing. I couldn't just leave you here."

"You're kind, Natsume. Normally other people would just abandon me," he said quietly, seemingly to himself. Even so Natsume's sharp ears caught every word.

"Homura—"

"See you tomorrow, Natsume. Thanks again for just now, and for your invitation. Bye bye." Homura turned around and walked slowly back to his home, this time finally attaining the solitude he wished for that he knew would not notice anything strange about an upturned collar.

Tra la la la la~~ XD I'm having fun writing this story…!