Phantasmagoria
Natsume Yuujinchou
Chapter 5
Tengu 天狗
A few days passed without any sign of the youkai. Homura thought that it had gone. Natsume thought otherwise. Natori still hadn't sent word that he had sealed it.
No word from Hiiragi, the paper-doll tsukaima Natori uses, nor from the actor-cum-exorcist himself. As busy as he is, Natori wouldn't have forgotten to send word that it was safe, especially when Natsume's life might depend on it, which usually does. That means it was still on the loose.
Homura was walking home from school, alone after parting with Natsume and the others. His shoelace became untied, and when he bent down to tie it a short youkai came and stole his bag.
"Wai— Oi!" He got up hurriedly and chased after it into the trees beyond.
"Hey! Stop!" What does it want to do with my bag anyway? Homura ran a little faster.
He followed it through a clump of bushes into a small clearing. When he broke free of the twigs getting caught in his hair and clothes he saw that the youkai was nowhere in sight, his bag was on the ground, and his clothes were dirty. He stalked to his bag grumpily.
"What, it was playing a prank? Stupid youkai," he muttered, picking up his bag and patting it to get rid of the dust and dirt and dried leaves, just as he saw the shadow of something looming over him from behind. Uh-oh, not good.
"I found you, human child." It slashed at him with its long sharp fingernails. Even with his heightened reflex developed over the years of defending himself from both human and youkai attacks, he still didn't manage to fully dodge. Three fingernails made their mark along his left arm. At least it didn't make it to his chest, where the nails were aimed for originally.
Homura gripped his bleeding arm, gritting his teeth in pain. He was on the ground some distance from the youkai, and kept his eyes tightly shut as it started to make another move.
One moment he was awaiting another injury, and in the next he was in somebody's arms, and that somebody ran swiftly away. The left-behind youkai shrieked with anger, and chased after them in hot pursuit.
Homura was ushered behind the cover of a bush large enough to hide them both. All around them it was eerily silent, with the occasional shriek the youkai made when it didn't find them.
"Who—"
"Shh," the other person silenced him and brought him closer to him. The youkai was pacing around some short distance away, and soon gave up with much reluctance, eventually going away. They breathed sighs of relief, and Homura thought he heard the fluttering of wings. It sounded close, and he looked around, expecting a bird.
What he did not expect, however, was a winged guy.
He broke away from it. "Youkai? !"
It caught hold of his injured arm, which so happened to be the closest to it, but was careful of not touching the wounds. "Calm down, human. I'm not in the least interested in eating you."
Homura flinched when it touched him, partly because he had expected it to irritate his wounds, and partly because it had casually touched him, just like that. He stared at it warily. It would've passed for a human, if not for its ashen wings. It didn't wear a mask like other human-form taking youkai too. It would have been a pity had it did wear a mask, for it was handsome, with clear deep pools of blue that shone like how the waters in a lake does in the summer sunlight, and ashy hair of a lighter shade than its wings.
"What are you?" Homura asked, momentarily drawn in by its unnatural beauty.
"Hmph, you ignorant little human. Don't you know who I am? Our kind is supposed to be famous in your 'folklore'."
"Folklore?" The only youkai that I know of which takes on human form and has wings is— "Tengu?"
"Congratulations. You are correct."
"But I thought that tengu are supposed to wear those red mean-looking masks with long noses."
"Hah! Though I live longer than you you're more outdated than a demon that has been sealed for a thousand years. Some of us don't wear it any longer. Or at least, I don't," it added. It stared at his bleeding arm. "You're pretty calm for somebody that's just been scratched by freakishly long fingernails," it remarked.
"It's okay; I guess I'm used to it. Well then, I'll go home now. I gotta clean this up." Homura stood up, bag in right hand.
"Wait, human." The tengu stood up too, and fumbled in its blue-splotched white haori for something. It pulled out a small packet that looked like it had powder in it. "This should help ease the pain a little. Wounds from upper middle-class youkai like that might be toxic and poisonous for humans like you."
Homura received the packet from its open palm. He realized that they were around the same height, and looked around the same age. He continued to stare at the packet. "What am I supposed to do with it?"
"It's a salve. Clean your wound, mix this with water and apply it. It might sting though."
Homura's ears perked up at the 'might sting' part. He looked at the tengu from under his eyelids. "How much?"
The tengu cocked his head a little to the side. "A little," it lied. It was interested to know how this human child would react to how painful it may be. That would be retribution for not recognizing a high-class tengu—namely, him—at first glance.
"Thanks, bye." Homura walked away, until it occurred to him to ask for the tengu's name so he could find it and repay the debt someday. He turned around with his mouth half-open, but the tengu had already gone, with only a flutter of wings and ashy gray feathers floating downwards being the only remainder of its presence.
The next morning, Natsume was walking to school, and saw Homura a short distance away in front of him. He was tired; he had returned quite a few names last night and had to put up with Nyanko-sensei's rants about the Yuujinchou getting thinner and thinner and how a big powerful youkai should come already and eat him so he could get his stubby little paws on it. And as usual when Nyanko-sensei was being annoying and him getting annoyed, he punched the cat.
Natsume yawned, and as he did he noticed Homura's bandaged left arm. His mouth was left hanging half-open even after the yawn had ended. Don't tell me, the youkai? !
He speed-walked a little faster, shortening the gap between them, and grabbed Homura by the right elbow. Of course, Homura was surprised.
"Homura, what happened to your arm?" he asked.
"Eh? I uh, tripped and scratched it pretty bad against a tree branch," he lied. Homura was used to lying.
"Are you sure you're all right? You're not attacked by anything, are you?"
"A…ttacked… No, if you're talking about dogs like what happened last time, no. I just tripped over a tree root; that's all."
"But—ah." The messy bandage wound loosely—and inexpertly—around Homura's arm came undone, the safety pin having snapped open. The long strip of bandage trailed down to the ground. Homura hurriedly hid his arm with his bag, but Natsume didn't fail to notice the three long red marks after all the hasty fumbling Homura made.
Students walked past them in small numbers, mostly not paying much attention to them.
Natsume sighed as he watched Homura look at the ground with an uneasy expression on his face. He had to ask it.
'Can you see what normal humans can't?'
He swallowed; he wouldn't know how to act around Homura if he didn't know the answer. But what if Homura doesn't know what he means? That would be a disaster. He will ask it, but not now. "Come," he said. "I'll redo that for you. It must be hard trying to bandage with one arm, right?"
Homura gladly followed, pleased and also relieved that the other light-haired teen didn't ask anything.
They had left their bags in their mostly-empty classroom and went to the infirmary, where Natsume pulled out disinfectant, gauze, bandages and a safety pin from the drawer.
Natsume had instructed him to hold his arm out straight so he could put on disinfectant, but Homura was wary of it. He winced at the slightest touch; it hurt so much that it throbbed. The salve the tengu gave him the day before was useless—he had only smeared a little bit at one part and that felt like it was licked by fire. He'd be dead if he smeared it all over his wounds.
Natsume used a cotton bud and dipped it in the disinfectant. He had mixed feelings about this. It was the white, cooling type for minor injuries, but he had no choice since he couldn't find anything else. And he was also worried about the cotton bud. What if the cotton threads sticks to the surface of the wounds? Trying to pull it away would be painful. And besides, Natsume didn't have enough experience to patch up wounds like this. If they were minor injuries, he would be fine. Truthfully he would've liked to wait for the infirmary nurse to arrive but just letting Homura be like this would be pretty bad of him. He tried not to let any sign of negative expressions show on his face.
"Homura, tell me if it hurts, okay?" He lightly touched the surface at one unhurt, but still sore, area.
"Ow!"
"I didn't even apply it yet, you know." He noticed Homura clench his fists and bite his lower lip as he started putting o the disinfectant. He had only finished one half of one long mark. There were two and a half left to go. Natsume hoped Homura could put up with this.
"Wait, Natsume," Homura said, and dug in his pocket for something with his right hand, producing a small packet of something powdery. It was the salve the tengu had given him. Since it's gonna hurt either way anyway, it should be good if I undergo 'excruciating pain' once and get better soon after than having to repeat this process every time.
"What is this?" Natsume asked, inspecting it.
"A salve. Somebody who saw this happen gave it to me yesterday. You're supposed to mix it with water until it becomes a paste."
Homura watched nervously as Natsume mixed it till it became pasty and greenish and smelled of herbs.
"Natsume, I think it'd be better if you put that on me in one go." Though I don't know how you're going to manage to do so.
"Why?"
"'Cos it freaking hurts."
"See? That wasn't so bad," Natsume said calmly while cleaning up.
"'Wasn't so bad'? 'Wasn't. So. Bad'?" Homura clutched his newly bandaged arm. Sure, it feels a whole lot better now, but still— It hurt like hell!
"You're probably thinking that it hurts like crazy, aren't you?" Natsume said.
"Something along those lines."
"Hmm. Well come on, we'll be late for homeroom."
I wonder if this is a good time to ask… thought Natsume as they were walking back to their classroom, passing by chatting students.
"Nee, Homura…"
"What?"
"You…" Natsume stopped. I can't say it. "There's something I want to ask you, but… never mind. Let's keep going." He started walking again.
Homura watched Natsume with an expression of curiosity and confusion, as they walked, each in their own private universe.
Update roll~! Haha! XD