Phantasmagoria

Natsume Yuujinchou

Chapter 8

Soon, The Truth

"Homura!" Seiji cried out happily as he turned around to look at him, smiling. "Come on, you slowpoke!"

"Homura…" A bloodied version of the brown-haired teen said smiling, reaching out a hand. He touched his face, ran his fingers along his cheek, traced them against his lips; he could taste the blood faintly after licking them.

Homura woke up with a non-too-friendly start, cold sweat dampening his hair and nightclothes slightly, making him feel uncomfortable. His phone was ringing and vibrating away somewhere. He picked it up from the floor, taking a few seconds to fish around. It wasn't until he covered his eyes with his arm that he found out he was crying a little.

He sniffed, wiping the tears away. His other hand snaked its way to his stomach, touching the pale scar he knew no amount of surgery could ever hide. At least, according to him. He wasn't thinking right, they'd said. It was the trauma, the drugs, the shock, his death. It wasn't his fault. Then…

Whose fault was it? The people who made their mark on his body? His parents? Seiji, maybe? He was, after all, the one who had stuck his nose in his business once upon a time.

He sat up. Saw how his right pant leg had ridden up to his knee. Saw the patch of redness. It wasn't mosquito bites. Hell, it wasn't. It was from when he had gone into the toilet and they had drenched him with what he thought was soapy water from outside the cubicle. He quickly realized it was kerosene when he'd heard the snickers and couldn't open the door.

A burning scrap was thrown over the door. He stifled a scream as flames licked at his leg. They had already gone by then. That was when Seiji had broken through the door, showered him with clear water and hauled him off to the infirmary.

The impetuous bastard had gotten into a fight soon afterwards.

Homura sighed.

"I wish you would all just get crushed under a truck and get your fucking entrails dragged the whole length of the road!"

Sigh. Fire. Seiji. The letter. Knife. Cold water. Natsume.

Questions.

He hated questions.

The look of utter surprise on Homura's face when he saw Natsume waiting for him near his apartment entrance came to Natsume as amusingly funny. Incredibly, amusingly, funny.

"N-N-Natsume," the latter stuttered.

"Mornin' Homura," he said with a smile on his face.

"W-Why?"

"Mm? Just thought it'd be nice to go to school together." In truth, he was worried about Homura, though he didn't say anything of the sort.

They walked on in silence for a while, both not knowing quite how to break it.

"So…," Natsume started. "About the notes yesterday, I was just wondering whether you took a lot of time to finish it."

"Eh?"

"I couldn't quite find any interesting and important points to write down, and in the end I just reread the whole chapter and wrote pretty much nonsense." Natsume laughed.

"Well, if you look properly, there are some points; it's just that you can't really find the words to express them. I run into that sort of problems a lot," Homura said.

"Oh really? Well, looks like I'd have to rely on Homura-sensei to teach me from now on." The grandson of Natsume Reiko smiled. "Hey, ever heard of Nanatsujiya?"

"No. What's that?"

"It's a shop where they sell good treats, and I like the bean buns there. I'll take you there after school. Oh, and if I'm not mistaken Nishimura was going to ask us all on a ramen tour, maybe tomorrow. You come along, too."

Homura looked at the ground as they walked. "Are you really sure? Is it really okay to invite someone like me on one of your outings? I mean, they're your friends, there's no particular need to include me in just because the teacher asked you guys to look after me."

Like I thought, he's someone just like me. "What do you mean? Of course it's okay, we wouldn't be counting you in if we didn't like you in the first place, regardless of what responsibility the teacher left us with. Nee, Homura, I was a new kid here too a little time before you came here. That time I was mostly alone 'cos I didn't really know how to mix in with everybody, but eventually I hung out with Kitamoto and Nishimura and I got to know Tanuma and Taki too. So there are friends waiting for you anywhere you go. You just have to open yourself up and get to know them."

If I can open myself up and get to know them… Of course I could do that but it's still not given that they would be able to get to know me before they run away from me. If only you would understand.

If only you would understand that no matter how hard I try I end up pulling everybody's legs and drag them in on my curse. I won't ever be able to get to know light, just as much you won't ever be able to get to know the deepest darkness your own heart could handle, Natsume.

Even so, even so I want to try making friends. At least just one. At least just enough so that my heart won't hurt anymore and I don't get any stupid ideas. I want to try and laugh just like any other normal teenager too.

"So?"

Homura broke out of his momentary trance. "W-What?"

"Wanna go to Nanatsujiya after school?"

"… Yeah."

"Natsume! Homura! Wanna go to the arcade with us?" Nishimura asked.

"Sorry, we're off somewhere on our own," Natsume said.

The clown of the group pouted. "Ceh. Fine then, bye~ Let's go Kitamoto!"

Homura zipped up his bag and turned to Natsume. "Is it really okay to turn them down? I mean, I can try to find out Nanatsujiya on my own, or if I can't, we can just go next—"

"Oh, they'll be okay. If Kitamoto's around you can count on him, just not so much on Nishimura…" Natsume checked on the Yuujinchou and zipped up his bag too. "Come on, let's go."

Suzuya hummed questioningly as he awakened from a light slumber. He blinked his eyes open. Something had disturbed him. He yawned and sat up straight, dangling his feet under the tree branch he was on.

He sniffed the air. Nothing. He cocked his head to the side, wondering.

"Master, master!"

He turned to the direction of the voice. The palm-sized female youkai, wearing a pink kimono with light unruly hair adorned with flowers sat perched on a bird's back.

"Oh, Rie." Suzuya held out his forefinger for her to hang on to and plopped her on his lap. He stared at the bird that seemed to be waiting for something. "What kind of creature have you brought this time?"

The little youkai produced a pouch from her kimono, and gave some berries to the bird, which then flew away. "No master, it's just a ride." She proffered him a few handfuls of her berries. He accepted the little gift, holding out his palm as she scooped them from her pouch.

The tengu could tell she intended to give him all of them, and his fingers curled around what he already had in his palm. "Save some for yourself, Rie." He then popped them into his mouth, savoring the sweet taste. "What have you come for?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to see if I could be of assistance."

"No, I don't have any problems but Rie,"

"Yes, master?"

"Recently I met a human," he said, a little too bluntly.

"A human?" she squeaked. "Master, I have told you so many times not to mingle with those people, as much as I have told you about—"

"This one's different. He can see."

Rie stayed silent for a while. "… Does master feel uncomfortable with his presence? Do you want me to ask my friends to investigate him?"

"No, you needn't. He's a good person. He also gave me a name."

At this Suzuya's servant's mouth gaped open. "Master!"

Suzuya shrugged. "I needed to pass time. By the way, my name is Suzuya now."

"It fits you." He nodded. "Do you want me to call you 'Suzuya-sama' or 'master'?"

"Whatever you like."

After a few moments of silence, Suzuya said:"Rie, do you sense something? It's been disturbing me for a while now."

"Ah, maybe it's the youkai. It's come again. They tell me it has eaten some of the others already."

The one that injured Homura?

"Come on, we're going for a walk," he said as he settled his little servant on his shoulder and spread his wings.

"—and they fought over it like… Homura?"

"Huh?" Said teen looked up guiltily. He wasn't really paying attention to Natsume. For some reason, since they'd walked into the forest his arm hurt, where he was clawed by the youkai before. No scars were there last he looked.

"Are you okay? You look kind of pale," Natsume said worriedly.

"No… I'm fine. Where's Nanatsujiya?"

"Just a little farther up there… Homura, are you really okay?" Homura had slowed down, gripped his shoulder, and his face had scrunched up in pain.

"I—I'm fine. Really… Ahh!" He fell to his knees, gasping.

At the same time there was a strong gust of wind, and there it was. Longish body, face partly hidden by long messy hair, sharp claws.

Both panicked as both thought the other could not see it.

"Human child, you did a good job venturing into this forest by yourself. It saved me time," it said, grinning.

Natsume's grip on Homura's shoulder stiffened. Nyanko-sensei wasn't with them and running seemed out of the question as it didn't look like Homura could run.

Another strong gust of wind came and hit the youkai full on as it started walking towards the humans. It provided just a few seconds of confusion. It was enough.

Suzuya dropped out of the sky and landed on the youkai's head, then hopped to the ground.

"Youkai, too bad for you. The human's mine—" Suzuya broke off when the youkai charged past him. He knew what it was going to do, and he tried to stop it, but it was too late. It had already pushed the wimpy-looking brown-haired human away and disappeared into Homura's body.

"Homura!" both Natsume and Suzuya cried out and rushed to his side. He was unconscious.

"Hey you! Get that youkai out of his body!" Natsume said as he caught hold of the tengu's arm.

"…Wait, you can see me?" Suzuya asked incredulously.

"So? Just tell me what the youkai is gonna do!"

"What is your name, boy?" the youkai in front of him asked, ignoring him completely.

"Natsume," was the impatient reply.

"Homura didn't tell me anything about you."

"Homura what? You mean—" Natsume looked down on the sleeping boy. So he—

Yaay~~ Finally I uploaded another chapter~~ Exams are over now, so I have more time in my hands~~