Phantasmagoria

Natsume Yuujinchou

Chapter 13

'Suicide' Attempts

Homura sighed as he flopped down on the couch, currently uninterested in the drama series that was airing. Instead he turned it off and dropped the remote to one side.

It was bright as day to him, even though he hadn't really noticed it the first few days, but Natsume was definitely avoiding him. He never talked to him unless necessary anymore, making excuses and spending time with Nishimura and Kitamoto or even saying that he had youkai business to attend to.

"Even though I can also pitch in and help out…" he muttered.

He didn't understand. He thought that, since the possessing incident their relationship would've worked out better and they'd be closer friends. But suddenly after meeting Natori-san and after he'd gotten that weird headache where he didn't see what was going on, Natsume just suddenly… looked away. Nyanko-sensei had sauntered along soon after that, and had asked if something had happened, but Natsume just replied no and went on back home after a short 'bye' to Homura.

Maybe he had something that was stressing him out, he figured. But nothing he thought of next could explain why he was the only one who was left out. Natsume seemed to be able to smile normally with Nishimura and Kitamoto. Or maybe, he just didn't want to involve him anymore.

Homura sighed again and got ready to go to bed.

No point in thinking this out any further. Best get some sleep or I'll be sleepy throughout class tomorrow…

Homura gave a wide yawn as he slowed down his running pace a little, covering his mouth and tearing up. He rubbed at his face with frustration and continued running to school.

In the end he was never able to sleep more than what seemed like a few minutes without waking up again to have the whole stupid process repeating. That would explain him getting up late and rushing to school with bread crammed in his mouth and nearly forgetting his school bag. Homura was never a really composed person who was able to keep everything under control in the first place, and him being in such a frenzy just made him look more like an idiot.

He took a look at his watch and literally hyperventilated. There were less than ten minutes until the school bell rang and one of the disciplinary committee representatives would stand guard near the school gate and he wasn't even halfway yet. If it were a representative then maybe he wouldn't mind that much, but, if one of the scary teachers decided to take a look around then that would be a pretty cause for worry.

As if that wasn't enough, he tripped.

"Uwahh!" He sat on the ground, completely deflated. "Damn," he muttered, and slowly picked up his bag, trying to take deep breaths and calm himself. Homura knew he'd be almost useless when things happened too fast. Just when he started to break into a run again he heard a rustle to the left, and snapped his head to that direction.

"Who's there?" he demanded, brushing himself off.

Silence. Homura squinted as he tried to see beyond the thick growth of trees. In the morning it was kind of hard to see what was inside the forests, especially after it rains—mist hung around well into the afternoon sometimes. He occasionally wished his parents didn't find the need to look for an apartment for him that was so close to the forests. While it would actually be pretty fun to explore on a bright sunny day forests—and the living things residing in it—are way different than pixies and faerie toadstools and those lovely flower patches you see in children's picture books once it's dark.

He shivered and turned away, straight into an enclosed fist that was outstretched towards his face. He instinctively took a step backwards. He never noticed somebody come up close, much less hear any footsteps.

He stared at the young woman in a light-colored kimono, forgetting about his tardiness entirely.

When the boy in front of her said nothing, she moved her arm slightly and brought his attention to her fist. "Here, you dropped something," she said softly.

"Eh?" Homura looked on as the woman placed his house keys on his palm. "Ah, thank you, this must have fallen out of my pocket when I fell earlier. Nn?" There was a charm too. "Um, this isn't mine."

The woman smiled. "Take it. You look like you fall down a lot."

The younger of the two blushed and stared at the ground. "A-Ahh…"

He felt a little pressure at the top of his head and quickly realized that the woman was petting him. "Hold on to it, won't you?"

… Huh? Her hand's… so cold. I can feel it even when she's touching me so lightly.

He looked back up again at the woman, but as quick as lightning the touch on his head was gone. His eyes widened when he saw that she was already turning the corner from where he came from. "What, was that." He looked back at the charm the woman had given him, and noticed his watch. He gasped.

"Oh shit."

As expected, he was late. But he was let off the hook pretty easily so it wasn't that bad after all. Natsume was avoiding him again, Homura noticed with a little sadness. He shook his head and proceeded to take out his lunch box so he could go eat lunch with Tanuma. Then he froze.

Oh, right.

He was the guy who had woken up late this morning and barely had time to cram his mouth full of bread and shamelessly wolfed it down in the elevator before breaking into a sprint towards school.

"Homura!" Tanuma called from outside the classroom. "Hurry up."

"Ah, sorry, Tanuma. Can you tag along with me to buy bread? I was late today."

The taller male chuckled. "You still have bed hair, you know. Did you even notice this?" he said as he smoothed down a part of Homura's hair at the back.

"Eh? ! Really? N-Nobody told me…" Homura quickly covered that part as he tried to fix it.

"I'm willing to bet my lunch that Nishimura noticed and purposely wanted to see how long it was before you finally realized it."

"Gahh."

"… Homura?" Tanuma said softly, staring into Homura's downcast eyes with worry. They were eating outside, under a shady tree. For the first few minutes things had been going smoothly, but he had suddenly gone quiet, staring emptily at his half-eaten bread.

"… Ah?" He blinked. "S-Sorry. What were you saying?"

"Hey. Are you really okay? That youkai really did leave you, didn't it?" For a moment Tanuma thought that maybe he was still being possessed, but it didn't seem so, seeing as how he had both Natsume and Homura tell him their side of the story. Besides, he didn't sense any evil presence hanging about Homura, although, there was this weird feeling…

"Yup, I'm fine. I was just sleepy," Homura laughed and continued eating.

"Oh really." Tanuma smiled.

Nope. Of course not. He was just imagining things.

Tanuma ran his hand through his hair as he trudged lazily back home. His schedule was pretty free today, well, actually, nearly every day. But he felt like he wanted to settle some stuff. Things between Homura and Natsume weren't getting any better, it seemed. Homura had told him that he was being avoided, and that was all he needed to know. Asking Natsume wouldn't be of any help at all.

But what else could he possibly do? There was nowhere he could stick his head into. How ironic. Meeting Natsume was kind of a relief to him; with him around, Tanuma felt like he could face his days without much worry. He looked up to him. After a few months—and with Taki in the gang—he saw that the two were like two helpless little baby chicks and he felt the need to protect them, especially since the incident when both of them thought they were cursed and made him recite exorcising spells. He blankly said but a mere sentence of what he—most probably—knew the most, and though that shouldn't have really made a difference the two looked at him like he was a legendary hero.

That made him realize that they were equally depending on each other.

And now, along came another one.

I totally feel like a mother hen, he thought amusedly. He looked up when he thought he heard some noises, and felt reassured to see Ponta stumbling around.

"Ponta!" he called and caught up to the cat.

"Hnn? Oh, it's you, Tanuma brat."

"What are you doing?"

"Walking."

"Hey, can I ask you something? I really want to know."

"Huh. Go look for someone else. I have other stuff to attend to. I'm not a walking encyclopedia for brats like you."

"Oh, what a pity. I was going to stop by for dango. Oh well. Guess I'll go back home," he said knowingly.

"D-Dango? Wait! What is it you want to know! Ask away!"

Tanuma shook his head at the immediate change and went to purchase two packets of dango while the cat waited for him outside the store. Then they sat on a bench somewhere people wouldn't be able to listen easily.

"Nee, Ponta."

"Nn?" At the moment 'Ponta' was battling with the supreme gluey goodness of a pink-colored dango ball.

"Can you tell me what's going on between Natsume and Homura? You know, you would've expected those two to stick to each other once they knew who the other was."

"Hmph. You call me out just for this? Leave them."

"I can't just leave them alone like this."

"It's that stupid tengu. He told Natsume to back off. For what, I don't know. I don't have the interest to, either. Either way it's their problem. You don't have to bother with them."

Tanuma cocked his head sideways thoughtfully. "Hmm~ Well, if Ponta's so against it…"

"Putting that aside, I'm finished with this! Go buy me some more dango! Quickly!"

"Eh?"

Finally he was able to escape Ponta by running away as soon as the cat got distracted by something. Tanuma adjusted his bag and walked on towards the little bridge he had to cross if he went back from the shopping district. There were several ways leading up to the temple, but he personally liked going through the forest and the bridge best. Sometimes Natsume would chat a little with him, and Ponta would go looking for fish while the two leaned against the railings.

But Natsume wasn't the one he saw on halfway across the bridge, but Homura. His bag was on the ground, and… the guy himself was climbing on the railing and it didn't look like he was climbing on it for fun.

Tanuma quickly threw his bag aside and ran towards the teen, shouting his name and pulling him back just as he was starting to lean forwards. Both landed hard on their rears.

"Homura! What did you think you were doing? !" Tanuma cried.

"Oww… Huh…? Tanuma! What're you doing here? I thought you went back ages ago."

Tanuma's jaw dropped and he gripped the latter's shoulders. "Did you even know what could've happened?"

"What are you talking about? You were the one who suddenly pulled on me. Hard. Hard enough to bruise my butt."

The black-haired teen grew silent as he pondered. There was that strange feeling he noticed hanging around Homura again. It didn't feel like he could've been possessed, but that was definitely fishy. He swallowed and hesitated before uttering a spell he learned from one of his father's books under his breath.

Homura cringed and dropped his head, leaning sideways towards Tanuma, breathing harshly. "What… is this…"

Tanuma narrowed his eyes as that just confirmed his suspicions that the supernatural were involved again. He was also alarmed at how quick it took for another youkai to fix its eyes on Homura even though he was only recently 'cleansed'.

He noticed something glowing from out of the corner of his eye, and turned his head to look. It was coming out of Homura's school bag. He supported Homura with one arm and reached out for the bag with the other, digging his hand in it and taking out the glowing object. His brow furrowed when he saw that it was just an ordinary charm, and suspected that maybe his spell didn't work. If a person is possessed, he or she should've fallen into a delirious state and the person who performed it should've been able to see a faint outline of what they were possessed by. Homura certainly was delirious, but no matter how Tanuma squinted there was nothing hovering around him. But instead… He wrapped his fingers around the charm and refocused on Homura.

His breathing was slowly going back to normal, so the effects must be wearing out. Tanuma waited patiently until he recovered enough to sit up by himself.

"What was that?" he asked breathlessly.

"Sorry. You were acting weird so I decided to test you."

"Test me? For what?"

"I was checking to see if you were possessed again."

"… And?"

"You weren't, but, ayakashi has something to do with this."

Homura sighed. He didn't intend to ask how Tanuma got his hands on spells like this, but he was a priest's son after all. Maybe his father had taught him a few things. "What was I doing earlier? You know, before you pulled me back."

"You were going to jump off the bridge," Tanuma answered immediately.

"Haa? ! For real? !" Homura peeked at the waters below. It didn't look like the current was strong, though it would've been dangerous had it rained heavily. "I-I can't swim," he gulped.

"Looks like you owe me one then, huh?" Tanuma smiled and got up, offering a hand to Homura. Soon after they had gathered their bags and started walking, Tanuma showed the charm to him. "Who gave this to you? And when?"

"There was a lady I met on the way to school today." Homura blushed as he thought about it. "I uh, fell down in a really embarrassing way. She helped pick up my keys and gave me this. Then she left."

"A lady? Are you sure it was a human?"

"Y-You mean it wasn't?"

"This charm had a youkai's presence. I think she's trying to get close to you, that's why she gave you this. It's what people call an 'attachment'." Tanuma put the charm into his pocket, earning an odd look from Homura. "I'll hang on to this for a while. You never know when you'll have a death encounter again."

"O-Oh. How about we simply throw it away then?"

Tanuma shook his head. "Many things could happen. For now let's both just get home and think this out first."

"Okay." They reached the fork where they separate and Homura said goodbye before walking off while Tanuma watched on. He was just about to continue his remaining walk home before he heard a thud; he turned and saw Homura sitting on the ground. He jogged to the teen.

"Homura! Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah. It's just… something suddenly washed over me…" He reached up a hand to his head.

Tanuma fished out the charm from his pocket and stared at it. "Could it possibly be because of this?"

"Eh? You've got to be kidding me! If I keep that close to me I'll drown in my own bathtub next!"

Tanuma considered a few stuff before deciding. His father was on one of his business trips again, so nobody was at home. He couldn't leave Homura all alone less he do something stupid again. He couldn't really tell Natsume, either.

"Okay. How about this. You go home first while I pack up my stuff. Would you mind if I spend the night over today? It's for your own good, after all."

Homura nodded.

A few days later…

"Natsume! I thought it was your turn to look after him today!" Tanuma cried as he jogged over to the silently panicking teen.

"I-I didn't realize he ran away… Suzuya's looking for him too…"

"Do you have any idea where he might've gone?"

"You don't think he went near any cliffs or anything, do you?"

Tanuma paused as he thought of something Homura had said to him a few days ago when this started. Dread filled him.

"N-Natsume, it was raining quite heavily yesterday right?" He didn't wait for Natsume to answer.

"The first time Homura tried to kill himself, he was going to jump off the bridge near my home. He told me he can't swim."

Oooh~ Cliffhanger! XD Oh well. I hope Tanuma wasn't too out of character 'cuz I made him a little more informative… I'll be gone for a week starting this Sunday, so I thought I might as well update now before I leave. I wouldn't be able to gain any access to Internet-sama then~ TT_TT