Phantasmagoria

Natsume Yuujinchou

Chapter 16

A Shiki for Homura…?

School had ended for the day, and everybody was gathering up their stuff, either going straight home, attending club activities or going somewhere else. Homura glanced at Natsume when he stood up.

"Are you free today? I was thinking of going to meet Suzume again," he said.

"Oh, sorry about that, Homura. I have… something to tend to," Natsume said apologetically.

A little concern weaved its way into Homura's eyes. He knew how Natsume is, and from the way Tanuma told him about him, every detail had 'complicated' attached firmly to it. "Youkai business?" he asked tentatively.

A nod confirmed it.

"Well then, that can't be helped. Call me whenever you need me alright? I wouldn't want you to fall down into a hole like last time."

Natsume laughed. "I'll keep that in mind." What Homura meant by 'last time' was when he was chased by some big youkai and stumbled upon Homura and Suzuya who were chatting at the time. In the end Homura ran with him, and by some rotten luck it so happened that Natsume wasn't looking where he was going and went straight into a hole. Suzuya had cracked up at that one, kept the youkai away when Homura yelled at him, and carried a stunned Natsume out and onto solid ground.

"Catch ya later, Natsume."

Homura kicked little stones and dried leaves idly, fingers crossed behind his head. Suzuya wasn't around, and neither was Suzume. So plainly speaking, he was bored. He found himself a little surprised at that. He never would have considered the thought of growing attached to youkai, the very beings who messed up his life.

But Suzuya and Suzume were different. Their characters depict them as 'not to be messed with', but they were still so nice to him. He thinks he understands what Natsume feels about Nyanko-sensei now.

Just when he thought he should stop wasting his time and go home and draw or watch TV or whatever, something crashed into him from behind, and not expecting such a thing, Homura stumbled and fell forward.

He turned his head around to find a short youkai with a wrinkled face and a white beard grabbing his head and moaning. He scowled.

"Oi."

The youkai looked up, and panicked, seeing a human. It got up, screeching 'Human! Human! More humans!' and scampered away.

Following the youkai until it was out of sight with his eyes, Homura raised an eyebrow.

What did it mean by 'more humans'? I doubt Natsume'd be around this area, he thought, and slowly got up too, eyes boring into the greenness from where the youkai had most probably come from. Curiosity getting the better of him—yes, it was always a bad habit, especially when you were most likely to encounter risky situations—he trudged on carefully.

"…Ah," he muttered after a few minutes. He'd only just realized that he'd been walking on and on and for some reason he found the forest eerily dark. There was sunlight, of course, but it was as if someone had tampered with the brightness-level settings and pitched it a little lower than what he preferred. He stopped and looked around. There was no sign of any other human other than himself. Narrowing his eyes, he wondered whether the youkai earlier was just messing with him.

But I guess, he thought as he resumed his slow pace, it wouldn't be messing with me if it was that panicked. Why are some of them so afraid of humans anyway, when humans are the ones who should be afraid of them?

He heard something snap, and raised his eyes to that direction behind him. He knew it wasn't a silly reason like him being the one who stepped on a twig since his foot was raised in mid-step. Oh, please don't. He braced himself for whoever—or whatever—it is, his grip on his bag tight, his muscles tense and his eyes and ears alert, ready to bolt at any sign of danger or meaningless trouble.

He felt his jaw drop once he saw that it was Suzuya who came crashing through the trees in full speed though. Just a teeny bit. After all, he expected bigger, more lethal youkai that was ready to eat him or something. Not that he actually wished for it, hell no.

He wasn't the only one surprised, it seemed. Suzuya came to a screeching halt, his wings spread wide to stop himself short and he hovered in mid-air as he gaped at Homura.

"Homura! ? What are you—" he suddenly broke off, and snapped his head back towards the direction from where he came from, his eyebrows drawing together in a grim expression. "Doesn't matter. Run!" he said urgently.

"What?" Homura breathed, baffled and helpless.

"Run! Now!"

He wished he had noticed the caked blood on Suzuya's arm and the way his clothes looked so ragged. If he had then maybe, just maybe, he would be able to will himself to move fast enough while loading the seriousness of the current situation at hand into his stupid brain.

With a flap of his wings, Suzuya had already started to fly ahead of him, and it was only then that his legs were able to move. He ran, eyes glued to the big beautiful wings that belonged to the youkai who was kind enough to slow down to his pace, although it was obvious he wanted to fly much, much faster.

Something quite unexplainable trapped him from behind when he was about to demand what the hell was going on. It looked like tendrils, all black and creepy and even if it also looked smoky and permeable it felt like it was strong enough to choke him to death. It covered his mouth, his chest, his arm, his legs, and a large part of it latched on to his abdomen and the sudden force pulled him backwards. With a feeble "mmph!" he fell on his back, his arm painfully held upwards, above him, and the… whatever it is clenched around him much tighter, and he whimpered with the pain, trembling.

Well, at least he fell on soft grass or he'd be much more irritable once he'd gotten out of this mess.

He heard noises which suspiciously sounded like more youkai—he was done guessing whether humans were around whenever creepy things start to happen now—rushing up behind him, and heard Suzuya shouting his name, heard a flutter of ash-gray wings, heard him coming closer.

He just wished the damn tengu would hurry up.

Finally reaching him, Suzuya cried "Homura!" and kneeled down by his side, trying to figure out how to release him before 'they' come. He tugged at the threads latched tight around his twisted arm, and with a strangled cry from the boy beneath him he stopped.

The tengu narrowed his eyes, and Homura thought he saw his hands glow with an ethereal blue, but couldn't care less when he saw that wherever Suzuya touched, the black threads thin out and snap. He gasped for much-needed breath once his mouth was free and let Suzuya tentatively reach out to free his arm and put it by his side.

He was only given a few seconds until Suzuya told him to get up and urged him on, this time folding his wings and letting them melt into his back—however he managed to do it Homura would never know—and running along with Homura, his grip tight around his wrist as he pulled him along.

"Su-Suzuya… What… on earth…" he gasped, his lungs burning and his feet pumped with adrenaline.

He saw a brief shake of the head as he replied a curt 'no'. Suzuya peeked behind them once in a while, but they were still on their trail. He cursed under his breath and made a dive for the bushes, dragging a bewildered Homura behind him.

They had been running for some time and with much speed that the human couldn't handle, and he was wheezing badly. Suzuya felt sorry for him since he ran a youkai's worth without bothering to think about what would happen. Well, almost. He kept his eyes open as he peeked through the openings in the leaves for Matoba's shiki, and when they came closer he muttered some sort of an apology and clamped a hand over Homura's mouth this time. Homura's fingers scrabbled at his hand, but he ignored it and hissed at him to try to breathe through his nose as quietly as possible. Soon the uneven heavy breathing smoothed out into more manageable ones, and Suzuya smiled wryly at him, earning a death glare in return.

The shiki shifted around, looking for them and before long, they moved on to another place.

"Don't. Shout. Or anything," Suzuya warned as he let go of Homura.

Homura shook him off roughly as he tried to take deep breaths to calm his pounding heart. "Damn, what was that! ? I know I wanted you to come back soon but not this way!"

"Huh. Looks like you're getting along fine even without me to look after you, eh runt?" he teased.

"Runt! ? You—"

"Shh." Suzuya got up and unfolded his wings again, absentmindedly shaking them free of stray leaves. "I'm going to check up on the situation. You stay here. Once it's safe I'll come back and get you, get it?"

"Oh no you're not going anywhere. Explain first!"

Suzuya scoffed and rolled his eyes as if the person in front of him was a nagging teacher. "Fine, fine. Matoba suddenly came up to me and asked me to become his shiki. Plainly put, I declined, but looks like he's pretty adamant. Now are you happy? But just in case you're thinking of something utterly stupid like coming with me to get him off my back, I suggest you stay put. Matoba is on a whole different level than Natori."

"But who's Matoba?"

"Uh, you'll know soon. Stay. Here." He pointed at the ground to accentuate his command, as if he was trying to make a dog understand that he wanted it to sit there and not move until he came back for it. He ignored Homura's scowl and turned away. "No matter what happens, stay here. And if I'm not back, just leave as you see fit. I can always look for you tomorrow. Well, if you do decide to go home instead then please prepare some food for me? I'm absolutely famished." He smirked.

"Hmph. Don't be surprised when all you get is rice balls without any filling, Suzuya."

With a wider smirk, he was gone, and Homura was left all alone. Sighing, he plucked away bits of leaves in his hair, then inspected his arm. He tested it out, and was glad it didn't seem to be sprained or worse yet, broken. He got on his knees and cautiously looked out from the top of the bushes, looking around to see whether Suzuya and the youkai had gone far. He neither saw nor heard nothing, so he shrugged and sat back down.

Matoba. Who was he? Was he the other human the youkai that bumped into him earlier meant? Can he see youkai? If so, then what does he do with them? Does he like them or help them as much as Natsume? Or does he hate them from deep inside his heart like himself, but finds unexpected comfort in some? Or is he like Natori, does he use them?

Questions bombarded his racing mind, but neither seemed to stick around long enough for he to contemplate any further.

But if Suzuya said Matoba wanted him to become his shiki, then he supposed Matoba is an exorcist of some sort like Natori. Weighing the chances, he took hold of his bag and stood up.

He might get butchered by Suzuya later on, but nobody can help it when curiosity takes over.

"My, wouldn't it be a lot easier on you if you'd just comply?" Matoba said with a smile on his face, arms crossed.

Suzuya scoffed. "As if." He eyed the few shiki of Matoba's left. He had crushed most of them already, but he couldn't be certain Matoba wouldn't conjure up more. "Why don't you just go away already? We've been keeping this up for days now and I haven't been eating properly. I'm hungry. So you should run before I decide on eating you instead, hmm?"

The nasty human chuckled. "No, I won't," he said softly, and raised his hand, a strip of paper between his fingers.

Suzuya braced himself, but widened his eyes in surprise when he saw movement to his right. There was Homura, charging straight towards him and when he was about to protest, he grabbed his wrist and pulled him out of the way. The force from the beam that shot out of Matoba's charm threw him backwards and on the ground.

"Oww…" Homura muttered as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "I've fallen down three times today, how stupid is that…"

"Oi! You… stupid…" Suzuya gritted his teeth. "I told you to stay!"

"Haa! ? I saved your sorry ass and you yell at me? !" He jumped to his feet and glared at the tengu.

"Hah, I never asked for your help, boy."

"Then how much of an idiot can you be when you're not making a move to dodge that!"

"I don't need to dodge something I can easily brush off, stupid!"

"Ah, you're the one who…" The squabbling duo turned to the highly-amused exorcist, who was smiling. Homura noticed the long hair and the eyepatch. "I guess you won't know me, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Homura asked.

"Hmm, remember when you had a little… something attached to you? That charm? It was me who broke it for you."

The younger of the two drew his brows together in confusion. Natsume never said anything…

Matoba breathed a little sigh. "I've lost my drive. Fine, little tengu. You're free to do anything you want for the moment, but that doesn't mean I've lost my interest in you. Your addition to the Matoba clan will be very much appreciated. And for you too, boy. The fact that you're able to escape that unscathed means you're not an ordinary human." He smiled at Homura.

Suzuya elbowed him softly, and Homura looked sideways at him, a questioning look on his face.

"Do you have your bag?"

He raised his hand a little to show him he did.

"Oh, and one more thing… Would you kindly send my regards to—" Matoba broke off as Suzuya suddenly spread his wings, reached under Homura's arms and with a flap, they were in the sky.

"W-W-W-W-Whaaaaaa~! W-What…!" Homura yelled, legs kicking empty air as wind whipped through his hair and creating a ruckus in his ears.

"Shut up, Homura…" Suzuya said nonchalantly as he beat his wings to a steady rhythm. Truth be told he had no idea how to carry a human mid-flight—and it's not like he'd ever carried any other living being either, except Rie, but she was different because she hung on tightly to the hem of his kimono—so he was being a little cautious, handling Homura as if the boy was an awkwardly huge package.

"S-Suzuya let me down! I don't like this!" Homura let out a nervous whimper.

The tengu had to laugh at that. "Aww, you poor little boy. Why, afraid of a little height? I can go higher, you know."

"It's not 'cuz of the height but the way you're carrying me you bastard! One slip of your hands and it's over for me! What'd people say when they see somebody fall out of the sky—dead! ?" Homura struggled angrily some more before stopping when Suzuya got surprised and tipped to the side a little.

Thinking over that possible scenario, he laughed again. "That is very likely, isn't it… And sorry but I've never gave anyone a ride before so yeah, first time's always faulty. Can't help it."

Homura's fingers dug into his palm as his eyes were glued to the scene spreading before them. If it had been any other day—and other position—he would most probably marvel at the wide country sights, but now was a different matter. "Make sure you don't drop me, 'kay…" he grumbled.

"I won't. …Not if you answer me one question," he said after a short pause.

"What question?"

"Hey Homura, you're going to… no, you'll be… uh, why don't you… become my master," he finished the last part quickly and barely enough for Homura to hear and register it in his mind.

"What?"

"Like I said. Don't make me say it once more. Just answer, that's all you have to do."

"And if I don't?"

"I'll drop you," was the simple answer. "Well, the decision of whether or not to drop you depends mostly on your answer too, but with such a… simple-minded person like you I think I'll most likely drop you anyway."

"What the… you demon…"

"Nope. Not a demon. A tengu."

"… Why would you… want to become my shiki? I thought we weren't going to take one step further in this whole thing…"

"Did you seriously think you'd be able to just stay like the way you are two weeks ago? Sooner or later more and more youkai are going to know about you, and don't forget about Natori and Matoba. Natsume's already popular in this area; another youkai-seeing human is bound to get some attention. And I'll be the one to bust you out of any bad situation, no doubt."

"That's true, but…"

"But, you did kind of helped me out back there, and I don't think I'm the type that forgoes such reckless actions of rescue."

"Then is Nyanko-sensei Natsume's shiki?"

"The piggy kitty? No."

"You're willing to get mocked by him just because I saved you and you were indebted to me, so you decided to become my shiki?"

Suzuya gritted his teeth. Why do humans have to make everything so difficult with that messed-up logic of theirs? Just accept things as they are, not question them and make them more of an enigma!

"It's alright. If you don't mind, I mean. And uh, I don't really understand the whole concept so as long as I'm not tied down to anything, I guess it'd be okay…"

"What kind of half-assed answer is that, boy… You're fine with it? But you don't understand? But still you think it's okay? What do you think you're—" Suzuya started to raise his hands to further express his immense irritation, and realized the outcomes of it a little bit too late.

"U-Uwahh Suzuya, your hands are slipping…!" Homura's heartbeat speeded up tremendously when he no longer felt any fingers around him, nor the hanging cloth of Suzuya's kimono and began to fall downwards with gravity.

Natsume was looking for the cheeky youkai who had stolen his bag of potato chips and told him to come catch it, and still it wanted its name back. He had shaken his head and wandered around the trees, but he did find it in the end and returned its name.

Then he came across Tanuma and, surprisingly, Suzume trailing behind him. His eyes grew wide when he saw them, and he questioned Suzume, with Tanuma hurriedly looking behind him in search of the youkai Natsume was talking to.

"Ahh, you mean this little guy?" He held out his finger for the sparrow to perch on, and to Natsume it just looked like Suzume taking one step closer and bringing his wing to lightly touch Tanuma's finger. "I found him near my house, and he looked hungry so I fed him. Hee~ So this is a youkai?" The black-haired teen squinted at the little bird with a thread tied loosely around his neck, but other than that thread it didn't seem any more different than an ordinary sparrow.

Suzume raised his gaze to the shorter human. "He knows about youkai?"

Natsume nodded.

Suzume stepped away from Tanuma, probably did something, and by Tanuma's wide eyes Natsume assumed Suzume had let him see his form.

"Suzume, you already ate Homura's food and now you're stalking Tanuma?" Natsume asked.

"No I'm not. He hasn't come to see me yesterday, and today too. I was just strolling around when that sudden pang of hunger struck me out of the sky and into his yard."

All this he had said in a flat tone that makes it funny to Tanuma.

"Ahaha, you really are an interesting—" he was cut off when Suzume suddenly turned his head upwards and moved away from the humans a bit.

"… What's wrong, Suzume?" Natsume asked.

"Nothing. Just Homura," he replied, not tearing his gaze away.

The two humans looked upwards too, and true enough, there was Homura, screaming his way down.

"H-Homura? !" Tanuma stuttered.

Suzume held out his arms, and in a few seconds Homura dropped nicely into him. His scream was cut short as he lay stiff in Suzume's embrace.

"Good afternoon, Homura," the sparrow youkai greeted.

"S-S-Suzume… I'm saved…" Homura let out a panicky high-pitched laugh.

"H-Hey, what were you doing falling out of the sky like that?" Tanuma asked.

"Yo, Homura, looks like somebody caught you! Isn't that great?" Suzuya laughed as he landed beside Natsume.

"You're the one who…!"

"Hiyo," Suzume said softly, eyes wide.

All eyes turned to Suzuya. "Geh, i-it's you… How come…"

"Hiyo?" A smile crept on to his face as Suzume dropped Homura on the ground unceremoniously.

"Uwahh! What the… I'm gonna roast you both!"

Suzuya took a few steps backwards as Suzume advanced on him, an edgy smirk on his face. He spread his wings, ready to fly away, but didn't make it because Suzume had already wrapped his arms around him.

"Hiyo!" Suzume said happily, wings flapping in excitement, creating a wind for the three humans staring bewilderedly at them.

"Gaahh! Let go! Let go of me!"

Homura caught up to them both and slapped a palm on Suzume's shoulder. "This. Is Hiyo...?"

Suzume nodded.

"You know this guy, Homura? You know him and didn't tell me about it? !"

"How was I supposed to tell you about him if you were dragging me along on your little stupid running-flying marathon? !"

"All's well ends well," Suzume stated, face back into that apathetic mask again.

"It's not!"

Tanuma looked sideways at Natsume, who looked just about as confused as he is. "Natsume… what's going on?"

"Haha, who knows… By the way, are we the only ones who noticed that Suzuya's suddenly back?"

Tanuma chuckled. "Homura sure looks like he's been putting up with him every single day. I guess they caught up pretty quick…?"

Natsume shrugged.

"And Hiyo? Suzuya's name used to be 'Hiyo'?"

"I guess...?"

Both clamped their hands to their mouths as they tried to refrain from laughing, backs turned to the other three.

"Those two brats over there! Stop laughing!" Suzuya yelled.

Ahh well… I didn't exactly know how to end this chapter… XD But oh my gosh, did you guys watch the 2nd episode of the 4th season yet? ! A lot of MatoNatsu goodness in there, hnnnghh~ And the way Natsume put on Shigeru-san's old sweater was too cute! The sleeves were too long! Ngahh I can't wait for the next episode alreadyyyy…