notes/warnings
+ for some reason, ffn keeps occasionally deleting some of my line breaks. I'll try to keep an eye out for this, but I'd appreciate hearing about any screwy formatting you happen to notice.
+ actual plotty things happening!
Part Seven
Tanuma is playing Kitamoto, and he's actually losing. Nishimura keeps poking him and making teasing remarks.
"You're off your game today. Don't you know that the loser has to buy me lunch?"
"We never agreed to that," Kitamoto says, rolling his eyes and neatly capturing another pawn.
"Oh," Tanuma says, quietly. "Good move."
Kitamoto and Nishimura are nice people. He's glad he came to this school. He's glad he's had the chance to get to know them.
He never imagined that his life would be this good.
"Morning," Natsume says brightly, making a beeline for their desks. Tanuma stops for a minute and just watches him.
"Hiiiii," Nishimura says enthusiastically, and gathers Natsume up in a half-hug. "Tanuma is buying everyone lunch. And candy!"
"I still don't remember agreeing to that," Kitamoto mutters.
"Hi," Natsume says, patting Nishimura's back and looking right at Tanuma.
"Hi," Tanuma replies, feeling silly and light-hearted and good.
He goes on playing – and losing – with Natsume standing beside him. Natsume puts his hand on Tanuma's shoulder, which does nothing for Tanuma's concentration, but he really doesn't care. He could owe Nishimura a whole week's worth of meals and it would still be worth it.
"Lunch and candy and cake and icecream," Nishimura chants, twirling dramatically.
"New rule," Kitamoto suggests. "The winner gets to push Nishimura out the window."
"Hey!" Nishimura says loudly. "That's not funny!"
"It is funny," Kitamoto insists, jovially.
"You're not going to be able to cover it in board games, you know," Natsume says quietly, right next to Tanuma's ear.
"Huh?"
"The table," Natsume continues, and the amount of sheer joy in his voice is startling. "I'm making a rule. I'm going to draw a line down the middle and you're only allowed to keep games on one side of the line. The other half will be for tea and eating."
Tanuma just stares at him. He loves board games, and he does have a tendency to leave them lying around every horizontal surface in his house, and of course Natsume has noticed.
"That's mean," Tanuma says, lightly. "Games are important."
Natsume is leaning in and grinning stupidly, so Tanuma reaches out and touches the end of his nose.
"You don't get to make rules about what goes on the table," Tanuma continues, affectionately. "We have to do that together."
Kitamoto clears his throat.
"In case you've forgotten," he says, "there are other people in the room."
Natsume stands up straight, but he doesn't seem particularly panicked. Tanuma turns back to the game.
"What's going on?" Nishimura asks, looking from Tanuma to Kitamoto like he's trying to figure out what he's missed.
"Nothing," Tanuma tells him, feeling comfortable and maybe a little smug. "I believe Kitamoto is going to buy you lunch."
"Hey!" Kitamoto protests, and throws a pencil at his head.
Natsume and Taki are walking home together when a spirit suddenly jumps out of the bushes in front of them.
"Hey," Natsume says irritably. He skids to a stop, and grabs Taki's arm. "Hey, what are you doing?"
The spirit is child-sized, with big brown eyes and curly hair. He has pointed ears and a racoon-like tail. And he looks angry.
"Oy," Nyanko calls from Natsume's shoulder. "Get out of the way, weakling."
"What is it, Natsume?" Taki asks, worriedly. "What's going on?"
Natsume squeezes her arm, all the reassurance that he can offer.
"The fat pig-cat," the spirit says slowly, his eyes fixed on Natsume's face. "You must be Reiko's grandson, then."
"That's right," Natsume tells him. "Why do you want to know?"
"I admit I wasn't specifically looking for you," the spirit says, clapping his hands together. "But you'll do nicely."
"Wait!" Natsume says, suddenly afraid.
A thick, black fog emanates from the spirit. Taki starts to cough. Natsume drags her down to the ground, covering his own mouth with his free hand. He can't see a damn thing.
A moment later, the fog clears. Nyanko is in his beast-form, and the smaller spirit is dangling from his teeth.
"What did you do?"Nyanko growls. "Those humans are mine."
"If you hurt me, then they'll both die," the spirit tells him. "The only person who can break that curse is me."
"What curse?" Natsume demands. "What's going on, Teacher?"
"There's a mark," Taki says fearfully. "On the back of my hand. Are we cursed, Natsume?"
"What?" Natsume sputters. He grabs Taki's wrist and then checks his own hand.
Sure enough, each of them is sporting an ugly black x-shaped mark. They've been cursed.
"What have you done?" Nyanko snarls, enraged. "Natsume! Show me!"
"Even if you eat me, the curse will stay," the spirit announces. "And if they're still carrying that mark in twenty-four hours, the curse will kill them both."
Even if…the curse will…Taki will die?
No. No. No!
"What do you want?" Natsume demands, surging forward. "Whatever you want, this girl has nothing to do with it. Remove the mark from her."
"Then I couldn't be sure that you'd help me," the spirit replies, smirking. "Put me down, Madara."
Nyanko makes a guttural, angry noise.
"What do you want?" Natsume repeats. He's been in this situation before. The day he met Taki they were both destined to be killed by a spirit, but he saved her.
He'll save her again. He knows he will, and yet he still feels like his whole stomach has been turned to ice. Having his friends threatened is the most horrible feeling in the world.
More horrible still is the tiny voice in his head that says at least Tanuma is safe.
"You can call me Kuro," the spirit tells him. "It's not really my name, so you won't be able to use it to control me."
"You have to promise me," Natsume says, desperately, "that if I help you, Taki will be safe."
"If you help me, then you'll both be fine," Kuro replies dismissively. "I promise. But first, you have to help me find a human. I can't find them on my own. I've looked everywhere, and I'm running out of time."
"What's going on?" Taki asks, sounding a little frightened. "Natsume? What can you see?"
"We have to help a spirit find someone," Natsume says, through gritted teeth.
He was supposed to go and visit Tanuma tonight. Sometimes he really dislikes the spirit-world.
No. He can't say that. He can't turn into Natori. He has to help everyone. This is his job; it's what he does.
This is his job, and Tanuma and Taki are his precious friends. He has to balance the two somehow. He has to be good enough.
"I can help," Taki says, dubiously. "I mean, I can use my circles to see spirits, so I can-"
"Taki, don't," Natsume warns.
"The girl has latent ability?" Kuro asks, perking up. "Huh. She can help, then. I'll use a form she can see and hear."
He fidgets with one of the strings hanging from his neck, and a moment later his ears and tail disappear completely.
Taki blinks.
"Oh, you're a child."
"I'm old enough," Kuro snaps. "Now shut up and listen, both of you. You need to find that man before this time tomorrow."
"What man?" Natsume prompts.
"The man who can work miracles," Kuro replies, soberly.
Tanuma does his chores, humming to himself. The days are getting longer. Summer is coming. The year is rushing by, really. He'll be finished school before he knows it.
Maybe that's not such a bad thing. Maybe good things will happen once he's graduated. Tanuma is pretty sure that he can live with Natsume without any problems. They've been friends for this long, and Natsume has never really been suspicious of him. Besides, Natsume is busy most of the time. They should be fine.
And Tanuma really, really wants to live with Natsume. He can't bear the thought of his new friends – his only friends – just disappearing from his life after they graduate from school. He wants them to be together, forever.
He especially wants to be with Natsume. And he's starting to have tiny, fragile hopes that maybe Natsume wants to be with him. At least for a little while. At least until someone better comes along.
Tanuma doesn't kid himself that they'll be together forever, or anything. But he'll take the time that he can have and be happy with it.
He'll take that table.
His phone buzzes, and promptly falls off the desk and onto the floor. Tanuma shuffles across the room and picks it up. A message. From Natsume.
'I can't visit you tonight. Please stay indoors.'
Tanuma groans. Something must have happened. Something has happened, and he's being shoved aside, just like always.
Maybe he just shouldn't get his hopes up at all.
"So let me get this straight," Natsume says, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Ten years ago, a lot of young children didn't die, and you think the priest is responsible?"
"I know the priest is responsible," Kuro says curtly. "Your job is to find him. You have to find me the human who can vanquish illnesses."
"I've heard this story," Taki murmurs. "The village in Emukae, right? Some horrible disease went through the whole prefecture, but in this village, only half as many children died."
"That could just be luck, though," Natsume argues. "Or some other spirit interfering. How do we know the priest had healing powers?"
Natori mentioned something about human healers once, but Natsume had just assumed he was lying. Natori is usually lying, after all.
And what does this mean? Does this priest have anything to do with whoever has been healing Natsume and Taki. Could they use their healer to find this healer?
"Either way, it doesn't matter," Taki says. "That priest left the village many years ago. How would we find him in time?"
"Teacher," Natsume says, abruptly. "Do you have any way of contacting the thing that's been healing us? Any way at all."
Nyanko nibbles at his paw.
"How can I contact it when I don't even know what it is?" he asks. "You've been obsessing over it for months, and even you haven't managed to learn anything. How do you expect me to know?"
"Do you want me to die?" Natsume snaps, frustrated by his teacher's indifference.
"You have a healer?" Kuro interrupts. "Where is it? What is it? Give it to me."
"We can't," Taki tells him. "We don't know what it is. All we know is that when we get sick or hurt, we get better really quickly."
"That's not fair," Kuro growls, clenching his fists. "You're not important. Why should you have a healer?"
"Why do you want to find this priest, anyway?" Taki asks, curiously. Natsume would normally be interested in the answer, but today all he cares about is getting this over with so that Taki can be safe and he can breathe again.
Kuro ignores the question, crossing his arms sullenly over his chest.
"Hey," Natsume says, more gently. "How did you know all this stuff about the Emukae village, Taki?"
"Oh," she replies. "My parents used to talk about it."
"Great," Natsume tells her. "We're going to visit your parents. Right now."
It's Tanuma's turn to cook. He and his father take it in shifts. He slices the carrot thinly, careful not to miss and cut his fingers. He's in perfect health at the minute, and he doesn't want to carelessly ruin that.
After all, someone always needs his good health, sooner or later.
Taki's parents are apologetic but unhelpful. All they know is hearsay and rumours, and no names or dates. Natori is similarly useless. He flirts with Taki, offers to seal Kuro, and then grudgingly admits that there's not much he can do for them, because the curse is too strong.
"Be careful," he warns. "Your healer might not be able to protect you from this."
"He was creepy," Kuro comments, as they're walking back down the street. "Human exorcists are always creepy."
"He was creepier than most," Taki agrees, and Natsume is fleetingly proud of her for not falling for Natori's dubious charms. "I hope you don't have to spend much time with him, Natsume."
"Never mind that now," Natsume tells her. "We have no choice but to travel to that village. There's nobody else we can ask here."
"There is someone," Taki says, hesitantly. "I mean, if my parents knew a little, the Fujiwaras might know something as well."
Natsume freezes. He doesn't really want to ask. He's never involved them so closely in any spirit dealings before.
"Teacher," he says, quietly. "If we go back to my house, can you keep this spirit outside?"
Nyanko eyes Kuro warily.
"Sure," he says. "I might be missing something here, but wouldn't it be better to ask Tanuma's father? He is a priest, after all. He probably knows other priests."
"We're not involving Tanuma in this," Natsume replies, firmly.
Sometimes Tanuma's father walks into the room, opens his mouth like he's going to say something, and then closes his mouth and walks away.
"I remember that time," Shigeru says, thoughtfully. "Although I'm sure there was a logical explanation for what happened. Those children were probably just immune. Or maybe they had good doctors."
Natsume surreptitiously checks his watch, and fervently hopes that Nyanko can prevent Kuro from entering the house and hurting his family.
Aoi is here, too. Outside, helping Nyanko. She told Natsume she'd try to help. She told Natsume she's going to prove herself to him.
Natsume told her to go away.
"Only the children who went to the temple got better," Touko points out. "It was such a strange thing."
"It was a terrible situation," Shigeru agrees, watching her fondly. "It was the only time we were ever grateful for not having any children."
Oh no, now Natsume has made them sad. The Fujiwaras don't deserve to have sad memories. They deserve to be happy every single day of their lives. They are such wonderful, kind, gentle people, and Natsume is grateful to be with them.
"Only the young children died, right?" Taki asks.
"If I remember correctly, nobody over the age of five died from the outbreak," Shigeru tells her. "But in Emukae, even the very young children lived, if they went to the temple. Why the sudden interest, Takashi? It's not happening again, is it?"
"No," Natsume replies, trying to sound as casual as possible. "It's just…"
"It's for school," Taki supplies. "We have to research recent history, and the essay is due tomorrow afternoon."
Natsume grins at her, gratefully.
"Well, you're wasting your time asking us," Touko says, cheerfully. "You should ask Mr Tanuma."
"Why?" Taki asks curiously, tilting her head.
Natsume's heart sinks, because he suddenly knows exactly what Touko is about to say. Of course. Tanuma's father has powerful spiritual energy. Natsume has known that from the first day they met.
"Because he was the priest in that village at the time," Touko replies. "If anything strange went on, I'm sure he'd be the one to know about it."
"Maybe he has mysterious powers," Shigeru says, and laughs heartily.
Natsume feels ill. If Tanuma's father is the healer, then they have no choice but to involve Tanuma in this. Natsume is going to have to take a dangerous, angry, curse-happy spirit very close to his precious, darling friend. And on top of that, if Tanuma finds out that his father has special abilities, then he might be scared. Or he might be even more upset about not having much ability of his own. The whole situation is awful.
And the whole situation is strange, too. If Tanuma's father is a healer, then why isn't he healing his own son?
Tanuma is surprised when he hears someone knocking on the door, and even more surprised to find his friends standing on his porch.
"Hi," he says, warmly, going ever-so-slightly weak at the knees.
"Hi," Taki says, briskly.
"Hi," Natsume adds, and then tilts his head. "You have something white on your face."
"Oh," Tanuma says, embarrassed. "It's just foam. I was shaving."
Natsume blinks at him.
"You shave?"
"I am nearly an adult, you know."
Natsume gives this stilted little laugh, and reaches for Tanuma's face. Tanuma ruffles his hair, grinning.
"Natsume, we don't have time for this," Taki says.
"Oh, right," Natsume mutters. "Tanuma, we need to talk to your father."
Tanuma frowns.
"He's around the back," he tells them. "I'll show you-"
"No," Natsume says, firmly. "Please wait here. I don't want to involve you in this."
Tanuma's heart sinks. This is a spirit thing.
So, why do they want to talk to his father? Something is happening. Tanuma is getting thoroughly sick of always being pushed to the side.
"Okay," he replies, dejectedly. "Whatever you say."
Before they go to the temple, Natsume checks on Nyanko and Kuro. They're waiting a little way up the road. Natsume fervently hopes that they don't venture any closer. He hopes Aoi hasn't followed them here. He wants to protect Tanuma's home from all of the spirits, from all of the bad things.
"You got distracted," Taki tells him. Her voice is soft, but there's a singsong edge to it, like Nishimura when he's teasing someone.
"I'm sorry," Natsume says, emphatically, turning on his heel. "I'll find a way to lift this curse. I promise."
"I believe you," Taki replies.
tbc
a/n
+ thank you for reading