notes/warnings
+ warnings for non-graphic injury, potential character death, and general distress.
+ we are approaching the story climax.
Part Sixteen
Matoba grabs Natori by the wrist and the three of them run. The red sickness-spirit pursues them, slapping at them with oar-like flagellae. Natsume is already panting, mind whirling, trying desperately to figure out a way to beat this new threat. He skids on the wet grass, and takes a moment to regain his balance. The sickness-spirit swipes at him, reaching easily across the clearing.
"No!" Aoi screams, voice high-pitched and frightened. She's suddenly at Natsume's side, shoving him out of the way. The spirit slaps her instead, sending her careening into the yellow-flowered bush.
"What do we do?" the bird-spirit calls, shrilly.
"Keep watching," Nyanko roars. "You need to alert the humans when the other two sickness-spirits arrive."
Natsume narrowly dodges a second blow. The spirit forces him backwards, away from the others.
"Natsume, what do we do?" Taki asks.
"Do what you were told," Matoba snaps. "Both of you. Man the trap, or everyone will die."
"Natsume!" Natori calls. "You have to move left. Move to your left!"
Natsume can't. Instead he punches the broad side of the flagellae as hard as he can, throwing it back towards its owner.
The blow weakens him perceptibly.
"Natsume," Tanuma says, voice barely audible. "No."
"Nyanko!" Natsume says loudly. "Nyanko, we have to stop this. We have to!"
And for once in his stupid, feline, pudgy life, Nyanko listens. He pirouettes neatly on his toes and dives across the clearing, landing right on top of the evil-looking sickness-spirit. The spirit howls and turns its attention away from Natsume, retracting its long tentacles from the clearing to slap at Nyanko's sleek form.
"I will protect you," Nyanko growls. "Run!"
"Be careful!" Natsume hollers.
He runs partway around the trap, and reaches Matoba and Natori. He takes a moment to catch his breath, hands on his knees. He spares a further moment to wave at his friends, just to reassure them. Everyone is still alive, and everyone is fine. Nothing has been lost.
"That was a stupid mistake," Matoba says, sharply. "We should have searched more carefully for other spirits."
The sickness-spirit curls a single tendril around Nyanko's throat, trying to strangle him.
"Urihime," Natori orders. "Sasago. Hiiragi. Go and help."
"Understood," they reply, almost in unison. Hiiragi is never quite synchronised with Natori's other servants. She is still, in some ways, her own person.
"Stay back," Nyanko barks. He sounds strangely smug, and Natsume suddenly realises that he has his jaws around the thickest part of the red spirit. "I can handle this."
"Ponta," Tanuma says, his voice somewhere between fearful and affectionate. Natsume wants to go to him and hold his hand, just as Taki is doing. But Natsume must stay where he is; they cannot risk another mistake.
The sickness spirit seems to shrivel under Nyanko's teeth. Natori claps Natsume on the back.
"See, Natsume," he says. "This is what happens when you have strong servants. Your pig-cat is strong enough to take on even the worst of enemies. You are very lucky."
"He's my friend," Natsume corrects.
"The others are exactly two minutes away," the bird spirit calls. "Be ready!"
"Be ready," Natsume repeats to his friends. "Two minutes!"
"Yes!" Taki says, and Tanuma flashes him a thumbs-up.
Everything is back on track.
And then there is an odd noise, a soft splut of something solid becoming embedded in something softer. The red sickness-spirit gives a pathetic groan, and disappears completely. All that remains of it – all that is left – is the giant barb sticking out of Nyanko's left flank.
Suddenly Natsume's face is sheet-white, and he rushes over to where Ponta is standing. Something else has happened. Tanuma tenses up.
"Teacher!" Natsume says, clearly panicked. "Are you okay?"
"Hm?" Ponta asks, staring down at himself. "Oh, that."
He pulls something from his flank with his teeth and spits it on the ground.
"Never better," he grins. "Did you forget that I am the most splendid, most indestructible spirit of all time?"
Tanuma breathes again. His relief is mirrored in Natsume's face.
"Don't ever leave me," Natsume says quietly, burying his face in Ponta's thick white fur. He sounds heartbroken. He must be terrified with how powerless he is right now. Tanuma has to do a good job of trapping the other spirits, so that Natsume can be happy again.
So that they can all go home.
"Idiot," Ponta says. "I'm not…I'm not leaving until I've eaten you."
"Of course," Natsume replies, chuckling a bit.
"One minute," Natori calls to them. "Wait for the signal."
Taki smiles at Tanuma, and Tanuma manages to smile back.
It's time.
They head back to Natori and Matoba. It's safer if everyone is together.
No. It would be safer if nobody else was here.
Natsume resolves to never involve anyone else in the spirit world ever again. He will deal with his problems on his own, whatever it takes. He should have learned that lesson years ago. He very nearly learned it too late.
And then Nyanko collapses to the ground in a flurry of limbs and tails. He struggles to get up and fails, his legs trembling. And Natsume realises with a sinking heart that maybe it is too late, after all.
"What?" Nyanko says, sounding shocked. "No. No, I'm a powerful spirit. I won that fight. I won."
"That poison is always lethal," Natori says softly. "I'm sorry."
His words don't make any sense. Natsume stares up at him, without understanding. Then he gets down on the ground, next to Nyanko's head. Next to the first person to ever keep him company, next to his very first friend.
"You're a powerful spirit," he breathes. "You can fight this."
Nyanko doesn't respond. He closes his eyes, hard, as if he is suffering greatly.
"You can fight this," Natsume says, voice rising. "Come on! We have to go home."
"This is what it means, for a spirit to serve a human," Hiiragi says, touching Nyanko. "I'm sorry."
No. This isn't happening. Nyanko has always been there, will always be there. He and Nyanko are going to live together when Natsume is old and the green plastic table is just a faded piece of paper carefully preserved in a photo album.
"You both have power," he blurts out desperately, turning to Natori and Matoba. "Do something. Or…or tell me what to do to fix this."
"Natsume, shut up," Matoba hisses.
I hate you, Natsume thinks. He's never hated anyone before.
"It's his only companion," Natori tells Matoba.
"All the more reason for him to shut up," Matoba replies.
"It's okay," Nyanko says, weakly. "You're strong. You just need to learn to be less of an idiot, and you'll be fine. Even without my magnificent help."
"You're going to come with me," Natsume says. He tries to gather his spiritual power in his mind and push it at Nyanko.
Nothing changes.
"Natsume," Natori says, touching his hair, as if that will do anything. "Natsume, there's no saving him."
"You don't understand," Natsume whispers. "He's my…"
There isn't a word. There's no human word for the sort of companion that Nyanko is. For the safety he brought to Natsume's life. For the hope he generously gave. For the new life that Natsume was able to build, because of Nyanko.
"…best friend."
"Don't do this," Matoba says.
He's the worst person Natsume has ever met.
"Thirty seconds," calls the bird-spirit.
"If you get up," Natsume whispers, "I'll make you fried pork for dinner tonight. You can have as much as you want."
And then, impossibly, Nyanko lifts his head and gets to his feet.
"Why didn't you just say so?" he demands, irritably.
Natsume wants to cry from relief. He fists his hand in Nyanko's mane and bows his head.
"Were you just waiting for that all along?" he asks in disbelief.
"Nah, that was just coincidence," Nyanko says. "I feel better. I'm fine now."
Natsume laughs and hugs him.
"This is impossible," Natori says, amazed. "According to the law, nobody has ever survived a poison barb before."
"I don't imagine this one is any less lethal," Matoba says, sounding genuinely sad.
Matoba is actually a pretty smart person. Tanuma isn't smart at all. If he was a bit smarter, he'd have waited long enough to trap the other sickness-spirits. But then Ponta might have died, and even Tanuma cannot reverse death.
He falls to his knees, dizzy and paralysed by the poison. This is the worst he's ever felt. He wonders if dying will hurt. He turns his head a little, and he can still see Natsume snuggling with Ponta. Tanuma really did want to live a little longer.
"Natsume!" Taki shrieks.
"It's okay," Tanuma murmurs.
This is what he is for. This is the correct fate of someone as ordinary as Tanuma in the face of such wonderful, beautiful, perfect friends. Natsume is going to save the world and Taki is going to help him. Tanuma was only ever another stepping stone for that end. And there was never going to be a table; green, plastic or otherwise. Tanuma has done everything he can, and he is oddly satisfied with his life.
But then Natsume looks right at him, and the expression on Natsume's face almost makes him regret his actions.
Almost.
Natsume doesn't remember running , or kneeling down on the ground, or dragging Tanuma away from the trap and gathering Tanuma in his arms. He only remembers the screaming in his head, the hurtling pace of his mind as it tries to sort through a dozen semi-reasonable explanations as to why Tanuma is on the ground but still totally alive and definitely fine.
But he already knows. In his heart, he knows. He has been terrified of this moment for too long to fail to recognise it happening in front of his very eyes.
Tanuma is dying.
"It's okay," Tanuma says. His head is against Natsume's stomach, because Natsume doesn't have the strength to lift him into a proper sitting position. "It's okay."
"Swap back," Natsume says, voice shaking, hands shaking. "Swap back. Swap back. Swap back."
"No," Tanuma says.
"Swap back," Natsume says, voice cracking and shifting into a high-pitched wail. "Swap back. There isn't any time. Tanuma. Tanuma."
"There isn't any time," Matoba says, from somewhere behind Natsume. "The other spirits are here!"
"Natsume!" Taki says, voice sharp and demanding.
Natsume stares up at her.
"Help," he breathes. "Help us."
The insignia on Taki's wrist starts to glow. She is staring at Natsume with a fierceness he has never seen before.
"I'm going to work the trap," she tells him. "You need to find a way to save Tanuma."
Natsume doesn't say 'yes,' because he hates lying to people he loves.
"Understood," he replies, instead.
And on her own, scared, and blind to anything the spirits might be doing, Taki Tooru brings the trap to life. From what Tanuma can see, it is beautiful.
He hates that he has to die so soon.
Natsume is shouting at Natori. Actually shouting, and Tanuma never meant to make him feel so scared. It would have been easier if they were never friends. It would have been easier for Tanuma to just save Natsume from a distance. Friendship is always painful.
"There has to be a way!" Natsume argues loudly.
"There isn't," Natori says, sounding distressed.
"But he's human!"
"I'm okay," Tanuma says, gently. He wishes he could make Natsume understand. "This is how it was meant to be."
"No!" Natsume says. "Swap back. Swap with someone. Swap with me!"
"I would never kill you," Tanuma slurs. The poison is starting to make speech difficult. He doesn't have long.
"I don't want you to die," Natsume says, tremulously.
"I'm sorry," Tanuma says, and he means it. "Ponta will take good care of you. You'll be okay."
"NO!"
The others are starting to back away, to give them space. They've already given up. Good. That will make this easier. There are still important things that Tanuma wants to say.
"This is how it was meant to be," Tanuma says. "This is a natural progression for me. I…I love you."
"Don't say that," Natsume sobs. "This isn't the end."
Tanuma's vision is starting to blur. He fists his hand weakly on Natsume's jeans, and puts the rest of his strength into the five most important words left in the world.
"Tell me about the table," he manages.
tbc
a/n
+ thank you for reading.
+ next chapter will be up in one or two weeks.