A/N: SO MANY NOTICES IN MY INBOX FOR MY SHODDY DEBUT CHAPTER. I LOVE YOU ALL.
I, um, realize my summary kind of sucks, (I assure you, I'm in the market for a better one) and that people who haven't read the terrible original probably aren't sure where this story is going. Like I said, it's basically my Yuujinchou daydream, just focused on things that could've been if Natsume had been recruited young by Matoba. Because, so far as I can tell, the biggest reason Natsume doesn't follow Matoba home in canon is because he's happy and settled at the Fujiwara's. But five, six years ago? Natsume has never even heard of them, and therein lies the basis of the daydream. (And Matoba over any other exorcist because. Matoba. He's just such a magnificent bastard, you've gotta adore him. You know what I'm talking about.)
[Congradulations, you've just traded a line of cryptic nonsense for an "actual summary" that doesn't actually explain anything. They've already read the first chapter; none of this is news. Well done, really.]
And ^that^, my lovelies, is Alex: my personal live-in editor. Alex, Shake.
[T_T Go suck a lemon.]
Natsume walks until the older boy is out of sight, and then some—just to be safe. Then he stops for a moment to steady his breathing, and to think. Something really must be going on, and he wavers indecisively on whether or not he should turn back—dangerous, that guy (or maybe he was a youkai? He was wearing a black robe, after all, and had some kind of long package slung over his shoulder) had said, and Natsume believed him. But if he was out here already-
Something rustles behind him.
Natsume whirls around, and almost instantly spots the white-masked, child sized ayakashi. It's all black, dressed in white, and a handful of centimeters taller than he is. He stares fearfully at it, and for a long moment they stand in awkward silence. The ayakashi seems to be waiting for him to make a move, though, so Natsume ventures (in a voice that does not shake, not even a little), "Wh-what do you want?"
The thing looks around in apparent confusion. Not seeing anyone else, it turns to Natsume and points at itself questioningly.
"Uh... Yes, I'm talking to you."
Natsume has the distinct impression that it would blink in puzzlement if it could (though, maybe it does. Natsume can't exactly see if it has eyes through the black holes in its mask). Then, it seems to finally register that Natsume can, in fact, see it —and then the thing makes an alarmed squawk (somehow forgoing the sound itself, all flailing limbs and panic) and dives into the closest bush. Natsume stares at it blankly for a second, before stifling a giggle at the very obvious white fabric peeking through the leaves. He edges a little closer.
"Do you... need something?" The mask pops out between the leaves, supported by an unnaturally thin neck, and Natsume gets the feeling that it's frowning at him in consternation. Radiating disapproval, it makes a shooing motion at him and ducks back between the leaves. "Umm..." Uncertainly, Natsume humors it and backs away slowly. He turns around properly after almost tripping over a tree root, though, and makes his way back towards town. Another rustle halts him, and he shoots a look over his shoulder because the ayakashi was following him.
"Why are you following me? What do you want?" He calls to the tree trunk it's taken cover behind, but gets no response. Squaring up his shoulders, he marches over, prepared to give it a piece of his mind if it didn't leave him alone.
"Wah!"
What he didn't expect was for it to jump out at him, grab him by the arms, and forcibly turn him around. By the time Natsume processes what had happened, the thing is already shoving him none too gently onwards, and Natsume panics. Squirming desperately, limbs thrashing, he yells, "Let me go!"
The sound of clay cracking shatters the forest silence.
Seiji hails down a pair of beast youkai—a white mouse and a snake, it seems, both upright and vaguely humanoid. They are also the first intelligent spirits he has seen all day.
"Oh? I haven't seen you before! Are you new?" The rodent squeaks enthusiastically. It continues before Seiji has a chance to respond, tugging at the sleeve of its companion —the highest point it can reach. "Look, look, a new friend! We didn't get many these last few days!"
"New~ new~" The serpent hisses, head bobbing back and forth hypnotically on its scaly neck as it appraises him thoughtfully behind its mask.
...Of course, intelligent is a term he uses loosely. Biting back the urge to fiddle with the paper mask, —he's unaccustomed to them; he doesn't usually have to resort to talking with the things, after all, and there are only so few people his age who attend the exorcist Gatherings anyways— he smiles. "Yes, I'm new. Do you mind telling me about these woods? Anything dangerous, or places I should avoid?"
"Yes yes yes! I know all the annoying spirits and dangerous places —like those berry bushes that look tasty but are actually poisonous and that stupid cat by the lake who thinks it's all that just because it's a little bigger, just wait till I grow up some more and I'll put that arrogant feline in its place, just you watch!" It's whip-like tail lashes back and forth in its excitement as it bounces in place. "But maybe you want to see the ravine? It's a bit further in, and it's really easy to miss the edge and fall right over, I must've done it dozens of times, here follow me and I can show-"
The snake interrupts by firmly placing a clawed hand (maybe it was some sort of lizard, instead?) on its companion's head, right between where it's hair was done up in two small buns, before it could rush off.
"Ssshadow~ danger~"
"Shadow?" Seiji prompts. His interest in the conversation (interrogation, he tells himself sternly) sharpens for the first time.
"Oh, right! I guess you wouldn't know. I don't think anyone knows it's actual name, but there's this reclusive ayakashi that lives near here and likes to hunt low-ranks like us. It wakes up once in a while and steals a few youkai and goes back to sleep. We call it Shadow-sama. Or Hunter-sama. Or That Guy."
Seiji spares a moment to reconsider relying solely on ayakashi that could not betray him. If he took on a personal shiki that could speak, he wouldn't have to deal with this idiocy himself. "Do you know where it lives or what it looks like? So I can avoid it."
"Wellll..."
"No one~ knowsss~"
"Yeah, that's right. I don't know anyone who's seen it properly, or we'd have a better name than 'That Guy', but I've heard that it can fly and is almost as big as a tree! Most of us just hide when we see signs that it's awoken, and then only the ignorant or the really brave come out for a while, y'know," and Seiji bit back a 'Really now? Then what does that make you?' while the snake grumbled under its breath about stupidity. "But it looks like it's not hunting in the forest this time! It's weird, but the tanuki near the river says that a sparrow from the city told it that That Guy was picking off ayakashi near the city. Which doesn't make sense, since it's always avoided humans before, but That Guy was always a little odd to begin with —why would anybody avoid everybody?"
"Then, are you sure they're the same one?"
"Yesss~" The snake replied while the mouse nodded enthusiastically.
"It's gotta be! No one gets a good look at it, and youkai that disappear are found a few days later really drained and with no memories. Some of the really weak ones don't even come back!" It drooped for a second. "That's what happened to my baby cousin."
"I see. ...Thank you for informing me." The lie sits awkwardly on his tongue, but he smiles through it. The snake stares at him intently, possibly sensing something amiss, but the mouse cheerfully dismisses his thanks.
"Hey, hey, so do you wanna see that ravine I was talking about? Or maybe the river! There's this part where the water flows through that looks really pretty when the sun goes dow-"
"Need~ go~" The snake interrupts, turning its companion and ushering them both away from Seiji. Ignoring the smaller youkai's protests, it shoots him a suspicious look over its shoulder. Seiji gives a small wave; no need to appear overtly impolite, after all.
"Goodbye. Perhaps I'll see you around." Not likely.
The pair leave, and Seiji summons a shiki and hands off the irritating paper mask. He pivots on his heel to leave himself, but pauses as something catches his attention. "Oh...?" He murmurs softly, because there is something hiding behind the shrubbery to his right. "Come out, whatever you are," he calls, striding towards it. A quick move reveals nothing but disturbed branches, though, and he frowns.
(Elsewhere, Natsume darts through the trees. "Uh-oh," he'd thought frantically, before he'd bolted without looking back. He doesn't stop, though, because he's not stupid enough to think this particular ayakashi will let him get away twice. Maybe he'd be better off just heading home, today.)
Seiji moves on. It seems his spells are working, so there is nothing more he can do here. Best to head to the manor, then. Calling his creations to him, he begins the trek back. He doesn't make it more than ten paces before he stops.
There were three ayakashi in the trees around him.
Where was the fourth?
The next day is a Monday, and Natsume has classes. He barely pays attention to them, distracted by the things he'd overheard.
(It costs him, a little, when the teacher calls on him to read and he doesn't know where the class is. He gets some grief from the other students for it —clearly, they have cottoned on to the fact that there is something unwanted and unnatural in their midst. It takes them longer than Natsume expected, to be honest.)
The Scream had happened again, right at the end of lunch. He barely even starts at the feeling anymore. He can almost pinpoint where it's coming from, now; he's had a lot of practice. It's rather close to the school; he could be there and back at the empty apartment with plenty of time to spare.
By the time school lets out for the day, he's made up his mind to at least check it out. He's got to be more careful this time, though. His last attempt at snooping could have ended very badly; what if he hadn't noticed that he was being followed, or if he'd been caught eavesdropping by the scary youkai? Despite this, however, he still hasn't figured out the source of the screaming or the eyes-following-me feeling, or how to make them stop (even if he had overheard some interesting information), so he's decided. He's going to check out where the screams are coming from, maybe figure out how to turn it off or make it stop, and run or hide if he happens across any tree-big shadowy ayakashi (which is really just common sense). It's not much, but having a plan at all makes him feel a bit better —enough that a tiny part of himself bubbles up and wants to laugh in giddy excitement at the thought of an adventure. He chides himself, tells himself that this is serious and not a game, but he's smiling a little despite that as he steps off the path to safe (but not home) and into the forest wilderness.
Natsume finds the clearing less than an hour later. It's just a scant few meters off another trail, and this close, he can almost hear the ground humming.
There is a rope, hung unobtrusively between four trees to make a square, and a circle, edged by weird symbols and drawn in the middle of the open space. There are also four ofuda attached to the trees, and it takes Natsume a moment before he realizes how they're positioned —one each for north, south, east, and west. He steps cautiously over the rope, and frowns a little. Had a youkai done this? What for? How did these ...things, how did they work? How does he stop them—does he even want to?
He doesn't quite know what to do. He paces the clearing a few times, carefully avoiding the circle and the rope. He thinks he recognizes an eye in amongst the symbols, —and maybe a sun?— but most are meaningless squiggles, so he turns to the ofuda next. They are set high, well above his eye level, but if he squints he can almost read them. Then he notices—is that tape?
Slightly incredulous—because what kind of youkai uses tape to hold up a piece of paper?—Natsume reaches up and tries to lift the corner of the tag up, to check.
The clear stuff that he'd mistaken for tape destabilizes at his touch, and the ofuda slowly flutters down past his wide, wide eyes. The humming screeches brokenly, like a string snapped on a koto mid-performance.
The clearing explodes.
A/N: Cliffhanger! *cues diabolical laughter*
I am drawing rather heavily from that special chapter where Natori meets Matoba for the first time. So much character things going on there for lil' Matoba. My little-Natsume might be a bit rusty, though; I should maybe touch up on that.
GUYS, don't worry if the progression of days is a little iffy. I (meaning Alex) have this giant timeline thing all written up, and I'm going to be posting that at some point after all the drama is over, so no worries~
Yes, I'm totally using Matoba's shiki as comic relief. He actually is still training them (which is where that excuse eventually comes from, in my head-canon) and they're all child-sized because they're prototypes and Seiji is just not as strong as he will be, so yeah my head-canon includes this utterly hilarious image where chibi!Matoba is scolding them like a pissed-off, nagging parent and they're all lined up on their knees with their heads hanging like little schoolboys XDDD He has to go through a few batches before he manages to develop some that are appropriately intimidating (because the little ones are too cute to manage that properly) and train them to his liking—meaning, mindless unless it suits him for them to be intelligent. (Obviously, the intelligence part needs tweaking.)
#Because canon!Matoba has all these shiki that unsettle people and that is just the kind of thing I need to poke fun at
[An ofuda is a piece of paper (or cloth) with kanji (the traditional Japanese text) written on it and is often used for protection of some sort. Exorcists use them quite frequently in the manga. A koto is a bit like an Asian harp. Obviously, we have never heard an actual one played, so that analogy might not be be perfectly accurate, but for the story's purposes it doesn't matter. Feel free to replace the word with violin, or piano, or any stringed instrument of your choice; see if I care.
We actually do have finals, so do not expect an update for some time. We will be studying.]
Alex, you are such a party pooper I can't take you anywhere ugh.
Next time: Seiji happens. Natsume is rescued —or kidnapped, depending on your point of view.