A/N: Hiya~! Uh, Merry actually-barely-still-Chistmas?
A warning I probably should have given before: Possible Botching of Japanese Suffixes. I AM NOT JAPANESE PEOPLE. I'M NOT EVEN PROPERLY ASIAN. I JUST READ MANGA; FORGIVE ME FOR I MAY HAVE NO ACTUAL CLUE WHAT THE HECK I'M DOING HERE.
...That said, TVTropes has a very helpful page on Japanese suffixes XP Research is apparently going to be a thing this go-around.
Natsume wakes up the next day feeling tired, because his sleep had been interrupted by a slew of—well, he guesses they're some kind of spell. Anyways, they'd been going off all throughout the early morning, and by the time he has to actually leave for school he's been awake for hours.
He feels something watching him as soon as he steps outside. Frowning, he looks around, and a moment later Fukuro materializes at the end of the street. Natsume trots towards it.
"You really can tell," it muses, and Natsume thinks it might sound a little bemused.
"Fukuro-san," he greets. He stops a fair distance away, though, just in case. "Um, did you want something?"
It starts walking, and Natsume follows it down the path to school. "Nothing in particular. It simply seems a waste of effort to continue concealing myself." Natsume frowns, but it continues before he can wonder why it's still following him. "You... appear tired."
There is an odd note buried in the neutrality, but Natsume can't quite place it. He hesitantly nods. "Mhmm. I didn't sleep well, there was this—thing, this thing that kept waking me up. I think it's some kind of spell."
"...Ah. I should have realized you could feel them too. My apologies, I will try to finish testing them today."
"Huh? ...Wait, you're what's making those things go off?"
"They seem to react to my presence, and mine alone. It makes stealth difficult to come by." Fukuro sounded rather cross. It continues, "That was how I found you, yesterday. It was not my doing, that one time." It turns an unblinking stare on Natsume. "How did you manage that?"
"Oh, uh..." Natsume rubs the back of his head sheepishly. "I was trying to figure out where they were coming from, and tracked one down to see. I kind of... disrupted it, I guess? One of the ofuda came off when I touched it, and that probably messed up the setup somehow..." Natsume trails off, a little hesitant as he takes in Fukuro's grim countenance.
"You said... Describe what you found."
The youkai's expression steadily darkens as Natsume goes on, telling it about the rope and the magic circle and the papers unnaturally stuck to trees. "That... sounds much like the work of an exorcist."
"An exorcist? You mean, there's one here?" Natsume isn't sure if there's anything hopeful in his tone—his feelings on the matter were a bit of a conflicted mess. Because he wants to meet them, someone who can see the same things as him—but at the same time, if even half of what Fukuro so strongly believes is true...
"Perhaps." Fukuro says, before Natsume can sink too deep into his thoughts. "It may yet be something else. I have not seen the spell myself; and to the ignorant, the rituals of humans and ayakashi are not dissimilar. I am not aware of anything that would bring the wrath of an exorcist here, and though I have been setting off the spells for some time now, nothing has come of it. It may be some clever method of the weaker youkai to counter me. ...Though, if it truly is an exorcist, it will not be safe to hunt ayakashi either. They avenge their shiki, from pride if nothing else." It looks somewhere between sullen and annoyed. Then it turns to Natsume, and its' features turn speculative.
Natsume backs away slowly. "If you jump on me again, I'm going to pull out all your tail feathers," he tries. It doesn't come out very threateningly, and he flushes while Fukuro warbles a laugh.
"As it so happens, I'd intended to ask this time, child. You did say I could," it reminds him. Natsume shifts, a bit uncertain... but it wasn't as though it had hurt either, last time.
"Are you going to try and scare me again if I agree?"
"I may. The emotion itself doesn't much matter, aside from flavor; power is power, and I have few preferences. Human emotion is always so much more than ayakashi's, so you shouldn't even lose anything important from it."
Fukuro eyes him seriously. "You do not have to agree," it says, and something in the way it speaks tells him that it does not really expect him to. "I can hunt a few others and take everything of them instead, then wait out the exorcist and try again later."
"You mean... you're going to eat all of a spirit? So that they disappear?"
"Hmm. Usually I cough the prey up before that point, and what is left is enough to eventually continue as they were. It would not do to frighten everyone away, after all, and the denizens of these woods are a merry, hardy lot; nothing is truly lost. But I cannot afford that tactic anymore." It gives him a shrewd look. "But you have not given me your answer."
"...If I do this, will you still have to go after other youkai?"
"Not for a long while; I would have no need. Helpless as you are, your power would still be sufficient. ...Would it change anything, if I did? Humans do not usually concern themselves with those they do not recognize."
"But... I can see you. All of you. And you helped me, before. So... So I can't just leave you alone, if I can do something." Natsume says softly. He looks up, meeting the owls' eyes, and and nods decisively, "I'll do it. What... what do you want me to do, Fukuro-san?"
"You..." It stares. Natsume forces himself not to look away, even if he's feeling incredibly nervous about the whole thing, even with doubts clawing up his throat almost faster than he can swallow them down. Fukuro looks away first, by way of breaking out into harsh, wracking laughs that somehow completely lack ridicule. Natsume finds himself flushing anyways. "You, child, are full of surprises," it wheezes.
"...Thank you."
It straightens, and comes to a stop in the middle of the road to face Natsume properly. It says, "I believe I have a better method for this, at least." It leans down and lowers its' voice, as if imparting a great secret. "You have a little time before you must reach the building at the end of these woods, child, do you not? ...How would you like to go flying?"
School has let out for the day and Eiji wants to go home, but they're going to the park today because Dad has some important work he needs to finish in peace and because Dai wants to. Eiji makes a face.
"Hey, look. Isn't he that new kid?" Chiyo interrupts his musing, motioning to the boy walking a little ahead of them. They focus on him, squinting.
"Oh, yeah, it is! He's that weird transfer student. I think his name is Natsume." Dai nods.
"Yes, he's in my class. Natsume Takashi. He's a little strange—and twitchy all the time." As if on cue, the other kid twitches sharply, like he'd been shocked, before walking on like nothing'd happened.
(A short flight away, an owl comes to a quick rest. Another one, it thinks, tipping its' head to one side. Then it spreads its' wings and, deliberately, methodically, it takes off in another direction to continue its search.)
"...Aki-sensei said he's passed between families a lot. Apparently he gets into trouble all the time, and no one wants him." Eiji shifts his bag a little higher, and then adds, "Mom says he lies, and acts weird and stuff, for attention."
"Lies? Like what?" Chiyo prods.
Eiji draws himself up importantly, because he never found out stuff about people before Chiyo did. "Like, saying he can see youkai, or suddenly screaming at nothing."
"See youkai? That's so stupid. Hey look, there's an oni in those bushes! WoooOOOooo~" Dai laughs, wiggling his fingers like those weird bed-sheet ghosts did with their hands and pretending to sneak up on Chiyo. As she giggles and Eiji rolls his eyes, Eiji catches Natsume glancing back at them. He nudges his friend.
"Hey, quiet down. He can hear you," he mutters. Dai scoffs.
"So what? Hey! Natsume, right?" Dai dashes forward, pulling a little ahead of the other boy. Eiji stops Chiyo from following with a hand on her arm and a quiet, "Mom says I'm not supposed to play with him."
She shrugs at him. "It's okay. We're not playing with him, I just wanna meet him. Besides, it'd be rude not to even say hello, right?" She trots over to where Natsume is looking increasingly uncomfortable the longer Dai blabbers on. "Hi," she cuts into Dai's introductions. "Eiji-kun over there says you tell the grown-ups you can see youkai."
"Um…" Natsume —huh, he actually looks kinda pale, close up— fidgets. "Where'd he hear that?"
They were talking about him and he was right here. He scowls. "From my mom," he interjects with a huff. "She told me when you moved in with Rakuto-san; we live just a few streets away, and Mom's friends with her."
"Oh." Natsume looks down, like the way Dai did whenever he was in trouble with a teacher. "Yeah, I… see them." They blink at him as one, but Natsume doesn't say anything more.
"What, so you actually do believe in youkai?" Dai snorts. Natsume flinches.
"Youkai don't exist," Eiji frowns. Chiyo chimes in her agreement.
"How would that even work?" Dai was continuing, waving his hands around to make his point clear. "I mean, they're just stories, no one thinks they're real. That's stupid."
"But Naoki-chan's uncle is a monk, he works in a temple," Chiyo adds uncertainly. "He got her a charm on New Year's for her house. So some people think they exist, maybe."
Dai was already waving a hand dismissively. "That's different—that's for, like, good luck and stuff like that. And I bet her uncle doesn't think they exist either; has he ever seen one? What does he even do? Chant and stick papers on things?' Dai turns mischievous eyes on Natsume, who was trying to sneakily walk on ahead. "Hey, maybe if we make an ofuda and stick it on him, he'll stop talking about youkai! Here, Eiji, hold my bag for a sec, I think I have some blank paper…"
Chiyo sighs at them (which wasn't fair at all; it wasn't like Eiji had anything to do with this!) and turns to where Natsume had stopped, just ahead. "Don't mind these two, Natsu- Natsume-kun? Hey..."
(There you are. Seiji cuts the mental connection, orders now firmly in place, and smiles.)
Eiji glances up from trying to fix Dai's fake-ofuda (since what Dai had drawn didn't look anything like a real one), and frowns. Natsume is staring at a bush on the side of the road, and his face had gone as white as a sheet. A breeze or something rustles some of the leaves, and Natsume suddenly leaps back, hands raised in front of him like something was gonna jump out at him. "Stay away!" He yelps, arms flailing. For a second it almost looks like he's fighting something, or hitting thin air.
"Umm... Are you-?" Eiji manages, but then Natsume jumps like he's heard something. He still isn't looking at any of them, though, just kind of shooting looks off into the trees. With a sharp gasp and a weird, jerky movement, he turns on his heel and runs down the road.
"Okay, I'm- huh…? Oi!" Dai looks up at last, and notices his quarry running away. "Hey! Wait up!" Dai gives chase, page fluttering in his grip. Eiji exchanges an exasperated (and slightly weirded out, because what was that about?) look with Chiyo, and they take off in pursuit.
Natsume slows as he turns a random bend (and that wasn't the way home; where is he even going?), and Eiji loses sight of him. He can still hear Dai complaining just fine, though.
"What'd you run off like that for? Sheesh, it's just a joke, it's not like it was gonna…"
Eiji and Chiyo round the corner, and stumble to a stop as they take in the scene. There's another person there, an older boy with long-ish black hair and a hand placed firmly on Natsume's shoulder. The guy is also smiling the creepiest smile at Dai, and Eiji twitches nervously as it's turned on him and Chiyo.
"Um… You are…" Natsume says, a little shaky. Mysterious Guy ignores him.
"Is there a problem here?"
Dai frowns, and Eiji stops him before he can do something rude by stepping forward. Natsume looks like he maybe knows the guy, and Natsume himself is looking really, really scared for some reason—like, stiff as a board, and breathing really fast (though that might have been because of the running). Dai was also pretty big for their age, and the three of them were kinda chasing Natsume. Eiji is smart enough to know how this would look to someone who's apparently friends enough with Natsume to stand up for him. "No, there isn't. We were just playing, right guys?"
Dai grumbles a little and pouts, but Chiyo nods quickly. "Yeah, sorry about that, Natsume-kun. If you don't like something, make sure you tell Dai-kun, or he'll just talk right over you, okay?"
"Hey!"
"So, um, we'll see you later, alright? Bye!" Eiji and Chiyo herd Dai away with them, ignoring his protests, and they turn back towards home. Dai eventually quiets between them, and they continue walking in silence. Chiyo's the first one to break it.
"That was… weird."
"Yeah, it was! I mean, why did he even run off like that? It was a piece of paper, it's not like it was gonna hurt or anything-"
"Uh, she's not talking about that, Dai. I don't think you saw it, but he just stopped and kind of… well, it was freaky, whatever it was, back there before he ran off. And he yelled, do you remember? But at thin air."
"It was really creepy."
"Hmph. Whatever. You wanna know what was creepy, though? That weird guy he was with. I mean, I don't know if you guys saw, but he had red eyes. Like those monsters on TV. I didn't even know people could have that color—hey do you think maybe he was wearing contacts or something? That'd be kinda cool, actually…"
"Don't be rude, Dai-kun. It's rare, but some people have red colored eyes normally—there's this one actor I know, Hana-chan says he's getting kind of popular, what was his name..." Eiji tunes out their conversation in favor of his thoughts. That had been weird, the way the new kid had been so scared of… well, nothing. Nothing that they could see, anyways.
He shakes the thought from his head, because Dai was right about it being stupid. He should have listened to his mom. He decides to do that from now on, though—she obviously knew what she was talking about, when it came to Natsume Takashi.
Seiji turns his smile at Natsume. "You don't have to be so afraid, you know. I'm not going to hurt you."
"They... could see you." Natsume forces the words past his uncooperative lips. His entire body feels numb, save for the sharp awareness of how terrifyingly close the hand clamped to his shoulder —the deceptively normal, human-like hand— is to his face and throat, and where the three ayakashi are standing behind him. He stares up at bright red eyes, and some part of him notes that the other boy is wearing a black gakuren today. It makes him look more human.
"Yes." The ...youkai? boy?—other, the other slants him a sly glance, as if he's figured everything out from that one statement alone and is just waiting for Natsume to catch up.
He manages to lick his lips, and asks, "Who are you?"
"Ah, yes. My apologies. My name is Matoba Seiji. What's your name?"
"I don't- you're... human?"
"Of course I am. Natsume-kun, she called you just now? I think we need to have a little chat. Though..." The other human —human, human, other people could see him too; Natsume was trying to stifle the rising awe and notalone— cuts a quick and assessing glance of their current location first, and apparently finds it inadequate. "Let's go somewhere a little more private, shall we? Do you have anywhere you'd prefer to go?"
"Ah…" It takes him a minute to work his voice properly. "...No. I'm not… I haven't been here long."
"Very well. I'm fairly new to this area myself, but I do know this one place where we can talk with a bit of privacy. Walk with me." Matoba-san firmly turns him and begins steering him down the road. Natsume walks stiffly, but placidly along, so distracted by his thoughts that he doesn't notice the shiki fading into the undergrowth.
It had been interesting, as an objective fact, to hear from a youkai that abstract people in the past had seen the same things he could —but not really a surprise, all things considered. Normal people had to know of ayakashi from somewhere, after all, and that was assuming the adults weren't right somehow and he was making it all up in his head (in which case, the hallucination was giving him proof that it was real, which didn't count as proof at all).
But this? Being face to face with someone who wouldn't ever call him a liar, or an attention-seeker, and who could see what he did? Having a name to put to someone that wouldn't think he was weird and creepy, and who could maybe understand him?
It's completely world-changing, and Natsume had no idea how to navigate this suddenly new planet.
...Well. Okay, maybe not entirely; he has a pretty good idea of where he should start. Shyly, he peeks up at Matoba-san through his bangs, and is somehow neither surprised nor embarrassed when he finds the older boy looking back. Natsume offers a tentative smile, and gets one in return.
"Matoba-san. I'm Natsume Takashi. It's nice to meet you."
The hand gently slips free of his shoulder, and Matoba-san draws a half-step forward to better lead the way. "Likewise, Natsume-kun."
A/N: Connotations. What fun.
Fourth graders. I'M WRITING FOURTH GRADERS. WHAT DO THOSE SHORT PEOPLE EVEN SOUND LIKE? The closest reference I have to regular nine-year-olds is this little cousin of mine who's thirteen and basically Eiji plus YouTube minus everything Japanese culture. And a lot more brat, because that is something that exponentiates until about college/university.
Yes, Fukuro asking after Natsume's health was it being worried. It tells itself that's just because it didn't mean to drain Natsume that much if it was the reason he's looking tired but... Well, I'm not sure I completely believe that XP
Also, pronouns. Matoba refers to basically everything spirit as an 'it', because he's fond of dehumanizing like that (the little mouse youkai from the first chapter, for example, is supposed to be female—not sure how well I did on that, but them's the breaks), but I'm not sure how much of that habit Natsume should pick up. Some ayakashi are obviouslymale or female (Fukuro is not one of them—although, say, Hinoe is), and I feel that Natsume would acknowledge that where he can, but some can't even be considered a living being (rock with a face, anyone?), and Natsume is being influenced by Seiji. Mostly in subtle ways right now, though, and Natsume indiscriminately calling all ayakashi "it"s is a good way to show that. So I don't know... What do you guys think?
Guys, Alex is busy entertaining guests while I write (which means I'll have a lot of ruffled feathers to smooth later... But it's For the Greater Good, yeah?), so he's not around to detail what a gakuren is. I'm pretty sure it's just a guy high-school uniform though.
Next time: Another biased info-dump. A snack is also had—though it's not Natsume this time, how novel.