Natsume Week

I've had this specific image in my head for a long time. While I traveling in China, I saw a vending machine standing completely alone in the middle of the mountains. It felt so surreal and out of place—but also beautifully quiet. I have a photo of it, and I've been waiting for the right moment to turn it into a drawing.

When this prompt came up, I knew it was the perfect chance. Because isn't this exactly what "Unknown / Familiar" feels like? A familiar object in an absolutely unknown place.

I also thought about Natsume and Reiko. They are walking on the same hill, in the same world. But they are heading in different directions, and they never actually meet. Natsume knows her through fragments—through yokai and human stories. She is a familiar thread tying him to his family and the spirit world, yet she remains completely unknown to him.

This piece is my way of combining a real memory, a meaningful prompt, and the connection between two characters.

My current thoughts on how this played out are that at some point Matoba found out about the book of friends and attempted to take it off Natsume "for his protection" and Natsume Obviously lost his shit and wouldn't let him, and they got into a pretty intense brawl over it that left Natsume badly hurt, (I'm leaning towards Matoba tried to strangle him again?). Natori (and probably Tanuma and Sensei too) happened to walk in on it, and Natori, assuming the worst, beat the ever loving shit out of Matoba. Thankfully Tanuma and Sensei were able to wake up/resuscitate Natsume, and snap Natori out of it, but Natori's still too pissed over the whole thing to want to look at him, and so ends up vowing to never talk to Matoba again.

I doubt he'd leave behind exorcism fully, but he'd def stop coming to meetings or anywhere he could meet Matoba. I think Matoba might try to mend things, but in his own arrogant way that ends up backfiring and getting him slapped with a restraining order. After that they end up going their seperate ways, Natori relying more on acting, and Matoba accepting that he's fully burned that bridge and doing his best to avoid the area and just focus on Matoba clan business.

Years down the line Natori ends up taking in a relative of his who is the first Natori born with the sight since him, and ended up scorned and/or orphaned as a result. Matoba just gets into some shitty arranged marriage, has a few kids and gets very quickly divorced. And by some hilarious coincidence their kids end up going to the same school and becoming friends. No one realises the connection at first cause: a) the kids end up calling each other their given names, so no one notices the surnames (and Natori's kid might not even have the surname Natori yet depending on the branch of the family) b) Matoba's busy with Head of the Clan business and sharing custody so doesn't actually spend that much time with his daughter (he probably has a son as well but? but this isn't about him), so Natori's only ever talked to his ex wife, who has a different surname and just called Matoba her ex.

...But that ends when Matoba's ex gets caught up and can't pick up their daughter, and asks Matoba himself to go pick her up. And gives Natori the fright of his life.

(Initially he'd probably assume Matoba was there for nefarious reasons, but eventually he realises Matoba's just as confused as he is and decides it probably is just a hilariously unfortunate coincidence)

From there it would just be various shenanigans of them trying to come to terms with their own hang ups from the whole incident 10 years ago.

Matoba's over time come to realise he was being a bit of a dick to Natsume and genuinely does want to make amends if he can (especially after having his own kids), and is also realising he maybe needs to be more present for his own kids (and ex wife) after seeing Natori taking care of his daughter.

Natori meanwhile is having to accept that Matoba is actually trying to do better, and seems to be taking the clan in a less cut throat direction, but also can't really speak for Natsume on whether they can move past the incident from 10 years ago.

Though to be fair Natsume probably would be totally willing to look past it given the circumstances, Tanuma very much is Not. And does insist on being present any time Matoba and Natsume are in a room together even after the restraining order gets dissolved.

“But Taki said that she might have been cursed by this Stitch Mark youkai!!” Nishimura exclaimed, the sound of pages flipping following his words.

“She said it was a maybe,” Kitamoto responded. Takashi could imagine the eye roll. “The look on her face was telling me she was just trying to be polite.”

Taking a deep breath, he finally slid the door open and stepped into the classroom. Why were they talking about youkai of all things? Tanuma or Taki, he would have understood, but Nishimura and Kitamoto…?

In Nishimura’s hands was an open book. He couldn’t quite see the title, but the visual inside…

It looked exactly like the youkai that had cursed Taki.

“Oh, Natsume!” Nishimura waved the hand that was holding the book. “You wanna check this out? I found it in the library!”

Hitoyoshi Legends for Dummies.

Huh.

Takashi calmly sat in his seat and took the proferred book, trying to hide his nerves under a mask of confusion. “What’s this?”

He tuned his friend’s explanation out as he flipped through the pages. Each turn revealed a familiar face, with only a small handful that he didn’t recognize. Even Nyanko-sensei was there! He quickly flipped to the front cover, but the author’s name was erased. In fact, any mention of the author required in a normal publication was too worn out for him to even try and decipher.

“I tried looking for the author too,” Kitamoto said, looking sympathetic. “Even online sources are a bit of a dead end.”

“Do you think Taki knows?” Nishimura questioned eagerly. “She said her grandpa had all sorts of supernatural stuff, right?!”

“Maybe Tanuma might have something,” Kitamoto added to their brainstorming session. “His dad’s been a priest for a while, I think.”

Takashi just smiled and nodded along, slowly inching his bag further away from the two. Although he didn’t know who wrote this particular book, he was probably the one most likely to be able to find this mysterious author.

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“Hitoyoshi Legends for Dummies?” Natori repeated over the phone.

Takashi nodded. “It looked a bit crude, but the information was pretty accurate.”

“How old do you think it is? Does it say?”

“All the fine print is practically gone, but the paper is in decent condition.”

The exorcist hummed. “Well, since your friend has it, I’m assuming you can’t give it to me. I’ll ask around, but no promises.”

He nodded and gave the actor his thanks before ending the call. Who to try next…? Maybe Taki really would have some insight?

Taki answered the phone in a couple of rings. “This is about Nishimura’s book, right?”

Takashi paused. “Did he already show you?”

“Yeah. He walked home with me yesterday to talk about it. I did think it was weird he knew about the exact youkai that cursed me…”

He held back a snort. If only Nishimura knew that he now has the perfect thing to get his crush to talk to him more. Oh well.

“I looked through grandpa’s stuff, and I didn’t find anything,” Taki continued. “The book was handwritten, though— Based on what I’ve seen, it does seem like something way before our time.”

Now that she mentioned it, the strokes of the characters did remind him a bit of the Book of Friends. Maybe he could ask Natori for some old records he could use to cross-check…?

“Tanuma said it reminded him of old scripture,” she added. “Something about the type of characters and the sentence structures.”

“The images are pretty accurate, too…” Takashi commented. “Either they had a visual aid like your circle, or they could see youkai.” He was banking on the latter.

She just hummed in response. “Did the exorcist say anything?”

“Nothing of note. Same as everyone else.”

“Aw, man!” She groaned. “I know I love a good mystery and all, but we don’t even have a single clue! It’s not like we can just summon a youkai and ask them!”

Takashi chuckled. If he even knew a helpful youkai like that, life would be a lot easier for him.

…

Wait. If they could see youkai…

Doesn’t that mean the youkai would have known them?

“I have an idea,” Takashi blurted out. “If you need me, I’ll be with the Dog’s Circle! Thanks!”

“Thanks-?” Taki’s voice cut off as he ended the call.

He had a lead, finally.

=======================

Hinoe scoffed. “That doesn’t even look like me!”

Takashi had been able to borrow the book from Nishimura, stating that he wanted to show his parents. They’ve been in Hitoyoshi for a long time, he reasoned, so they might know something about the book.

Now, here he was, asking his youkai friends if they recognize the handwriting.

Sorry, Nishimura…

Nyanko-sensei scoffed, taking a sip of his sake. “Are you delusional? It’s exactly you!”

Takashi tuned out their bickering, turning to Misuzu, who had just arrived. “Do you recognize any of this?”

The youkai—in his human form—tilted his head as he flipped through the pages. “There are familiar faces, yes, but the creator… Unfortunately, nothing jumps to mind, Master.”

He sighed. “Thanks for trying, anyways. Do you know anyone who might know?”

He hummed, letting a frog jump into his palm. “I am afraid us youkai have been around for a long time. It would be hard to remember such a specific memory.”

Takashi raised an eyebrow. “But everyone knows my grandmother?”

“That’s ‘cause she’s relatively new,” Nyanko-sensei said as if it was the most obvious fact in the world.

Misuzu smiled, but it didn’t feel like it was one out of kindness. “She also terrorized any youkai she came across, and us youkai are one to hold a grudge.”

Right. The whole Book of Friends thing.

And another dead end, unfortunately.

=========================

Takashi met up with Taki and Tanuma at a nearby park a couple of days later.

“Why are we looking for this guy again?” Tanuma questioned. “They’re not dangerous, are they?”

Takashi shook his head, looking down at the book in his hands. “I don’t think so. I’m just… curious about someone else who might have the sight.”

Taki hummed. “We do know a lot of people who can see youkai, but it’s really pretty rare, huh?”

It was rare. It was so rare that Takashi didn’t meet anyone like himself until now. After meeting Natori and Matoba, he always wondered if there were others like him, who were simply born outside the niche community of people who could see youkai. He guessed it was out of curiosity he was searching for this author; was it someone who already knew the usefulness of their powers, or was it one who saw it as a curse, like himself?

“Oh— Isn’t that the book Nishimura borrowed?” Kitamoto approached the trio, having spotted them on his way back from a quick grocery trip.

Taki sighed. “You didn’t happen to learn about who wrote it, did you?”

“Hm?” He tilted his head. Another dead end, huh? “Oh, that. We asked the librarian, and apparently it was a collection of papers someone compiled. Supposedly, they were originally found in a box that belonged to his great-great grandmother.”

The three of them stared at him before letting out a heavy sigh.

“Why didn’t we think of the librarian…?” Tanuma voiced, putting his face in his hands.

Taki chuckled with little emotion, sliding down a bit on the bench she was sitting. “It was right there…”

Kitamoto raised an eyebrow at their response. “Were you guys that concerned over it?”

They glanced at each other before Takashi spoke. “Not really.”

“Okay…?”