mawitacyja

that would be intriguing in and of itself, but this woman is not just some passerby this time, she's actually one of the matoba family's shiki or at least a yokai employed by them in some way as it is mentioned later in the same arc:

so let's say i'm right, why the hell was one of matoba's shiki at the inn natori invited natsume to?? well, in that arc natori was actually doing an exorcism job and he only tells natsume abt it later, so taking that into account, was the job from the matoba clan? (as we know, he does take those)

if that's the case then was the shiki sent there to "supervise" or something or is the inn one of matoba family's property?

there's another intriguing detail that got me thinking this was a matoba job:

natori is happily chatting away with the recepcionist by the end of the chapter

now, i always thought it was bc he was just doing his actor thing yk, sparkling, being friendly whatever but now it makes me think, was it bc he knew this person? if that's the case, then this being one of matoba's shiki he knows makes sense, and her being present for an exorcism requested by the family also makes sense

another thing that could corroborate this is, sensei says the seal on the pot was powerful and recent and natori says a powerful exorcist almost managed to seal the yokai but it fled to the inn (idt matoba would let a yokai escape so idt he was that exorcist, but this does sound like the kind of job the matobas would get tasked with, something difficult that not any exorcist could do)

also if i'm right abt this, then this woman is not the only matoba shiki natori knows

in nanase's intro chapter natori calls these two yokai by name, later in eastern forest arc and shiki natsume arc the tengu masked one is present:

so natori knows two matoba family's shiki by name (at least the tengu mask is confirmed to be one of their shiki) and, even tho they appear more than once, that information isn't given directly

all that to say, can i assume this woman character is the same case? a character with a somewhat distinctive character design we see more than once, and that we later learn is a matoba shiki?

if i'm right in this interpretation then, can i also assume the exorcism from chapter 14 was in fact a matoba job natori got or was asked to do?

going further, not only is natori familiar with the matoba family's shiki but he also seems to get along with one of them