Chapter Text
It was a new moon that night, and it was very dark out, especially amidst the tall trees. The only illumination came from old paper lanterns carried by two men.
“I’m sure it was this way.”
“We’ve been searching for almost an hour. I bet the boss is just being paranoid, there’s nothing h-”
The man wasn’t able to finish the sentence as his foot caught on something, causing him to trip and fall face first.
“What the- hey, is that a kid?”
The two men looked at the body that lay on the ground.
“There’s some fat creature, too! Is that… a cat?”
“There’s a green notebook sticking out of his bag… Wait! Could it be… There’s no way…”
Natsume’s eyes were slowly starting to come into focus. What had happened? He had been with Nyanko-sensei in the forest, when suddenly… It was no use. He must have hit his head or something because he didn’t remember a thing.
“Sensei…”
He looked down and saw the cat, who was awake already, glaring.
“Sensei, what’s-”
“Oh good, you’re awake.”
A familiar voice spoke, causing Natsume to jerk his head up.
“Natori?”
Natori looked taken aback and surprised.
“My apologies if my memory is bad, have we met?”
“Wh- What do you mean? It’s me! It’s Natsume!”
Natori’s eyes grew wide for a moment, and then became very serious.
“You said your name is Natsume?”
“Natori, what’s going on-”
“We’ve never met. But I do know who you are, Natsume Takashi. That is your name, isn’t it? Natsume Reiko’s grandson. So you were the keeper of the Book of Friends. Or at least what seems to be a fake. Where is the real one?”
Natsume gasped and reached for his bag. The Book was gone.
“Looking for this?”
Natori held up the Book of Friends.
“Natori, please give that back-”
“Why are you speaking to me as if we’re acquainted?”
“What are you talking about! We’re friends!”
“Ridiculous, that brat doesn’t have any friends.”
Natsume’s face went pale. He knew that voice too well.
“Sensei, why are you-”
Nyanko-sensei bit his hand and he yelped.
“Stop talking, dumbass.”
Natsume looked back at where the deep voice had come from. It was Nyanko-sensei. Or he should say, Madara in his true form. What was going on? Why were there two Nyanko-sensei’s, why was Natori treating him like a stranger?
“Here, take it back.”
Natori tossed the Book to him.
“What did you mean, it’s fake?”
“You’re really telling me you didn’t know? We tested it already. It doesn’t work. Unless, it only works for you. In which case, I’d really appreciate it if you could help me. You see, as the head of the Natori clan and the exorcist community, this Book is of great value.”
Natsume glared.
“Why do you want the Book of Friends?”
“Isn’t it obvious? There are countless youkai in here, many of whom are very powerful. With this book, we can make them our servants and help keep the other youkai in the area at bay. The youkai problem has gotten much worse lately. If we had someone who could use the Book to control the monsters, then-”
“Absolutely not! I would never use it for the reason you’re thinking!”
“You’re being quite stubborn, Natsume Takashi. What is it to you if we use this Book in that way? All we want is to protect people from youkai. With your help, we can keep humans safe.”
“I don’t care, the Book of Friends shouldn’t be used to-”
Natori suddenly cried out in pain and clutched onto his neck.
“Natori, what’s-”
He saw the lizard mark crawl out from under his hand. Natori looked like he was in an incredible amount of pain.
“Does it hurt you?”
Natori winced and shook his head. A servant rushed over and handed him medicine, which seemed to go into effect conveniently quickly.
“Sorry about that…”
“What’s wrong?”
Natori laughed weakly.
“Believe it or not, it’s not the youkai. It’s this.”
He lifted his robe a little and revealed some of his leg. It was completely wrapped in what appeared to be a kind of talisman.
“Why are you wearing that?”
“I’ve had to wear it since I was a child. My family forced me to wear it because they thought they’d be cursed otherwise and more people would die.”
“It hurts you?”
“It hurts the lizard, which in turn seems to hurt me. The pain is dull most of the time, but sometimes it feels like someone stabbed me with a burning hot poker.”
Natsume stared in horror. Had he really been enduring all this since he was a child?
“You see, it isn’t just for the sake of protecting humans that I want that book. I have my own personal reasons as well. For example, if that book could somehow-”
“Sir!”
A man burst into the room.
“What is it?” Natori snapped at him, “We’re having a very important-”
“It’s the Matoba faction! They’ve brought a bunch of youkai and they’re waiting in the forest!”
“What! How did they find this place! I told you to hide it with talismans-”
“But sir, Matoba is too strong. He sees through everything-”
“That’s enough, gather all our men and shiki and we’ll scare them off.”
Natori looked at Natsume.
“You can leave for now. No reason for a child to be caught up in this petty feud between clans. But I’d deeply appreciate it if you considered my request,” he smiled.
Natsume glared, and then he grabbed Nyanko-sensei and stormed out.
It felt like ages finding their way out of the winding mansion, but they were able to slip out, thankfully managing to avoid the conflict between the Natori clan and the Matoba faction. The Natori clan and the Matoba faction… What was going on?
“I think we ran into a very nasty youkai, Natsume. One with a very troublesome power.”
“Do you know what’s going on, Sensei?”
“It’s called the Idoumono. I’ve only heard flimsy rumors about it, even I thought it was just a legend. Of all our luck we run into something like that.”
“Sensei, what’s going on?”
“We’ve been switched, Natsume. That thing, it lives in the border between dimensions, other worlds. It swims in and out of them, searching for prey. It gains energy by finding creatures and sending them to another world.”
“Could something like that really exist?”
“What other explanation is there? That Natori brat considered you a stranger. We saw another version of me. And given Natori knew about you, that means there’s another version of you here.”
“Natori said he was the head of the Natori clan and the exorcist community… and Matoba has a faction at odds with him?”
“This is another possible world that could have come to pass in your world under different circumstances.”
“How do we get back…”
“We’ll have to find that youkai, of course.”
“How do we do that when it’s so unknown that even you didn’t know it was real?”
“Hell if I know! Enough of this, I’m hungry! Let’s go get food, Natsume!”
Natori was limping more than usual, and even his cane wasn’t providing much support. It had been a while since the talisman had caused him that degree of pain. He slid the door open and wearily entered the house.
“I’m home…”
“Shuuichi! You were gone all night, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Tsukiko… we just had a run in with the Matoba faction, and had to take care of things.”
“Oh… was everything sorted out?”
“We had more manpower and with Nobara by my side, Sei… Matoba’s pathetic youkai didn’t stand a chance.”
“I’m sorry… I wish there were ways I could help…”
Natori frowned a bit. Tsukiko had been increasingly depressed about her lack of supernatural abilities. It had always been hard on her being a sightless child of an exorcist, but marrying the leader of the Natori clan had brought judgment from the exorcist community.
Natori Shuuichi and Takuma Tsukiko weren’t supposed to get married. As Shuuichi was in line for leading the powerful Natori clan, his family insisted on him marrying and having a family with a woman with considerable abilities so they could make powerful children. But he didn’t want to follow the wishes of his family so he began an intimate affair with the sightless daughter of an average exorcist. And then they found out she was with child. What people didn’t know was that the young lovers planned for the pregnancy to happen, so the clan would be forced to let them marry to avoid a bigger scandal. Tsukiko loved her husband and constantly reassured him that being with him was worth the scorn she had to endure, but Natori felt guilty, especially when his reason behind being with her in the first place was to rebel against his family’s wishes. The truth was he had never wanted to marry anyone and was perfectly happy to let the Natori clan die with him. But the intense pressure to marry a woman as soon as he reached adulthood drove him to have an affair with someone he was actually decently fond of. He didn’t consider himself in love with Tsukiko, but she was kind and modest, the complete opposite of everyone else he knew, so if he had to marry and have a family with anyone he was happy for it to be her.
Natori gently turned his wife’s face towards him and kissed her. She embraced him back and buried her face in his neck.
Natsume Takashi trudged back to his house. He was carrying far too many groceries and he really hoped for a shorter list next time. The walk from the gate to the front door felt like the longest stretch of the journey. He was certain his arms would fall off.
“I’m home… I have everything you put on the list…”
“Welcome back, Takashi!”
An older woman with silver hair and sea green eyes stared back at him, a wide grin on her face.
“Should we start on dinner now, Grandma Reiko?”